THE MAN FROM LARAMIE (catalogue entry)

Written for the catalogue of Il Cinema Ritrovato, June 24 through July 4, 2015. — J.R.

THE MAN FROM LARAMIE

USA, 1955

T. it.: L’ Uomo di Laramie.  Sog.; Thomas T. Flynn. Scen.: Philip Yordan, Frank Burt. F. (CinemaScope): Charles Lang.  M.: William Lyon.  Mus.: George Duning, Lester Lee. Int.: James Stewart (Will Lockhart),  Arthur Kennedy (Vic Hansbro),  Donald Crisp (Alec Waggoman), Cathy O’Donnell (Barbara Waggoman),  Alex Nicol (Dave Waggoman), Aline MacMahon (Kate Canady)., Wallace Ford. Prod.: William Goetz Productions.

“Anthony Mann brought a touch of Oedipus Rex to almost everything he did—he was fascinated by families exploding from the inside—but in this 1955 western it’s more than a touch: he’s clearly aiming for classical resonance. Yet the film is never pretentious, perhaps because Mann is able to create characters complex enough to support the grand emotions, and because the landscape—animistic, enveloping—becomes mythic in his wide-screen framing. It’s one of Mann’s cleanest, clearest films, constructing an elaborate but ultimately lucid network of character relationships, all of them perverse. With James Stewart, Arthur Kennedy, and Donald Crisp. 104 min.” (Dave Kehr in the Chicago Reader)

This is the eight and last of Anthony Mann’s features starring James Stewart, made over a mere six years (1950-1955)—a fascinating body of work that, like Alfred Hitchcock’s uses of Stewart over roughly the same period (in Rope, Rear Window, and Vertigo) as well Cecil B. Read more