Anthony Mann (director)
Eureka! (studio)
Cert 12 (certificate)
100min (length)
23 March 2015 (released)
24 March 2015
When one thinks of director Anthony Mann one invariably thinks of westerns and James Stewart. Man Of The West is considered by many to be one of this director’s finest, despite not featuring his favoured actor Jimmy Stewart. Instead, the rather taciturn and stern Gary Cooper stars in the lead as reformed outlaw Link Jones.
Things go wrong for Link from the outset! When he tries to catch a train to Fort Worth in search of a schoolteacher for his community in Good Hope he is almost recognized by the local marshal thanks to a brief conversation with known con man Sam Beasley (Arthur O’Connell). Later on their train journey busybody Beasley introduces him to saloon singer Billie Ellis (Julie London) – ‘the girl with the golden voice’ – from whom we actually never get to hear as much as one song, not even ‘Cry Me A River’. For whatever the reason, Beasley suggests to Link that Billie would make for a good teacher… but only because he smells his chance of a little earner courtesy of some community money that has been entrusted to Link by the townsfolk of Good Hope.
Unbeknownst to fellow travellers, a man by the name of Alcutt (J. Williams) is on board as a lookout for a triumvirate of ambushers lying in wait at the fuel pick-up point. As the male passengers get off to help load wood for the train’s engine, Alcutt signals his partners in crime to go ahead with the robbery. However, the robbery does not go according to plan and Alcutt is wounded in the process, not before he manages to take the bag containing Link’s money. As the bandits make their escape and the train pulls away, an injured Link and a shaken Beasley and Billie are left behind on the tracks. Stranded in the middle of nowhere and over a day’s wait for the next train, the three have no alternative but to leg it. After a while they come across a ramshackle hut which looks strangely familiar to Link. As Billie and Beasley hide in the barn, Link enters the run-down abode and finds himself confronted by the hold-up gang lead by Coaley (Jack Lord). The overseer however is none other than old Dock Tobin (Lee J. Cobb) who recognizes his nephew in Link. In the past, Tobin had raised Link – his favourite nephew – to be a killer but Link turned his back on his life of crime to follow the path of righteousness. Aware that he is in a difficult situation, Link agrees to go along with his uncle’s plans to rob the bank in Lassoo. Tobin is delighted by this, as he now has Link back in the gang. Knowing damn well what kind of people his ‘family’ are, he pretends to them that Billie is ‘his woman’. This doesn’t stop Coaley, who just happens to be Link’s cousin, from attempting Billie to strip while holding a knife to Link’s throat.
Things begin to get mighty personal and start to spin out of control. Coaley of course deeply resents Link and does not trust him… and all gets even worse when Claude (John Dehner), Link’s other cousin, arrives… leading up to the film’s climax and the realisation that Lassoo is in fact little more than a ghost town and its bank deserted.
Despite Anthony Mann’s high credentials in the Western genre, the film’s pace seems somewhat unbalanced, with action-laden scenes interspersed by more dialogue-heavy scenarios that are unnecessarily stretched out. In common with many films that were made around that time perhaps it could be pointed out that despite the fact that these characters don’t exactly have access to soap and water and a razorblade, they always look exceptionally well groomed. In the stubble-free Cooper’s case, the same can be said for his clean shirt. On the female front, Julie London’s ‘Billie’ wakes up every morning with immaculate hair and make-up, not to mention her crease-free gown!
Cinematographer Ernest Haller does a fine job in capturing the atmosphere of the changing landscape, while Leigh Harline’s score complements the photography only too well.
As far as the performances go, Cooper’s portrayal of the reformed Link is on the downbeat side and one can’t help wondering what Jimmy Stewart – originally intended for the part – would have made of it. A youngish Jack Lord, later to achieve fame in Hawaii Five-O is almost amusing as the psychotic jealous cousin, while Lee J. Cobb does what he can in a crusty old character part, occasionally lapsing into his ‘Johnny Friendly’ character from On The Waterfront.
This Dual-Format edition – presented in Blu-ray for the first time in the UK - contains the following Special Features:
• New HD 1080p HD presentation of the film in its original aspect ratio
• Optional English SDH for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Exclusive feature-length commentary by Glenn Kenny and Farran Nehme
• Exclusive new 18-minute video interview with Douglas Pye
• 44-PAGE BOOKLET with writing by Jean-Luc Godard, Robin Wood, a score of rare archival imagery, and more!