Touches You

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Instant Favorite.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

James Stewart departs from his usual nice guy image to play an army officer on leave in director Anthony Mann's violent western "The Man from Laramie" who is searching for the men who killed his younger brother. Generally, most westerns are photographed against either stunning desert or mountain scenery with the characters on horseback riding leisurely through the terrain. In "The Man from Laramie," the actors had to be accomplished horsemen because Mann has them riding through some pretty treacherous scenery. In other words, the characters aren't hoofing it down worn trails. This adds a sense of authenticity to the action because we can clearly see the actors atop their horses. Lenser Charles Lang captures all the action in immaculate close-ups, medium shots, and long shots, and brings out the spectacular quality of Cary Odell's art direction and James Crowe's set decoration. During his robust, 30-year, Hollywood career, Mann helmed his share of memorable horse operas, approximately 11, along with several notable film noir thrillers, including "Raw Deal," "T-Men," and "He Walked by Night." James Stewart and he teamed up in 1950 and made "Winchester '73" and then went on and collaborated on three more sterling westerns: "Bend of the River," "The Naked Spur," and "The Far Country." "The Man from Laramie" qualifies as a grim yarn about revenge. Somebody has been running guns to the Apaches, and those same Apaches have massacred a cavalry patrol led by Will Lockhart's brother. Lockhart takes a leave of absence and poses as a freight wagon driver to investigate Coronado, the town close to where his brother died. Alec Waggoman (Oscar winning Best Supporting Actor Donald Crisp of "How Green My Valley Was") rides herd over Coronado. Indeed, he owns everything three days' ride around Coronado, but he isn't a happy cattle baron. He has grown old, but he has been gradually losing his eyesight, a fact that he has concealed from ranch foreman Vic Hansbro (Arthur Kennedy of "Desperate Journey") and his pampered, sadistic son Dave (Alex Nicol of "The Savage Guns") who has no sense of honor. Secretly, Alec wishes that Vic had been his son instead of Dave. As the action unfolds, Will Lockhart (James Stewart of "Bandolero!") has hired men to shovel salt. Initially, Lockhart was told by Barbara Waggoman (Cathy O'Donnell of "Side Street") that the salt out in the desert was free to anybody who had the courage to dig it. The salt flats lay within the area where reckless Apache warriors rode without a qualm for killing white men. While Lockhart's crew is excavating the salt, rides from the Barb thunder in, lasso and drag Lockhart in front of his men, burn their wagons, and kill their mules. They leave an adequate number of mules for Lockhart and his men to ride back to Coronado. Dave launched this unmitigated attack on Lockhart and they have a running feud throughout "The Man from Laramie." Eventually, Dave catches Lockhart out rounding up cattle for another ranch that have strayed onto Barb territory and they shoot it out. Lockhart wounds Dave in the hand. Dave's riders thunder up to his rescue and surround Lockhart. A crazed Dave orders them to hold Lockhart, and Dave shoots Lockhart in the hand at point blank range. "You scum!" cries Lockhart in agony.Eventually, we learn the identities of the dastards who plan to run Winchester repeating rifles to the Apaches. This is a thoroughly engrossing western despite the many alterations that scenarists Philip Yordan and Frank Burt made for the sake of spontaneity to Thomas T. Flynn's superb western novel. For example, the burned wagons at the salt flats had been destroyed by the Apaches, but this was not the setting for the cavalry massacre. A man runs the general store in the novel and he is courting Barbara in the misguided notion that their marriage will assure him a place in the Waggoman dynasty. Another big change occurs in the character of Vic Hansbro. He is a bigger, meaner foreman than the one that Arthur Kennedy plays. In the novel, Lockhart and he have a knock-down, drag-out fistfight in Coronado.Altogether, if you crave westerns, "The Man from Laramie" is a surefire sage for you. Alex Nicol gives a top-notch performance as the sadistic son and his body language tells us everything that we need to know about his horribly flawed character. Donald Crisp lends sturdy support as the cattle baron who wants to own all the property in the area.

THE MAN FROM LARAMIE is a pretty decent western teaming Jimmy Stewart with Anthony Mann for the last of their western collaborations throughout the 1950s. I've always loved Jimmy Stewart and he doesn't disappoint here either, playing a thoroughly likable trader who becomes involved with some dastardly landowners and stands alone against them through steadfast stubbornness.Stewart always brought a lightness of touch and warmth to his characters even when they weren't written as such and that's the case here. The plot is a typical one for a western but enlivened by some truly vicious scenes, particularly the early assault by Dave and his men which comes out of nowhere and is easily as gruelling as anything the modern-day likes of THE WALKING DEAD can care to throw at us.The film is well shot and pretty lively with always something of interest to keep you watching. Mann brings the isolated desert landscapes to life with decent cinematography and fills the screen with interesting performers including Arthur Kennedy playing a much more rounded character than you'd expect and Donald Crisp as the hard-headed patriarch. Mann even finds time to include Jack Elam in a small but memorable performance. THE MAN FROM LARAMIE isn't one of the best westerns out there but it's certainly an enjoyable one that ticks all of the right boxes.

"The Man from Laramie" was the last of the five Westerns which James Stewart made with director Anthony Mann. There should have been a sixth, "Night Passage", but Mann withdrew from the project, reportedly because he was unhappy with the script and with the casting of Audie Murphy as Stewart's co-star, and the two never worked together again. (According to some versions of the story, they never spoke to one another again). Here Stewart plays Will Lockhart, the titular Man from Laramie, who leads a wagon train to the small town of Coronado, New Mexico. Lockhart, however, is not in town purely for business reasons. He also wants revenge for the death of his brother, an Army cavalry trooper, killed by the Apaches. He is seeking revenge not on the Indians themselves but on the white men who sold them rifles used in the attack. While in Coronado, Lockhart tangles with the Waggomans, powerful local ranchers. The film, in fact, is as much about this family as it is about Lockhart, and it explores their relationships in some detail. Alec Waggoman, the patriarch and an elderly widower, is an outwardly autocratic figure, but inwardly is haunted by mysterious nightmares and by the fact that he is gradually losing his eyesight. He is also troubled by the mutual dislike between his son Dave and his foreman Vic Hansbro, whom Alec regards virtually as an adopted second son. Two added complications are that Lockhart and Vic are both in love with the same woman, Alec's niece Barbara, and that Lockhart goes to work for Kate Canady, once Alec's lover and now his business rival.Two common features of the Mann-Stewart Westerns are striking photography of the Western scenery and a greater blurring of the moral boundaries between good and evil than was common in Westerns of the fifties, although this second feature was often found in other genres of the period, notable film noir. Both these features are to be found in "The Man from Laramie", which was one of the first Westerns to be filmed in CinemaScope to give a sense of the wide open New Mexico landscapes. Like all the Mann-Stewart collaborations except the first, "Winchester 73", it was shot in colour, part of a growing trend away from black-and- white in this particular genre. Dave Waggoman is an obvious villain- arrogant, hot-tempered and sadistic. Our first sight of him comes when, acting on very little provocation, he kills twelve mules and burns three wagons belonging to Lockhart. The other major characters, however, are more difficult to characterise as heroes or villains. Lockhart is the film's protagonist, and generally has right on his side, but he can also be angry, bitter and vindictive. Alec has a moral sense which Dave lacks, but can also be authoritarian with his workers and over-indulgent to his worthless son. In the confrontations between Dave and Vic he sides with his biological son over his adopted one, even though he is under no illusions about Dave's true character. Vic at first appears to be a rough diamond, lacking in social graces but with a sense of decency which sets him apart from the villainous Dave. We sympathise with him when he is treated unfairly by his adoptive father and he seems genuine in his love for Barbara. As the film progresses, however, Vic reveals himself to be as much of a villain as Dave, if not more so. The reviewer who drew parallels with the Gloucester subplot in "King Lear" should have recalled that in that play only one of Gloucester's sons, the illegitimate Edmund, proves to be a villain; his legitimate son Edgar is noble and magnanimous. Despite the unhappy ending to their relationship, James Stewart gave some of his best performances in his work with Mann, and he gives another good one here as the conflicted Lockhart, showing us the rough edges of his character but always holding our sympathy and our interest. There are also good supporting contributions from Donald Crisp as Alec, Alex Nicol as Dave and especially from Arthur Kennedy as Vic. (Kennedy was one of those gifted actors who never quite seemed to make the transition from supporting actor to leading man in his cinema career, even though he played many leading roles on stage). The fifties were a time when psychological Westerns, character-driven rather than action- driven, were increasing in popularity, and "The Man from Laramie" is an excellent example of this trend. 8/10

This western is well-remembered by those who saw it in their youth in the 1950s for it's "shocking" violence. James Stewart is dragged through fire and later is held by two toughs while he gets a bullet shot through his hand at close range - very ungentlemanly stuff for the period! Today, the scenes showing the vandalising of his waggons and the shooting of his mules feel somehow more unpalatable, possibly because these are shown more directly on camera. With little chance of shocking a modern audience, this film is still entertaining to watch, but otherwise not really worthy of close analysis. The story - like the men - is unsophisticated and the dialogue is pretty lame, generally working best when it's slightly humorous. James Stewart is the lead, but Arthur Kennedy delivers the best acting, providing a convincing performance in a role that is written little more than wafer thin. For my money, one of the best scenes is where Aline Macmahon correctly identifies Stewart as a bachelor. As he's almost drooling over her at this point it must have been very hard to play for both of them without laughing.