The Man From Laramie

Until today I had seen several of Anthony Mann's renowned "adult Westerns" from the 1950's - Winchester '73 (1950), The Naked Spur (1953) and The Tin Star (1957). All were good movies but lacked that special something to make them great. Today I found Mann's masterpiece: The Man From Laramie (1955). The last of Mann's seven collaborations with James Stewart, Laramie is not only Mann's magnum opus, it makes a strong case for being among the best Westerns of all time. With its great cast, richly drawn characters, well-developed story, skillful direction and gorgeous Cinemascope photography, it's nothing short of a masterpiece.

Will Lockhart (James Stewart) arrives in the isolated farming village of Coronado. The town is run by Alec Waggoman (Donald Crisp), an aging cattle baron, and his two lieutenants: his simple-minded, quick-tempered son Dave (Alex Nichol), and Vic (Arthur Kennedy), the fiercely loyal ranch foreman. Will's arrival puts a spanner into the works, intensifying the rivalry between Dave and Vic as they debate how to deal with the stranger. Will would just as soon stay out of the way, but he has a score to settle - his brother, a cavalryman, was killed by Indians carrying Winchester rifles, and he's determined to seek revenge on the man (or men) who sold them the guns.

The movie undoubtedly excells in its characters. Will's character is (by necessity) fairly elliptical; he's tough but not a bad-natured, amoral vigilante like, say, The Man With No Name. Mann parcels out Will's background carefully, leading inevitably to the final reveal of his motivation - and yet his righteous anger and vengeance is tempered by his morality, allowing Fate to wreak its own vengeance on the wrong-doers. Smaller parts, like Will's love interest (Cathy O'Donnell), the tough lady rancher with a thing for Waggoman (Aline MacMahon), Will's hard-drinking side-kick (Wallace Ford), the chatty Indian priest (Frank DeKova), and the town conman (Jack Elam) are also interesting personages.

The trio of villains is undoubtedly the best feature. Once a two-fisted tough guy in his own right, the older Alec Waggoman is well-meaning but increasingly ineffectual man. A Western Lear, he loves his son and right-hand man all too well, and is unable to to see the growing discord between thhem. Dave is a bit of a stereotype - the weak, hot-headed son living in the shadow of his father - but Vic makes up for it with a very well-rounded character, haunted by guilt and driven by a need to please his surrogate father. Even towards the end, he never degenerates to villainy or pathetic pleading; the scene where he guiltly visits his blinded boss is brilliant, humanizing him better than any other Western character I can think of. All three characters are flawed yet sympathetic, and the film doesn't make any of them evil, not even at the end when there's nothing to lose. The Wild Bunch is the only Western comparable in its depth of believable, engrossing characterization.

Mann's direction is nothing short of brilliant. As usual, he does a fantastic job of photography, capturing the gorgeous salt flats and forbidding deserts of the Southwest and making landscape a character in its own right. The film is full of striking individual set pieces, from Will's first encounter with Dave, the dusty fisticuffs with Vic, the shootout at the cattle range, and the final confrontation with the Apache. Phillip Yordan and Frank Burt's screenplay is sharply written, carefully developing story and characters while delivering a generous portion of quotable dialogue. George Duning provides a suitably dramatic score, marred only by the cornball title tune (that fortunately only crops up at the beginning and very end).

James Stewart gives a solid performance: his character here is less neurotic and obsessive than his earlier Mann protagonists, but still convincingly a two-fisted, grimly determined man of action. Arthur Kennedy (Lawrence of Arabia) gives a career-best turn. Vic is a conflicted, complex character who never turns into the expected sneering villain, and Kennedy perfectly captures the character's sense of guilt, anguish and desperation. Donald Crisp (Juarez) does equally well, making Alec a nice guy with an undertone of nastiness showing through. Alex Nicol is perhaps a bit too broad as Dave but perhaps the script can be blamed for that. Supporting parts are ably handled by the likes of Cathy O'Donnell, Aline McMahon, Jack Elam, James Millican, Frank DeKova, and John War Eagle.

The Man From Laramie is an unquestionable Western masterpiece, and an instant personal favorite. Perhaps the other Mann films above-named are due for a rewatch? Stay tuned...