The Lusty Men (1952)
Country: US
Technical: bw 113m
Director: Nicholas Ray, Robert Parrish
Cast: Susan Hayward, Robert Mitchum, Arthur Kennedy, Arthur Hunnicutt
Synopsis:
A old hand rodeo competitor down on his luck latches onto a hopeful young ranch hand and his wife, who are saving up to buy the very spread he grew up on.
Review:
This overstretched fable about the lure of easy money in the rodeo business is often held up (initially by French critics) as one of those studio productions that could have proved routine, but for the contribution of their director. In this case what might have been a straightforward melodrama in which Mitchum's character exploits Kennedy's beginner's luck and makes up to his wife until he is baited into proving himself one last time, is in fact more complex. Principally this is down to Hayward's performance, with its subtle shading of her attitude to Mitchum, culminating in love (which redeems him in our eyes), but also to do with the portrayal of the rodeo world and its foregrounding of certain details (gambling, drinking, maiming and machismo) and negative representation of others (the faceless paying public and the strictly adversarial relationship of man and beast which is contrary to the cowboy's heritage).
Country: US
Technical: bw 113m
Director: Nicholas Ray, Robert Parrish
Cast: Susan Hayward, Robert Mitchum, Arthur Kennedy, Arthur Hunnicutt
Synopsis:
A old hand rodeo competitor down on his luck latches onto a hopeful young ranch hand and his wife, who are saving up to buy the very spread he grew up on.
Review:
This overstretched fable about the lure of easy money in the rodeo business is often held up (initially by French critics) as one of those studio productions that could have proved routine, but for the contribution of their director. In this case what might have been a straightforward melodrama in which Mitchum's character exploits Kennedy's beginner's luck and makes up to his wife until he is baited into proving himself one last time, is in fact more complex. Principally this is down to Hayward's performance, with its subtle shading of her attitude to Mitchum, culminating in love (which redeems him in our eyes), but also to do with the portrayal of the rodeo world and its foregrounding of certain details (gambling, drinking, maiming and machismo) and negative representation of others (the faceless paying public and the strictly adversarial relationship of man and beast which is contrary to the cowboy's heritage).
Country: US
Technical: bw 113m
Director: Nicholas Ray, Robert Parrish
Cast: Susan Hayward, Robert Mitchum, Arthur Kennedy, Arthur Hunnicutt
Synopsis:
A old hand rodeo competitor down on his luck latches onto a hopeful young ranch hand and his wife, who are saving up to buy the very spread he grew up on.
Review:
This overstretched fable about the lure of easy money in the rodeo business is often held up (initially by French critics) as one of those studio productions that could have proved routine, but for the contribution of their director. In this case what might have been a straightforward melodrama in which Mitchum's character exploits Kennedy's beginner's luck and makes up to his wife until he is baited into proving himself one last time, is in fact more complex. Principally this is down to Hayward's performance, with its subtle shading of her attitude to Mitchum, culminating in love (which redeems him in our eyes), but also to do with the portrayal of the rodeo world and its foregrounding of certain details (gambling, drinking, maiming and machismo) and negative representation of others (the faceless paying public and the strictly adversarial relationship of man and beast which is contrary to the cowboy's heritage).