Pursued

Robert Mitchum, Teresa Wright, and Judith Anderson
The Freudian Western par excellence, Raoul Walsh's Pursued, from 1947, features Robert Mitchum as a man with hellhounds on his trail as a result of boyhood trauma. Walsh fashions this moody piece as a deterministic nightmare where the characters are dwarfed, in James Wong Howe's wonderous cinematography, by monumental rock formations and thunderous skies. Niven Busch's script baldly trumpets its morbid psychology whilst copping out with its ending. This is mitigated by Walsh's handling of his players. Mitchum was rarely better and the supporting players are all perfectly cast: including Teresa Wright (Mrs. Busch at the time). Judith Anderson, Alan Hale Sr., Dean Jagger, and Harry Carey Jr.        


at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
  • High Time
    Blake Edwards' High Time  is a simple minded Bing Crosby vehicle that Edwards transforms into a pop tone poem of color and music. The st...
  • Best of 1969
    Ma nuit chez Maud                                                                        Éric Rohmer The Color of Pomegranates              ...
  • Bugonia
    Emma Stone Spoiler Alert ...I enjoyed Yorgos Lanthimos' Bugonia , but I have always had an affinity for his work and can certainly under...
  • Send Help
    Rachel McAdams Sam Raimi's Send Help  is genuinely exciting cinema, his best film since Spider-Man 2 . As usual, the pulpiness of Raimi...
  • The Legend of the Holy Drinker
    Rutger Hauer Ermanno Olmi's The Legend of the Holy Drinker  is a slice of magical realism that won the Golden Lion at the 45th Venice Fi...