The Man from Laramie (1955)

Very well executed

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

In the course of trying to find the people who traded guns to the Apache (who used them to kill his kid brother), Will Lockhart falls foul of psycho Dave Waggoman and, by proxy, Dave's rich rancher father and kind of adoptive quasi-brother Vic.I somehow managed to never see this classic western until now. It features James Stewart in one of his iconic roles, and it looks great, with glorious widescreen colour locations. The story, which draws on King Lear, is relatively straightforward, albeit there are some threads which are never fully explored (Will and Barbara), some which are so obvious they might usefully have been avoided, and some - especially Dave's storyline - which get what, in my view, were lamer payoffs than they merited.I feel awful for criticising a classic western, but its strengths vastly outweigh its weaknesses, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Jimmy Stewart and Director Anthony Mann made great movies together, including westerns like this. What was great was how we got to see the hard edge that Mann could apply to Stewart's performances.It was great to see how Stewart could expand his acting range like he did. With these Anthony Mann westerns, we got to see what an excellent actor Stewart was.In this film, we are introduced to a King Lear scenario. In Shakespeare's Lear, a king is late in his reign and divides his kingdom among his daughters. As in Shakespeare, tragedy follows. We do have elements of that here. With it, we have Stewart seeking vengeance for those who sold repeating rifles to Indians who killed Stewart's brother.The film is very well made, with an especially subtle score by George Duning, who scored many other westerns. The film has many good elements. But, it has the feel of having a script that was chipped together. There is a very good through line to the story, but we get a lot of Stewart refusing to leave town, but not telling anybody why. This gets repeated many times.But, when the film gets to focusing on the matters at hand, it works, and the conclusion is very satisfying.******* (7 Out of 10 Stars)

Will Lockhart- a mysterious man who delivers supplies to storekeeper Barbara Waggoman at Coronado.It's a town in Apache country.We learn that his brother has died, and he wants to revenge his death.He got killed in an Apache attack, and he wants to know who was selling rifles to them.He finds trouble with the Waggomans, not Barbara, though.The Waggomans is a ranching family.Vic Hansbro is the ranch foreman who's engaged to Barbara.Things turn out ugly pretty soon.When you put two greats together- Anthony Mann and James Stewart-you could never fail.They made many memorable westerns together, movies you can call classics today.The Man from Laramie (1955) is their fifth and last western collaboration.Jimmy gives most convincing performance as Will, as he always did.He has a very fine supporting cast as well.Arthur Kennedy plays Vic Hansbro.Donald Crisp is Alec Waggoman.Cathy O'Donnell portrays Barbara Waggoman.Alex Nicol is Dave Waggoman.Jack Elam plays Chris Boldt.In this movie there's a lot that's good.The way it depicts the relationship between Will and Barbara is something special.There's something sensitive, something beautiful.It's a rather haunting scene where Dave starts shooting Will's mules.In the Mann movies the landscape played a big part.It sure is a joy to the eye to watch the western view.

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.