JohnHowardReid
Copyright 1958 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at RKO neighborhood cinemas: 4 June 1958. U.S. release: 1 June 1958. U.K. release: 27 July 1958. Australian release: 17 July 1958. 100 minutes. U.K. and Australian release title: MAN HUNT (up to 150 feet censored).SYNOPSIS: Tod Lohman (Don Murray), a peace-loving man, is pursued across the New Mexico wastelands by Tom Boyd (Dennis Hopper), his brother Otis (Ken Scott), and a small posse who wish to believe Tod had murdered another brother when actually the brother had accidentally fallen on Tod's knife during a fight. Hunter Boyd (R. G. Armstrong), their father, a cattle baron who writes his own laws, seeks revenge. Tod meets Amos Bradley (Chill Wills), a rancher, and his daughter, Nita (Diane Varsi). Amos knows the Boyds are after Tod but he himself has no love for any of them.NOTES: One of the two best westerns of the 1950s, according to William K. Everson in his comprehensive study of the genre. (The other is "Shane").COMMENT: Disappointing. True, the action spots are most effectively staged and directed with all that customary Hathaway vigor. True also that the heavy is an appropriately strong, interesting character — "a powerful wicked man but with a peculiar sense of justice all his own" — forcefully played by R. G. Armstrong. But with the exception of Jay C. Flippen and John Larch (and these parts are not all that large), the rest of the characters are weak and uninteresting. And alas they are just as insipidly played by folk like Chill Wills and Diane Varsi. Admittedly Dennis Hopper is supposed to be weak — so he's excused — but when the hero Don Murray is tepid too it doesn't exactly make for gripping conflict. The Varsi character for all her gameness is still a pretty conventional heroine. As for Chill Wills, he's so stereotyped and so bland, he ends up just plain dull. The movie would impact more powerfully with a lot of trimming. One of the first scenes to leave on the cutting-room floor is a romantic interlude in which either Hathaway or his editor has experimented with odd angle cutting. It doesn't work. Also ripe for the shears are some boringly long-winded dialogue scenes with Murray, Varsi and Wills.Locations are well utilized, though their appeal is somewhat undermined by obvious day-for-night lensing and glaring process screen backdrops. And we're still saddled with that early CinemaScope fuzzy photography. Other production credits are no more than par.
weezeralfalfa
A standard western, in which Don Murray plays Tod, who is wandering around looking for his long lost father, who abandoned him and his mother. He has recently gotten into trouble with local cattle baron Hunter Boyd(R.G. Armstrong), being blamed for killing his son Shorty. Tod claims that Shorty fell on his own knife. Apparently, they were fighting over something, we are never told what.Hunter and a posse of some of his hands plus his 2 remaining sons have been trailing Tod, who has stopped at a stream to check on his horse's leg. Hunter decides to stampede a herd of wild horses toward Tod. But this backfires, when Tod shoots his rife in the air several times, making them turn around and stampede toward Hunter's bunch. Another of Hunter's sons: Otis(Ken Scott)is badly injured, maybe fatally, trampled by the horses. A little later, Tod faces another brother: Tom, alone. Tod gets the drop on Tom, and tells him how the death of Shorty happened. Tom doesn't particularly believe it. Tod tells Tom to get on his horse and vamoose. Very strangely, Tod didn't take Tom's gun, so Tom shoots Tod's horse before leaving. Tod has to walk over rocky and flat desert to who knows where. Fortunately, he comes upon an elderly man(Chill Wills, as Amos Bradley) and his adopted daughter Juanita(Diane Varsi), by a stream with a hot spring nearby. Surprisingly, they quickly warm up to Tod, although Tod and Juanita have a humorous argument about taking a bath in the hot springs or stream. When Tod refers to her as a lady, she denies being such. She presents herself as an all around cowgirl: the equal of any man. Later, while Tod is sleeping, she sneaks over and kisses him, before quickly disappearing under her blanket...Just then, Hunter shows up with his gang, with an extra horse, saying Boyds don't shoot men's horses. Then, Hunter gives him 4 hours to clear out of this area. before they come looking for him. Tod has a gun battle in the rocks with one of Hunter's men, then encounters a grizzled trader(Jay Flippen, as Jake), who invites him to ride inside his wagon, after hearing his story. Pretty soon, a couple of Hunter's men are trailing behind, then hostile Comanche show up. We have a three way gunfight, while on the run. Tod stops at several other places, looking for his father. Eventually, he happens on the Bradley's house, and is invited in for dinner. Juanita had told her father about her feeling for Tod, thus the idea is to have them get to know one another better. After beating around the bush for a while, they have a couple of impressive kisses. Amos suggests Tod might like to stay on and help run the ranch. Tod accepts provisionally, but says he has to keep running from Hunter's bunch in the meanwhile.... I leave the final portion for you to see. The film is currently on YouTube.Anyone familiar with the Alabama Hills, used extensively in westerns and adventure films, will recognize them and the Sierras in the background, for part of the film. Other parts were filmed in Death Valley. The segment with the hot spring and stream was filmed in Inyo National Forest, near Mammoth Hot Springs. The central cat and mouse game between Hunter's bunch and Tod doesn't make much sense to me. Sometimes they desperately want to kill him. At other times, they just want to talk, like a cat playing with a mouse before eating it. Diane Varsi, as Juanita, and Don Murray, as Tod, seem to have difficulty expressing their attraction verbally. Diane lacks one ounce of the natural charisma of Margo, who plays her mother, with gusto. It's the standard formula: boy meets girl, girl hates boy initially, girl gradually warms up to boy, girl madly in love with boy.It's usually a treat to have Chill Wills and Jay Flippen play major secondary characters, and this film is no exception.
pruiett
Another example of a movie made before 1960 that is creatively able to portray anger, violence, love, and romance without profanity, nudity, or crudity. The character Tod is virtuous as are the characters of Chill Wills and his family. The western vistas are captured well by the photographer Dennis Hopper, known in more modern times for non-western roles plays a spoiled and insecure youngest son of the antagonist a role similar to his in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.I always enjoy Chill Wills. He adds authenticity to any western. I have never seen him play a villain. This movie is no exception. He is a kind, upstanding, generous family man with a lovely daughter.Just all in all an enjoyable movie. Just wish it did not have to end with the typical "riding off into the sunset" scene. I would rather have the movie 15 minutes longer and develop the good guys after the villains are gone.
