The Man From Laramie is the last completed western of the James Stewart- Anthony Mann combination. They started Night Passage together, but quarreled and James Neilson finished it. Stewart-Mann turned out some great westerns and three other films as well and all were good entertainment.
The Man From Laramie is probably the weakest of the five westerns. It seems better than it is because of the quality of company of players Anthony Mann got for this film. The story has way too many improbabilities.
Stewart plays an army captain on leave on a personal mission to find out who sold Apaches repeating rifles with which they massacred an army patrol led by Stewart's brother. He arrives at his destination and tangles with the spoiled and crazy son of the owner of the local Ponderosa.
The owner is Donald Crisp, as always a strong character and his son is played by Alex Nicol. Nicol delivers a scenery chewing performance as a really rotten human being, the kind you go to the movies and love to hate.
The point is that Nicol is so bad and so obviously lacking a whole suit in his deck of cards is that why would anyone get any kind of close to him to have private dealings. Yet that's what we're asked to believe.
Arthur Kennedy is the foreman of Donald Crisp's ranch. His is the same role that Charlton Heston did in The Big Country, the orphan kid who gets taken in by the big landowner and raised by him. But Charles Bickford had a daughter there.
Kennedy is courting Cathy O'Donnell who is Crisp's niece and Nicol's cousin. She owns the local mercantile and upon Stewart's arrival she starts reevaluating her personal life. She's playing an older version of the part she had in The Best Years of Our Lives as Harold Russell's fiancé.
Another big plot hole is that the people dealing with the Apaches are doling out the weapons bit by bit afraid of starting a general Indian uprising. Leaving aside the question of why they're selling them at all, why don't the Apaches just follow them to where the supply is and take the weapons?
The only other two roles of consequence are Wallace Ford as Stewart's sidekick and Aline McMahon as the owner of a rival spread to Crisp's. Both deliver in their usual good style.
It's not a bad western, but the script and the character motivation from the script could have used some rethinking.
The Man From Laramie is probably the weakest of the five westerns. It seems better than it is because of the quality of company of players Anthony Mann got for this film. The story has way too many improbabilities.
Stewart plays an army captain on leave on a personal mission to find out who sold Apaches repeating rifles with which they massacred an army patrol led by Stewart's brother. He arrives at his destination and tangles with the spoiled and crazy son of the owner of the local Ponderosa.
The owner is Donald Crisp, as always a strong character and his son is played by Alex Nicol. Nicol delivers a scenery chewing performance as a really rotten human being, the kind you go to the movies and love to hate.
The point is that Nicol is so bad and so obviously lacking a whole suit in his deck of cards is that why would anyone get any kind of close to him to have private dealings. Yet that's what we're asked to believe.
Arthur Kennedy is the foreman of Donald Crisp's ranch. His is the same role that Charlton Heston did in The Big Country, the orphan kid who gets taken in by the big landowner and raised by him. But Charles Bickford had a daughter there.
Kennedy is courting Cathy O'Donnell who is Crisp's niece and Nicol's cousin. She owns the local mercantile and upon Stewart's arrival she starts reevaluating her personal life. She's playing an older version of the part she had in The Best Years of Our Lives as Harold Russell's fiancé.
Another big plot hole is that the people dealing with the Apaches are doling out the weapons bit by bit afraid of starting a general Indian uprising. Leaving aside the question of why they're selling them at all, why don't the Apaches just follow them to where the supply is and take the weapons?
The only other two roles of consequence are Wallace Ford as Stewart's sidekick and Aline McMahon as the owner of a rival spread to Crisp's. Both deliver in their usual good style.
It's not a bad western, but the script and the character motivation from the script could have used some rethinking.