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1959, 106 MINS, US
CAST:
(Warner)
Wendell Mayes and Halstead Welles did the screenplay from a long short story by Dorothy M. Johnson, who is a kind of western writers' western writer. Johnson's stories show the West as it was, a hard, cruel, lonely frontier, in which the humans were often stripped of the savagery of the country.
In essence, the story follows western classic form. Gary Cooper is the mysterious
stranger, a taciturn and quixotic man who
drifts into a Montana gold-mining town. He
quickly establishes himself as a man equally
handy with a scalpel, a Colt and an inside
straight, tender in his professional role as
MD, and a paradoxically tough man when
dealing with gamblers and con men.
His first action is to rescue young Ben
Piazza from a lynch-minded mob and make
him his bond-servant on threat of exposure.
His second is to take on the recovery of Maria
Schell, a Swiss immigrant, who is ill and
blinded from exposure. Stirring in these complicated relationships is the character of Karl Malden, an evil and lascivious gold prospector, who wants Piazza's life, Cooper's money
and Schell's body, more or less in that order.
There are fine performances from a good
cast, but the main contribution comes from
the director. The natural splendour of the
Washington location is thoroughly exploited
in Technicolor, but Delmer Daves doesn't allow his characters to get lost in the forest or
mountains.
yul brynner | christopher plummer | romy schneider
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al pacino | michelle pfeiffer
the godfather | the godfather part ii
marlon brando |
james caan |
diane keaton |
al pacino
laurence olivier |
clark gable
| vivien leigh | leslie howard
|
alfred hitchcock |
robert montgomery
|
grace kelly
olivia de havilland |
humphrey bogart
|
howard hawks
|
frank capra
|
charlie chaplin
|
lauren bacall
|
fritz lang
jean harlow |
greta garbo |
ava gardner |
audrey hepburn |
edward g. robinson
|
john garfield
erich von stroheim
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wim wenders
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madeleine carroll
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marlene dietrich
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rita hayworth
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Changes last made: 2004