1958: Man Of The West (53rd)

What else happened this year? The 1958 Munich disaster where a bunch of soccer players died. I know that from a stupid chant sung by idiots.

What is the plot - in one sentence? In the 'Wild West,' after a series of coincidences, a reformed criminal finds himself at his old family home, under the spell of the gang he left.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? The boss of the gang is his uncle, who is suffering from dementia of some sort. The gang all intimidate the nephew (who is played by Gary Cooper) as well as a couple of people he's brought with him, and the gang looks to do a bank robbery. After killing all of the gang except for the boss, the nephew finds a woman he's befriended has been raped by the uncle, so he kills him too. The lady and the nephew leave, him to return to his boring life, her to an uncertain future.

What is the meaning of the title? Gary Cooper is asked a few times where he's from, and he always says 'oh, west of here.'

Here's Jack Lord beating up Gary Cooper in a very 'They Live' style extended fight. Within mere minutes Jack Lord is naked and weeping. Seriosuly.

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? Two woman talk in the movie (at least after the initial train crash - more on which later), and one is shot and known only by name after her grieving husband cries it out. The other woman is a singer / dancer of some sort, and she's forced to strip tease (more on THAT later), and is raped and beaten (offscreen, though we see the aftermath) at the movie's end. She also shows an enormous amount of boob for the era, and an impressive amount of boob for any age. Well done her, I guess?

Any thoughts? So, the old gangster is played by Lee J. Cobb, who I didn't recognise in a beard and scowl. Meanwhile, one of his underlings is played by a young Jack Lord. He's also a cousin of Gary Cooper's character, and another cousin later rocks up. It seems they had a close relationship as kids and young adults, but have drifted apart since then. Anyway, as punishment for forcing the main lady to strip, Gary Cooper fights Jack Lord for minutes, before stripping him and having him shot, while he's crying, snivelling and naked. It reminded me a lot of the fight in 'They Live,' except a bit less homo-erotic. It is a very weird scene.

At the movies end, Gary Cooper kills another two of the henchmen (including his other cousin) in a very drawn out fight, and an extremely long death scene. I wasn't expecting that, let me tell you. The uncle also manages to roll down a hill after death too. You'll remember Gary Cooper taking on a small gang who have grievances with him, and winning, from High Noon, which shares some similarities with. This was a pretty tense movie, with the threat of violence all the way through it.

What's interesting is that Gary Cooper has left, tried to put his past behind him, and is looking to redeem himself, while his old gang still grieves and rages at the betrayal they've felt. His uncle, with what is a case of alcoholic dementia, is a very sad character, but still a frightening one.

Would you recommend this? Kinda. I'm pretty much at my taut-western-movie limit at the moment, but this was an interesting, thriller with some emotional heft and interesting choices made in it. The one thing I'll say against it is the use of movie coincidences. That's coincidences which happen just to let the movie go on, and are unremarked upon. He just happens to be robbed by the gang that he left years ago, and just happens to be near enough to his old farm? Come on.

Also, what the fuck happened to the rest of the people on the train, the robbery of which sets the story in motion (he's travelling with money to get a teacher for his village - which is named Sawmill, why not? - and is robbed and has to get it back). Despite there being many people outside of the train when it leaves, only three got left behind, even though dozens were outside moving logs? Come on.

Final thoughts? This was fine. Gary Cooper is fine in this, and my thoughts only moved to his gigantic dong a few times (when he was sharing a barn with the woman, for instance) - thanks dad, for mentioning that to me during a showing of High Noon, which this movie comes after and isn't as good.

It's kind of sad that he was so close to death - he died only a couple of years later, whereas in 1940 in another movie with him from the West, called, The Westerner, he was a very handsome fellow. He was in a movie called 'Man of The West' and 'The Westerner' and I've watched both of them for this specific feature? I need some new avenues for finding movies.

 

This is the 53rd in a series which may never end. The others are all to be found m'here.