Rindiana One of those all too bright and cheery semi-comic easygoing Westerns full of stupid men behaving childishly.Were it not for Kirk's star turn and some nice touches in the first half of its running time, this rather silly affair wouldn't be worthwhile at all.The character motivation is all at sea and the hero's barb wire trauma is ridiculous from the get-go.There are some interesting topics hidden among the posturing, but the execution is half-hearted at best.4 out of 10 interior bathrooms

Petri Pelkonen Dempsey Rae is a cowboy, who has a fear of barbed-wire.He has scars all over his chest, and his brother got killed by barbed-wire.Now he wanders into town with a young friend, Jeff Simson.They're hired to work for an absentee rancher called Reed Bowman.He soon finds out the rancher is an attractive woman.She's a tough woman, whose plans may hurt the neighbor harmony.Man Without a Star (1955) is a western by King Vidor.It stars Kirk Douglas, who turned 94 last Thursday, as Dempsey Rae.He's just the right guy for the part.He's got enough toughness for the role, but has also a soft and tender side.Jeanne Crain is certainly the right woman to portray Reed Bowman.William Campbell is terrific as Jeff "Texas" Simson.Claire Trevor is marvelous as Idonee.Richard Boone is great as Steve Miles.Jay C. Flippen is superb as Strap Davis.Myrna Hansen is very good as Tess Cassidy.And so is Eddy Waller, who plays Tom Cassidy.Mara Corday gives a fine portrayal of Moccasin Mary.Frank Chase is terrific as Little Waco.Great work by Sheb Wooley, who plays Latigo.Jack Elam gives a short but great performance as Knife Murderer.Frankie Laine is behind the catchy theme song.This may not be the most classic western, but I sure liked it.One of the greatest scenes in this movie is where Dempsey, instead of fighting with Miles, starts singing and playing his banjo in the saloon.It brings some lightness to this western.And one memorable scene is where Dempsey shows his scars.All the western fans should see this movie.

caa821 I'd seen this film before, and had I rated it then, I would give it perhaps 7*, tops. But viewing it now, it is a solid 10*, but not for the usual reasons.Viewd 50 years after original release, it provides a perfect example of 1950's films (right in the middle of the decade). It's far from the best Western - of that period or any other, and is way down the list of Kirk Douglas movies (even among his Westerns alone). It has every bit as many cliché characters and lines as Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles," which was all-parody. There is the beautiful, tough-yet-feminine ranch owner (Crain), the "kid" (Campbell), the fast gun and evil killer-type (Boone and Elam), the crusty top hand (Flippen), and, yes indeed, the whore-with-the-heart-of gold (Trevor).One thing about today's flicks - they'd probably have dulled Kirk's smile a bit, given Crain a little less make-up, etc. In these period films in the 1950's, Kirk looked more like his mouth contained perhaps six figures of dental work (wait, it did!). He and Crain were so well-coiffed, you could swear they's had recent $100 visits (at 1950's prices) to high-class salons, augmented before shooting by highly-paid studio stylists (do you think they might have?), and their clothes seemed as if they might have been professionally cleaned and laundered, where in the "Old West" they'd have been cleaned with cistern water, lye soap and a washboard.However, it is the wonderful clichés - visual and verbal - and the nostalgia of the 1950's genre, as well as the cast of well-known figures, now either gone or very elderly, in their younger days, which makes this a 10* for me today.

alexandre michel liberman (tmwest) In 'Man Without a Star' Kirk Douglas as Dempsey Rae, gives a great performance; an outgoing cowboy, unstable and with fits of euphoria. This film is able to capture the beauty of the west, of the big herds of cattle, and the daily life of the cowboys. Dempsey is running away from barbed wire, which to him means the end of freedom. He calls himself a man without a star because he is obsessed about his freedom of choice, whereas following a star will bind him to a predetermined life. His affair with Jeanne Crain, with plenty of sexual innuendo, but far from being explicit, is one of the great things about this film. William Campbell has a very important part as an easterner who wants to become a cowboy and Douglas is there to teach him.