Wuchak RELEASED IN 1955 and directed by Anthony Mann, "The Man from Laramie" Jimmy Stewart stars as the titular Will Lockhart who meets storekeeper Barbara Waggoman (Cathy O'Donnell) while delivering supplies to Coronado, a wilderness Southwestern town in Apache territory. It doesn't take long for Lockhart to clash with Dave Waggoman (Alex Nicol), the rash son of domineering rancher Alec (Donald Crisp) and cousin of Barbara. Despite the mounting tensions, Lockhart stays in town perhaps because he's sweet on Barbara, but so is Alec's formidable foreman, Vic (Arthur Kennedy). More importantly, Lockhart is searching for the mystery man who's been selling rifles to the Apaches. Aline MacMahon is also on hand as a tough ranchwoman.Disregarding the hopelessly hokey title song during the opening & ending credits, this is a winning mid-50's Western, the last of five Westerns Mann did with Stewart and easily the best of the latter four. The vast New Mexican landscapes in gorgeous color are magnificent. The compelling story is a little complicated, but not overly so. O'Donnell is winsome as the proverbial girl-next-story.THE MOVIE RUNS 103 minutes and was shot in Taos & Santa Fe, New Mexico. WRITERS: Philip Yordan & Frank Burt from a story by Thomas T. Flynn.GRADE: B+

Petri Pelkonen Will Lockhart- a mysterious man who delivers supplies to storekeeper Barbara Waggoman at Coronado.It's a town in Apache country.We learn that his brother has died, and he wants to revenge his death.He got killed in an Apache attack, and he wants to know who was selling rifles to them.He finds trouble with the Waggomans, not Barbara, though.The Waggomans is a ranching family.Vic Hansbro is the ranch foreman who's engaged to Barbara.Things turn out ugly pretty soon.When you put two greats together- Anthony Mann and James Stewart-you could never fail.They made many memorable westerns together, movies you can call classics today.The Man from Laramie (1955) is their fifth and last western collaboration.Jimmy gives most convincing performance as Will, as he always did.He has a very fine supporting cast as well.Arthur Kennedy plays Vic Hansbro.Donald Crisp is Alec Waggoman.Cathy O'Donnell portrays Barbara Waggoman.Alex Nicol is Dave Waggoman.Jack Elam plays Chris Boldt.In this movie there's a lot that's good.The way it depicts the relationship between Will and Barbara is something special.There's something sensitive, something beautiful.It's a rather haunting scene where Dave starts shooting Will's mules.In the Mann movies the landscape played a big part.It sure is a joy to the eye to watch the western view.

edwagreen In fact, this film heads southward after an impressive start. There are inconsistencies here such as Arthur Kennedy killing a man for doing what he does later on.Aline MacMahon attempts to portray a feisty woman, but let's face it, Aline, who attended my alma mater, Erasmus Hall High School, in Brooklyn is anything but the feisty type. You need someone of the caliber of Marjorie Main in the role.As for Donald Crisp in the role of the patriarch, he is not exactly Mr. Morgan, the prize role that got him an Oscar 14 years before in the memorable "How Green Was My Valley."William Wyler's sister-in-law, the always frail looking Kathy O'Donnell, is far too dainty in her part as the young lass who came out west with her father and instead found herself amidst quite a family. O'Donnell, who never looked better in a film, acts as if she came out of a finishing school. The part was beneath her, for she gave outstanding performances as Wilma, Harold Russell's self-sacrificing girlfriend in "The Best Years of Our Lives," and Tierza, the leprosy victim, sister of Charlton Heston, in "Ben-Hur."James Stewart in the lead of the film again comes off as the "aw-shucks" guy. Arthur Kennedy, as always, steals the film in a complex role of a dedicated foreman to Crisp resorting to violence when things don't go his way.

secondtake The Man from Laramie (1955)You have a right to expect a movie starring James Stewart, directed by Anthony Mann, and photographed by Charles Lang to be spectacular. And it is. This is one of the first full wide screen Technicolor movies, and it's one drawback might be that it is trying to apply a new format to an old and slightly tired genre. The fact it rises above its familiarity is to Stewart's credit and Mann's. Lang (who photographed an extraordinary number of great black and white films) trades stately perfect color and design for pure drama and intensity, which are very different things, but it gives a full backdrop to the high drama here.This is a beautiful movie, for sure, in its restrained way. (The fact that it's restrained when the whole world is gaping for surging new big color movies is a small miracle in itself.) Mann did a number of westerns, for which he's most known, and a few other genre pics, but first made his name as a film minor film noir director. He seems to carry over enough of the edginess and cruelty of those noirs to make his Westerns exciting rather than epic, which is a good thing. He and Stewart worked together on five westerns, and they have taken on a life of their own, and a feeling of their own that's impressive once you click into it. One of the best noir elements to the story (which was not written by Mann) is the feeling of the lone man against the world, a great theme.The key woman lead is a cliché, the widow hanging on against the odds in town. In this case she is a charming but slightly miscast Cathy O'Donnell, a favorite of mine who takes demur and innocent to the heights. You see from the outset that this widow and Stewart's good, hard working character are destined for some kind of meeting of destinies. And there are inevitable clichés, too, that you might get used to--the stoic Indians, the older woman as tough as nails (and a gem of a role), a patriarch with a thoughtful wise look that shows counteracting wisdom, and fistfights in the dust. It's all great stuff, in the Western mold. (One fight is right in the middle of a mooing herd of cattle, and it's pretty fun.) You do wonder sometime at the possibility of a super nice guy sticking it out against all these obstacles, and I mean obstacles. The domineering (and sometimes evil) family led by Donald Crisp, with the always impressive Arthur Kennedy as the chief hand, seems like more than a man could handle. But the conflict is real, and the movie makes it pertinent beyond being "just" a western. And beautifully done. Even if you don't like westerns, this will grab you anyway.