The Furies (1950)

Boring

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

No need to recap the sprawling, epic-sized plot. As another reviewer points out, it's like the screenplay is trying to shoehorn the novel's 1000-pages onto the screen. Instead, it's fascinating to watch the different acting styles compete with one another in this operatic western. The thespic turns run the gamut from cold under-playing by Corey to white-hot bravura from Huston to Stanwyck calibrating nicely somewhere in between. The movie's real showdown is between Anderson and Stanwyck, featuring two of the screen's premier tough- cookie women. It's a doozy. Then add the Medusa-like Blanche Yurka (Mother Herrera), and I was ready to crawl under the couch.Anyhow, looks like Paramount was going all out in the production. So why b&w instead of the more logical Technicolor. My guess is the producers were caught up in the film-noir fashion of the time since the results suggest shadowy effects. Then too, none of the major characters, except maybe Herrera (Roland), is morally uncompromised, a key feature of noir. That may also account for Anthony Mann as director since he had cut his teeth on a succession of outstanding crime noirs.Be that as it may, it's the actors that hold this narrative sprawl together; otherwise, it's easy to get lost in the many financial manueverings unusual for a western. I expect director Mann was just trying to hold things together since the overall results bear little of his usual stamp. Because of TV's popular pull, this sort of epic format would soon turn to Technicolor with productions like The Far Horizons (1955) and The Big Country (1958). All in all, the Furies remains an oddball obscurity, maybe too bleak and crowded for its own good, but a good vehicle for Huston to go out on.

This disappointing movie is a film noir version of "Duel in the Sun". It's much more intelligent and better acted than "Duel", but just like "Duel", it stretches the limits of the Western genre by introducing too much romance and soap opera. I only gave this 4 out of 10 stars in IMDb. It only accumulated 8 points in my ranking system, well below average score of 12. Despite its poor overall ranking, there were quite a few things to like about the movie: Barbara Stanwyck may have played a lot of strong women in her career, but her character is quite unusual for a Western. She does a great job, but unfortunately her role is too hammy. There's a very unusual plot element revolving around the issuance of a private currency and bank loans. The economics in the movie are sophisticated and realistic. Reminded me a lot of the accuracy of 1980's "Trading Places". Barbara Stanwyck has a great line late in the movie, when a town dance hall girl introduces herself, saying, "Hi, My name's Dallas Hart, I'm new here". Stanwyck looks her up and down and says, "Honey, you wouldn't be new anywhere." Wouldn't be surprised if that wasn't an old Mae West line. Nice authentic Arizona locations. Pretty realistic interiors. i.e. when the scene shifts to a soundstage, the rooms feel small and have low ceilings. Ford was good at this also. On the negative side: As I mentioned, it's a pot boiling "Peyton Place with spurs" more than a real Western. This is a common problem in "Land Baron" dramas like "The Big Country". Wendell Corey is very poorly cast as the central romantic lead. This movie desperately needed some charisma in this role. It was obvious they were trying to fit a 1,000 page novel into a two hour movie, which is very hard to do. In this way, it resembles Mann's "Cimarron", which he made a complete mess of ten years later. This movie is much better crafted than "Cimarron", but the extensive summarizing of characters and time passage is obvious. They handle it pretty well overall, but can't keep up. For example, Stanwyck's brother simply disappears from the movie half way through with no explanation. I won't give it away, but expect more of Anthony Mann's obligatory gore and sadism. I could do without all the shootings through the hand, draggings through the fire, spurs in the neck etc.

"Do you mind if I take the reins? I like to know where I'm going." Vance Jeffords, played by Barbara Stanwyck, not only likes to take the reins, she's also capable of turning most men into counter tenors just by staring at them. And don't mention sewing shears...those are reserved for the eyes of other women. The Furies is a well-crafted, enjoyably mean-spirited western with an unpleasantly conventional moral ending. What makes it memorable is the first two-thirds, which features an arrogant, man-eating performance by Stanwyck and an equally arrogant, blasting performance by Walter Huston as Vance's father, old T. C. Jeffords. Close behind is the butter-melting (and ultimately touching) performance of Judith Anderson as Flo Burnett, a woman as determined to protect her interests as Vance is. Old T. C. owns The Furies, a vast spread in New Mexico he put together by sweat, cheating, hard work and ruthlessness. His son is a nonentity we quickly forget. His daughter, Vance, loves and wants The Furies as much as she loves...and apparently wants...her old man. There is a not-so-subtle undercurrent of mutual need between the two that adds a nice touch of interest to their full-out greetings and good-byes to each other. "I like being T. C.'s daughter," Vance says, and even when they're at each other's throats we know the attraction is mutual. But Vance Jeffords is not about to come in second to anyone, not to a gambler who she may or may not love, not to a childhood friend she shares a gnaw of bread with whenever they meet. Not to her brother. And not to her father when it looks as if his attention, and the control of The Furies, may be transferred to the gracious widow, Flo Burnett. How this all plays out has, for some critics, overtones of King Lear. Not quite, in my view. The movie is a tangy, well-salted, par-boiled western with great performances by Stanwyck, Huston and Anderson. It may be over-wrought melodrama, but it's entertaining as all get out. That's probably what those flea-scratching groundlings standing in the Globe Theater really thought of King Lear. It also is beautifully framed and photographed, and moves along as quickly as the men and horses Vance applies the whip to. There's a poignant hanging photographed against the dawn sky and a moment of startling violence. If you're interested in finance, there are several lessons about the dangers of issuing your own IOUs as currency (which T. C. has a habit of doing when cash runs short) and the technique of financial leverage (which Vance masters with a cool smile.) Unfortunately, The Furies also has a conventional ending, which is a disappointing development for an unconventional western. The Furies often is over-wrought, but that's what makes grand melodrama grand. The time flies by while these self-centered people have dangerous fun tearing at each other.

This one just keeps pulsating and bringing on the goods. Another of author Niven Busch's psychological westerns (preceded by "Duel in the Sun" and "Pursued"), this one has a dynamic father/daughter duo, a pretty and meek son (the late John Bromfield), and a smooth gambler seeking revenge for the death of his father. In fact, most of the characters are seeking revenge at one point or another---though the "Furies" of the title is the name of the contested ranch, in fact it could just as well refer to the motivations behind many of the characters' actions. Knockout score and photography and acting. Astounding that this one is not commercially available.