Man Without a Star (1955)

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

best movie i've ever seen.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Kirk Douglas is in his prime in this excellent, subversive epic, directed by King Vidor. Douglas plays a drifter who hooks up with a young traveler (William Campbell) and then starts work on a ranch with a new, strong-willed female boss (a marvelously foxy Jeanne Crane). What gives this movie most interest to modern eyes are some gay undertones, as well as later moments of more overtly suggestive heterosexual dialogue between the randy Douglas and his new employer - reminding this viewer a little of Bogart and Bacall's wordplay in The Big Sleep. A young Richard Boone plays a more conventional heavy brought in to supervise the impending rage war, but even his menacing presence is largely sidelined by the real attentions of the film laying elsewhere. While Douglas' character is outwardly defined by his hatred of any barbed wire enclosing the open range (previous experience of which he has etched across his torso, rather like marks of passion), it is clear that Man Without a Star is more about freedom of the libido to range as it will, constrained only by the various explicit and implicit passions between the principal characters. Claire Trevor, playing Douglas' old flame, is part of a strong support cast which also includes Jay C Flippen. Douglas gets to sing and is a dynamo on screen. Script co-written by Borden Chase.

Range wars- disputes over grazing or water rights which frequently escalated into violence- were a popular subject for Westerns; well-known examples include George Stevens' "Shane", William Wyler's "The Big Country", Michael Cimino's "Heaven's Gate" and, more recently, Kevin Costner's "Open Range". "Man Without a Star" is another on the same theme. Like Costner's film it deals with the conflict between supporters of the "Law of the Open Range", meaning free access to water and grass for everyone, and the "barbed wire men" who used the new form of enclosure to fence off their land and to deny access to the free-range cattlemen.As the title song makes clear, a "man without a star" is one without a definite aim in life. The title character is Dempsey Rae, a wandering cowboy and passionate believer in the "Law of the Open Range". Dempsey loathes barbed wire, partly because of the injuries it can inflict on cattle, horses and people, partly because it can lead to conflict and partly because he sees the unfenced range as a symbol of the freedom of the Old West. He has left his native Texas because too much of the land there has been fenced off and moved further north and west in search of the still-open spaces.Together with a naive greenhorn named Jeff Jimson, Dempsey finds employment working for a ranch owner named Reed Bowman. Despite the masculine-sounding name, Reed turns out to be a beautiful young woman, who shares Dempsey's opinions about barbed wire and the open range. Now at this point you are probably thinking you know how the movie is going to end. Dempsey and Reed will not only team up to see off the villainous "barbed wire men" but will also fall in love and all will end happily in a peal of wedding bells.Only things don't quite work out as one might expect. The plot line of "Man without a Star" has some similarities with that of "The Big Country" from three years later. In both films the main character (Kirk Douglas here, Gregory Peck in the other film) becomes drawn into a range war between two groups of ranchers. In both films the moral boundaries initially seem clear-cut, but as matters progress those boundaries become blurred, it becomes more and more difficult to decide who are the heroes and who the villains, and the hero must decide where his loyalties lie.Here it is Reed who, in strict legal terms, has right on her side. The land across which her cattle roam is Government property, and therefore open range which no individual has the right to fence off. In moral terms, things are rather different. Reed is ruthlessly exploiting the open range system by bringing onto the land huge numbers of cattle, more than it can support, with a view to making a quick profit. Her neighbours are therefore compelled to fence off areas of land, even though this is strictly illegal, in order to prevent the grazing from becoming exhausted and to protect their own long-term interests. For all his hatred of wire, Dempsey reluctantly finds himself forced to side with these neighbours, especially when Reed's unscrupulous foreman Steve Miles starts using violence to enforce her claims. (Interestingly, Major Terrill, the equivalent character to Reed in "The Big Country", also employs a foreman named Steve. Was that coincidence or a deliberate reference to the earlier film?) This is not one of Douglas's great films, certainly not when compared with something like "Champion", or "Lust for Life", "Spartacus" or "Paths of Glory". I was, however, intrigued by the comments of the reviewer who stated that Douglas could "go from zero to 120 in intensity", as this seems to sum up perfectly his performance as Dempsey, the nonchalant, happy-go-lucky wanderer who is capable of passionate intensity where matters of honour or principle are at stake. Jeanne Crain is also good as Reed, looking far more attractive here as a redhead than she was as a brunette in another film from the same year, "Gentlemen Prefer Brunettes". Claire Trevor gets to play yet another "tart with a heart", a role of the sort in which she seemed to specialise after "Stagecoach".I would not rate "Man without a Star" quite as highly as "The Big Country", a film with a more epic feel, a greater depth of characterisation, some stunning photography and what is probably Peck's greatest performance apart from "To Kill a Mockingbird". It is, however, a very watchable Western and, like many of the best Westerns, an interesting exploration of moral issues. 7/10

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.

A stunning, one-of-a-kind allegorical Western, with Kirk Douglas sensational as the tortured ranch hand who sees the fencing off of the West as the death knell of his freedom. He falls in with naive, impressionable William Campbell – a younger brother substitute – and the pair get work on the Triangle ranch. When wealthy scruple-vacuum Jeanne Crain turns up to make a quick buck off the land, Douglas splits, setting in chain a series of events that lead to murder and the symbolic destruction of Campbell's innocence. Then, with barbed-wire spreading like a rash across the green lands, Douglas wakes from a two-week drunk at Claire Trevor's bar to strap on his six-shooter... Nostalgic, thoughtful, intelligent and funny: a prototype 'Monte Walsh', and a remarkable film. It's shot like a dream too, by the ever interesting Vidor. Incidentally, the star that Douglas is without is not a Sheriff's star, but a star in the heavens he can follow.(3.5 out of 4)