Run for Cover
The Lusty Men
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Run for Cover
Directed by Nicholas Ray.
With James Cagney, Viveca Lindfors, John Derek.
US, 1955, 35mm, color, 93 min.
Print source: HFA
Two drifters, one a gunslinger with a checkered reputation (Cagney), the other a younger man with a mysterious past (Derek), meet while riding into a Western town. When the townspeople mistake them for train robbers, the younger man is seriously wounded, and develops a bitter resentment toward the community. When the town's residents realize their mistake, the two men are appointed sheriff and deputy, but the new sheriff finds his authority undermined when he puts his faith in the young man he barely knows. Ray was no stranger to psychodrama, and in this western, produced in the period between more notable works such as Johnny Guitar and Rebel Without a Cause, he focuses on the Freudian anxiety elicited from the unorthodox father-son relationship which emerges between Cagney and Derek.
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The Lusty Men
Directed by Nicholas Ray.
With Susan Hayward, Robert Mitchum, Arthur Kennedy.
US, 1952, 35mm, black & white, 113 min.
Print source: HFA
In one of his great screen performances, Robert Mitchum stars as a former rodeo rider who agrees to serve as mentor to a rising star of the circuit (Kennedy). As the upstart becomes a success he grows to resent his teacher, and eventually challenges him in the rodeo ring. Mitchum's stoic style proved to be a winning complement to Ray's complex character design. Although better known for his Technicolor melodramas, Ray uses documentary footage of actual rodeos to give the film a mark of authenticity.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
Ballad of a Soldier / The Forty-First
Nightfall / Great Day in the Morning
Verboten! / Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street
I'll Never Forget What's 'is Name / The Jokers
Hearts of the World / True Heart Susie
Anna Christie / The Long Voyage Home
Suddenly Last Summer / The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
Quiet Days in Clichy / Henry and June
The Freshman / The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
The Sheep Has Five Legs / The Law is the Law
Hobson's Choice / Sidewalks of London
I Know Where I'm Going / Outcast of the Islands
An Inspector Calls / The Belles of St. Trinian's
Mother Joan of the Angels / Thérèse
Dawn of the Dead / Strange Behavior
