Thursday, February 19, 2009

Jubal

(1956, USA, 100m)
d Delmer Daves p William Fadiman sc Russel S. Hughes, Delmer Davies ph Charles Lawton Jr ed Al Clark ad Carl Anderson m David Raksin cast Glenn Ford, Ernest Borgnine, Rod Steiger, Valerie French, Felicia Farr, Basil Ruysdael, Noah Beery Jr, Charles Bronson, Jack Elam

Just like The Postman Always Rings Twice, Ford’s “Jube” Troop emerges from the dust to stop awhile as hired hand for jolly rancher Borgnine and his young and dissatisfied wife, with fairly predictable results. The ever-worthy Daves aims for voguish psychological realism with a “modern” treatment of adultery and clear relevance to the HUAC hearings in the theme of an innocent man hounded by superior forces. Characterisation tends to the schematic, and although Ford works hard, even pulling off a passionless liaison with drippy Mennonite Farr despite an obvious disinterest in all matters (hetero)sexual, his poker face hides hides a curiously empty centre to the film. Bronson and French are decent in support, but Steiger’s hyper-neurotic Iago-figure threatens to overbalance everything; meanwhile, the hothouse plot drives matters relentlessly forward and if emotional involvement is kept largely at arm’s length, the literate script sustains interest, and the cinemascope photography of Grand Teton National Park is gorgeous.

© Time Out Film Guide

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