The Furies - Criterion Collection

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The Furies, directed by Anthony Mann and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Wakter Huston, is one of the best films I have seen for a while. It is about a greedy widower and his daughter who live on a ranch called "The Furies" in New Mexico in the 19th century. It includes some fine special features including the complete novel the film is based on. The daughter is in love with a squatter on the ranch and when the father kills him, she exacts revenge. This is an excellent film and I highly recommend it. Also included is a theatrical trailer, audio commentary by historian Jim Kitses, a 1967 interview with Anthony Mann, a 1931 interview with Walter Huston, a new interview with Anthony Mann's daughter, Nina Mann, and a slide show of behind the scenes photos. This film is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film. I really liked the film and thought it was very well made.

C. The title of the film refers on one level to the ranch that Huston's character owns, but also the Greek myths concerning the three goddesses of vengeance. Much of my enjoyment of her in other films comes from the fact that she is by any standard a strong female at a time when women weren't always allowed to be so. She is, however, even in this film remarkable. The movie is most famous for being the great Walter Huston's final film. And this despite being in real life a heavy smoker.

As I stated at the beginning of my review, Mann, Stanwyck, and Huston all did much better work than this. Over the next decade he would establish himself, along with John Ford, as the premiere maker of classic Westerns, directing such films as BEND IN THE RIVER, THE NAKED SPUR, THE FAR COUNTRY, THE MAN FROM LARAMIE, and THE TIN STAR, most of these starring his WINCHESTER 73 star Jimmy Stewart. Going into the film I assumed that three women would play some role in wrecking vengeance on T. All in all, I was not impressed with this film. THE FURIES fall far below any of those movies, or even lesser Westerns like MAN OF THE WEST.

Judith Anderson's Flo was the second. C. Playing a character much younger than Stanwyck was at the time (she was 42 at the time of filming), her girlish build did not at all belie her age. I'll probably never rewatch this movie though I've already seen films like Mann's THE NAKED SPUR and THE MAN FROM LARAMIE, Stanwyck's DOUBLE INDEMNITY and THE LADY EVE, and Huston's DODSWORTH and THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE multiple times. In this one, however, she not only has a bizarre attraction for a physically unattractive and personally unappealing gambler, she puts up with being slapped around and otherwise abused. Stanwyck's Vance Jeffords was one obvious candidate.

This is also not one of director Anthony Mann's best films. Jeffords, avenges the death of her son as the third fury. I'm a huge fan of Barbara Stanwyck. And near the end of the film there is a steer-wrestling scene on which he appears to have done much of the stunt work, an astonishing feat for a man of 65. Part of that, however, is a reflection on just how many superb performances she gave over the years. They were especially concerned with avenging injustice.

1950 saw the release of the first of his significant Westerns, WINCHESTER 73. Still, this is very far from being one of her best films or one of her more memorable performances. He in fact died very shortly after finishing work on the film and before its release. She is, in fact, my favorite actor, but I was very uncomfortable watching her in this one. Jeffords.

Blanche Yurka, as the mother of Juan Herrera, hung by T. Though not among his best films, it does feature many moments where he is able to chew up one scene after another. This is an entertaining film and definitely contains some find elements, but it is far from the best work of any of the major participants and in the end isn't completely satisfying. Still, the movie is interesting as an early effort by one of the masters of the Western genre.

How this all plays out has, for some critics, overtones of King Lear. There's a poignant hanging photographed against the dawn sky and a moment of startling violence. Not quite, in my view. Old T. It may be over-wrought melodrama, but it's entertaining as all get out.

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. 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. Not to her brother. His son is a nonentity we quickly forget. That's probably what those flea-scratching groundlings standing in the Globe Theater really thought of King Lear.

If you're interested in finance, there are several lessons about the dangers of issuing your own IOUs as currency (which T. has a habit of doing when cash runs short) and the technique of financial leverage (which Vance masters with a cool smile). owns The Furies, a vast spread in New Mexico he put together by sweat, cheating, hard work and ruthlessness. 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. C.

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. C.'s daughter," Vance says, and even when they're at each other's throats we know the attraction is mutual. Unfortunately, The Furies also has a conventional ending, which is a disappointing development for an unconventional western. C.

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. "I like being T. The movie is a tangy, well-salted, par-boiled western with great performances by Stanwyck, Huston and Anderson. 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. His daughter, Vance, loves and wants The Furies as much as she loves.and apparently wants.her old man.

And don't mention sewing shears.those are reserved for the eyes of other women. Jeffords. It also is beautifully framed and photographed, and moves along as quickly as the men and horses Vance applies the whip to. C. The Furies is a well-crafted, enjoyably mean-spirited western with an unpleasantly conventional moral ending.

"Do you mind if I take the reins. 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.

Finally, in a nice touch, Niven Busch's source novel is included which is a wonderful extra the Criterion Collection has done in the past (i.e. He talks about how the film evokes a blend of gothic romance, film noir and the western. This is a solid, informative track. He talks about his beginnings in the theatre and how he broke into the film business. "Nina Mann Interview" features the actress and daughter of Anthony Mann as she talks about her father and his films, in particular, The Furies. There is an audio commentary by film historian Jim Kitses. The Man Who Fell to Earth - Criterion Collection) and hopefully one that they will continue in the future.

There is a Stills Gallery with a nice collection of behind-the-scenes photographs of the cast and crew at work. Also included is a theatrical trailer. "Intimate Interviews: Walter Huston" is a rare interview with the veteran actor who comes across as a larger than life figure as was his reputation. "Action Speaks Louder Than Words" is an excerpt from a 1967 interview with Mann for British television.

Kitses expertly analyzes the director's style and how it informs the characters and their motivations. He makes a convincing case for Anthony Mann as an auteur and how his thematic preoccupations elevate this film above genre conventions.

The last film was an ambitious big budget mix of western and women's melodrama with a fascinating dash of psychological subtext. While The Furies has all the iconography of a western, it more resembles a psychological drama and as such, it is quite an achievement that Mann was able to make it within the Hollywood studio system.

It is a playful yet odd interview as he gives little away. She points out that he refused to have stereotypical heroes and villains in his films and this was readily evident in this film.

At its heart is a startlingly complex performance from Barbara Stanwyck. Director Anthony Mann made the important transition from film noir B movies to westerns in 1950 with three films: Winchester '73, Devil's Doorway, and The Furies.

Mann also talks about some of the filmmakers that influenced him in this excellent interview.

Jeffords. Stanwyck's perhaps a bit long in the tooth for the story's Electra figure, but her performance is full-blooded and richly enjoyable. She's a fine match for Walter Huston's inspired scenery chewing as patriarch T.C. Grab this one.

Throw in Mann's usual great eye for spatial relationships (the compositions on display here could tell the picture's story without words), crisp dialogue in Charles Schnee's sharp screenplay, fine supporting performances from Judith Anderson, Thomas Gomez, and Blanche Yurka (who seems to be sporting Katina Paxinou's old hair), and you've got a classic film ripe for rediscovery. father Huston have enough erotic subtext for ten films. Wendell Corey, the lacklustre romantic lead, was in the middle of proving to producer Hal Wallis why he'd never be a major star; he's solid and intelligent, but his meant-to-sizzle pairing with Stanwyck suggests a Greenwich accountant trying to explain a particularly thorny tax problem to an uncomprehending client. Barbara's scenes with childhood pal Gilbert Roland and (yes).

Like Busch's other Freud-on-the-range epic, DUEL IN THE SUN, THE FURIES hardly lacks traditional action set pieces, but places its emphasis on the tortured pscyhes and twisted relationships of its main characters. Anthony Mann's marvelous noir Western gets the usual deluxe Criterion treatment here, with a flawless transfer, excellent commentary from Mann scholar Jim Kitses, and the icing on this package's cake, a reprint of the hard-to-find Niven Busch novel that serves as the film's basis. Not to worry, though.