Horizons West (1952)Two brothers end up on opposite sides of the law in post-Civil War Texas. Director:Budd BoetticherWriter:Louis Stevens (story) |
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Horizons West (1952)Two brothers end up on opposite sides of the law in post-Civil War Texas. Director:Budd BoetticherWriter:Louis Stevens (story) |
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Robert Ryan | ... | ||
| Julie Adams | ... |
Lorna Hardin
(as Julia Adams)
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| Rock Hudson | ... |
Neil Hammond
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Judith Braun | ... |
Sally Eaton
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| John McIntire | ... |
Ira Hammond
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| Raymond Burr | ... |
Cord Hardin
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| James Arness | ... | ||
| Dennis Weaver | ... |
Dandy Taylor
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| Frances Bavier | ... |
Martha Hammond
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Tom Powers | ... |
Frank Tarleton
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John Hubbard | ... |
Sam Hunter
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Rodolfo Acosta | ... |
General José Escobar Lopez
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| Douglas Fowley | ... |
Ed Tompkins
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Walter Reed | ... |
Layton
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Raymond Greenleaf | ... |
Eli Dodson
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Home from the Civil War, young Neal Hammond is happy to return to Texas ranching, but brother Dan wants more. His attempt to enter business is thwarted when carpetbagger Cord Hardin beats and humiliates him in a poker game. So Dan forms a rustling gang and parlays his ill-gotten gains into a land empire. But among the growing opposition to his gang is the new Marshal of Austin...brother Neal. Written by Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>
How many westerns (and others) feature two brothers ,the good and the bad,Abel and Cain?It was already in Genesis after all.It's more Ryan too old to be Hudson's brother than the other way about;sixteen years between the two leads is much and it shows.But Robert Ryan was as excellent as ever in his part of an ex-confederate soldier who does not want to work on a ranch and dreams of building an empire ,abetted by a femme fatale -a rare character in westerns.But as Springsteen sings,a king ain't satisfied till he owns everything and as Shakespeare wrote,(man)gains the world and loses his soul.On the contrary ,brother Hudson is a loyal good son,probably remembering the prodigal son parable ;Hudson would play a similar part in Sirk's modern western (the sport car replacing the horse)"written on the wind" (1956):some kind of adoptive child opposite a wealthy bad son (Robert Stack);he was also the good guy in "Giant" in which Dean became a racist tycoon.
"Horizons west" is an entertaining western,its last pictures summing up its moral in admirably succinct style.