Man Without a Star (1955)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

King Vidor

Writers:

Dee Linford (novel)
Borden Chase (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

10 April 1955 (Japan)

Genre:

Western

Tagline:

a love-bargain is like barbed-wire...fight it and you'll get hurt!

Plot:

Dempsey Rae, a cowboy with no clear aim in life, winds up working on a spread with a hard lady owner just arrived from the East...

Plot Keywords:

Barbed Wire | Drifter | Ranch | Friendship | Homestead

Cast

Kirk Douglas	...	Dempsey Rae
Jeanne Crain	...	Reed Bowman
Claire Trevor	...	Idonee
William Campbell	...	Jeff Jimson ('Texas')
Richard Boone	...	Steve Miles
Jay C. Flippen	...	Strap Davis
Myrna Hansen	...	Tess Cassidy
Mara Corday	...	Moccasin Mary
Eddy Waller	...	Tom Cassidy (as Eddy C. Waller)
Sheb Wooley	...	Latigo
George Wallace	...	Tom Carter
Frank Chase	...	Little Waco
Paul Birch	...	Mark Toliver
Roy Barcroft	...	Sheriff Olson
William 'Bill' Phillips	...	Cookie (as Wm. 'Bill' Phillips)

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Norway:16 (1955) | West Germany:16 (nf) | Finland:(Banned) (1955-1967) | Finland:K-16 (1967) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Conejo Valley, Thousand Oaks, California, USA

Company:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

Trivia:

One of the first films that Kirk Douglas made through his production company. The film went on to become a box office hit.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: When Dempsey Rae and Jeff Jimson are rousted off the train near the beginning of the movie, they are standing in front of a boxcar that has a registration mark painted on the side indicating it was built in December 1923. However, the movie is set in the old West of the late 19th century.

Quotes:

Jeff Jimson: [after prodding by Dempsey in front of the lady owner, Jeff has shown he can't shoot] You didn't have to make a fool out of me in front of her.
Dempsey Rae: I didn't make a fool out of you, kid. You have to do that yourself.

Movie Connections:

Featured in ... A Father... A Son... Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2005) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Man Without A Star

A very good western that's under-rated

This is probably my favorite Kirk Douglas western. Although it has plenty of action this is not just another action western. Rather it deals with the implacable transition of the west from open range available to all to individually-controlled patches of range that are fenced off with barbed wire. Dempsey Rae (Douglas' character) loves open range and keeps drifting north to avoid the barbed wire which destroys it. Finally, however, he realizes that the small ranchers must fence off the range to protect themselves from the massive herds of a greedy rancher and her ruthless foreman and helps string and protect the wire that he hates so thoroughly. I love this under-rated western.