"The Furies" is a really well told melodrama/ thriller with a satisfying conclusion ... superbly acted. An award worthy underrated gem and one of my all-time favorite films.
Gorgeous sets, locations, costumes, cinematography hold up a complex script, that is well served by excellent casting, performances and directing. This is a really good MOVIE that deserves much more attention.
I was charmed the most by the "Kathy / Heathcliff" relationship between the Stanwyk / Roland characters that frames the entire film. The only man she truly loves is a Mexican "squatter" (rebel) because he challenges her and respects her strength and iron will. He's strong, daring, and beautiful. She's white, rich and powerful and, so, their attraction though deep is, yet, tragically platonic ... star crossed and doomed by the social mores of 1950. What a force of nature they would have been if they could've been together!!! They'd of given ole TC a run for his money.
Kudos to Casting because Gilbert Roland is actually Mexican playing a unusually sympathetic Mexican character ( see the typical treatment in Paul Newman in "Hombre")
Roland's Juan Herrera character deserves attention for the shockingly daring treatment he receives: he's depicted as a powerful, brave, complex MAN of strength in an era when Hollywood typically threw up Mexicans as simpering, stupid and / or simplistic ( re: Alfonso Bedoya's "Ramon" in "The Big Country") or most commonly as immoral, overly sexual or just plain evil (see: most all the Mexicans in "The Professionals", "Magnificent Seven", or any of the other millions of American westerns. Just as both sides of this coin are depicted in the household staff of the patron of the Furies.) Herrera is definitely not your typical Hollywood Mexican! Bravo Juanito!
Worth a look or two.
Gorgeous sets, locations, costumes, cinematography hold up a complex script, that is well served by excellent casting, performances and directing. This is a really good MOVIE that deserves much more attention.
I was charmed the most by the "Kathy / Heathcliff" relationship between the Stanwyk / Roland characters that frames the entire film. The only man she truly loves is a Mexican "squatter" (rebel) because he challenges her and respects her strength and iron will. He's strong, daring, and beautiful. She's white, rich and powerful and, so, their attraction though deep is, yet, tragically platonic ... star crossed and doomed by the social mores of 1950. What a force of nature they would have been if they could've been together!!! They'd of given ole TC a run for his money.
Kudos to Casting because Gilbert Roland is actually Mexican playing a unusually sympathetic Mexican character ( see the typical treatment in Paul Newman in "Hombre")
Roland's Juan Herrera character deserves attention for the shockingly daring treatment he receives: he's depicted as a powerful, brave, complex MAN of strength in an era when Hollywood typically threw up Mexicans as simpering, stupid and / or simplistic ( re: Alfonso Bedoya's "Ramon" in "The Big Country") or most commonly as immoral, overly sexual or just plain evil (see: most all the Mexicans in "The Professionals", "Magnificent Seven", or any of the other millions of American westerns. Just as both sides of this coin are depicted in the household staff of the patron of the Furies.) Herrera is definitely not your typical Hollywood Mexican! Bravo Juanito!
Worth a look or two.