Pursued (1947)

A boy haunted by nightmares about the night his entire family was murdered is brought up by a neighboring family in the 1880s. He falls for his lovely adoptive sister but his nasty adoptive brother and mysterious uncle want him dead.

Director:

Raoul Walsh

Writer:

Niven Busch (screenplay)

Stars:

Teresa Wright, Robert Mitchum, Judith Anderson

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Teresa Wright	...	Thor Callum
Robert Mitchum	...	Jeb Rand
Judith Anderson	...	Mrs. Callum
Dean Jagger	...	Grant Callum
Alan Hale	...	Jake Dingle
John Rodney	...	Adam Callum
Harry Carey Jr.	...	Prentice
Clifton Young	...	The Sergeant
Ernest Severn	...	Jeb, age 11
Charles Bates	...	Adam, age 11
Peggy Miller	...	Thor, age 10
Norman Jolley	...	A Callum
Lane Chandler	...	A Callum
Elmer Ellingwood	...	A Callum
Jack Montgomery	...	A Callum

Storyline

After his family is murdered in the 1880s, orphan Jeb Rand is raised by the Callum family on their nearby horse ranch. He remains haunted by this childhood trauma in a recurring nightmare of flashing spurs and confinement inside a trap door as his family is slaughtered. Widow Callum does her best to make Jeb feel loved as he is growing up, but the young man stubbornly maintains a sense of his own identity. While he has great affection for his foster-sister Thor, his relationship with her brother Adam is tenuous at best, especially when Jeb blames him for shooting a colt that he was riding. Although Mrs. Callum blames the incident on deer hunters, she is aware that the it was actually the attempted murder of the youngster by her brother-in-law Grant, a shadowy figure who, for vague reasons, is determined to harm Jeb. Jeb loses a coin flip with Adam, and becomes the designated family volunteer to fight in the Spanish-American War. Jeb returns a hero, but does not find happiness. ...

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Plot Keywords:

evil uncle | adoptive family | adopted son | stepbrother stepsister relationship | stepbrother stepbrother relationship | 

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Taglines:

Robert Mitchum fights for the love of three people who want to see him dead...his family.

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Romance | Thriller | War | Western

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1947 (Germany)

Also Known As:

La vallée de la peur

Filming Locations:

Gallup, New Mexico, USA

Box Office

Budget:

£610,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

United States Pictures, Warner Bros.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film Jim Morrison (lead singer of The Doors) watched on the night he died (July 3, 1971).

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Goofs

Although some of the outdoor vistas are breathtaking, the standard establishing shot of the ranch is shot indoors with a quite obvious painted canvas backdrop.

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Quotes

Mrs. Callum: [to Jeb] A person's gotta find his own answers. We're alone... each of us. Each in a different way.

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Connections

Featured in Grass (1999)

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Soundtracks

Streets of Laredo
(uncredited)
Traditional ballad
Sung by Robert Mitchum

User Reviews

Brilliant story, good acting, great scenery, innovative camera-work - see it!

Truly a "film noir" - there are essentially no humorous scenes in this movie with the possible exception of the jury deliberation scene. The main story line revolves around repressed memories that gradually emerge, everything in this movie is dark from the story to the camera work... a classic.