Together Anthony Mann and James Stewart made some of the best westerns of the 1950's of which also included classics like "Winchester '73" (1950) and "The Naked Spur" (1953) and his winning streak continued with this movie when it was released in 1958 and is right up there as one of the best ever made. The movie stars Gary Cooper as Link Jones a reformed outlaw who at the beginning of the movie is going to take a train to Fort Worth, Texas in order to hire a schoolteacher. While on the train he meets a very talkative man named Sam Beasley (Arthur O'Connell) and a young woman who happens to be a singer named Billie Ellis (Julie London), meanwhile the train abruptly stops and the male passengers on the train are asked to help loading up logs onto the train so that the train can be fueled for the rest of the way there which is apparently the right time for a train robbery to take place, the robbery fails and Jones, Beasley and Ellis are left behind and have to find shelter for the night. For shelter they arrive at an old wooden house with a barn where Link meets his long lost cousins Coaley (Jack Lord), Claude (John Dehner), Trout (Royal Dano), Ponch (Robert Wilke) as well as his uncle Dock (Lee J. Cobb) who make things bad from the start for them which lead to fights and shootouts all of which will not be spoiled. Mann was one of the true craftsmen of the western genre along with John Ford and Howard Hawks and he directs this movie with both strength and focus which is what made his westerns great in the first place. Cooper gives one of the finest performances as a man who wants to do the right thing, be left alone, go about his business and not hurt anyone. The western genre was also no new territory for Cooper who starred in classics like his second Oscar winning turn in "High Noon" (1952), aas well as co-starring with Burt Lancaster in "Vera Cruz" (1954). The movie is an example of western filmmaking at its finest with majestic color cinematography and well choreographed action sequences. It isn't a classic western for no reason and is one of the finest films of the 50's
Review of Man of the West
