Pursued

Years before taking the title role in Night of the Hunter, Robert Mitchum played the hunted in this movie that's more film noir than Western. While there's nothing truly spectacular about it, it's quite excellent in every regard and thoroughly watchable. A tight script (some of Mitchum's voiceover monologue is a bit overcooked, but no more so than your average noir), good performances, stark cinematography, a fair-to-good Max Steiner score, dark psychology and a lot of tense moments.

I can't get over the (lack of) Robert Mitchum's accent.

The idea of a noir-western is intriguing, and thanks to cinematographer Howe, they certainly got the look right. Sadly, the feel is off and it's largely due to director Walsh, a two-fisted oldschool director who never quite grasped the intricacies of noir. There are a number of directors who've successfully tackled both genres and could have pulled it off ( Hawks, Lang, Tourneur and Fuller spring to mind), so what we have here is a bit of a missed opportunity.

While Pursued is a good effort to produce one of the first psychologically based film noir westerns, it seriously lacks an kind of real propulsion until very late on in the film. Coupled with a sometimes strange and surreal plotline, some elements of the excellently produced action scenes are left unsupported. In other aspects it does work very well indeed, but the taints are difficult to totally ignore. However the general quality of the Pursued's production does still stand out overall.

This leisurely paced dud sounds as an interesting genrebender, but it's mostly a drama, and pretty lousy one. The development of the Wright's character towards the end is particularly bad.

A dark melodrama set out in the old west. Raoul Walsh certainly captured the action scenes and the tensions between Robert Mitchum & Teresa Wright. It's a pretty strong composition. Does move a little slow at times, but it does well to keep its mood under control.

86.50

(Spoilers) Thor (the girl) says to Jeb at the beginning, "there's something that keeps us apart." Something? Because she couldn't figure it out, Jeb recounts the last few months where they went quite literally insane and she plotted to murder him because he killed her brother. But luckily in the end everyone suddenly snaps out of insanity and walks away reconciled. I often couldn't figure out what I was watching. The film had good build-up and good cinematography, though.

Robert Mitchum is such a goddamn movie star, just commands the screen every second he's on. The movie itself has its moments but overall isn't anything special despite trying to blend western with noir which is interesting in theory but not really executed that well. Oh and Teresa Wright is sexy as hell

#770

Great premise, slightly less great, but still really good, execution. The flashback framing isn't the best but with great performances and a really enjoyable story it's not too big a fault.

772

Hollywood's Freudian fad of the Forties invades the Western. Interesting but inevitably dated, and a bit outside Walsh's range as a director.

711

The way the background story is told is a little unlogical and the rest of the movie has some flaws too, but overall it's an interesting experience.

# 862

A "noir Western". Not bad but just a curio