La marca de las furias

Barbara Stanwyck and Walter Huston are reasons enough to see any film they're in and both were nearly always good and more. Have also liked a lot of Judith Anderson's work since her unforgettable Mrs Danvers in 'Rebecca', and Beulah Bondi and Albert Dekker were always dependable. Have also loved a good deal of Anthony Mann's other work, including some of the best Westerns around, and Franz Waxman was one of the best film composers at the time in my view.

'The Furies' does fall slightly short of being the brilliant film that it could easily have been, but goodness wasn't it close to being. That is of course my feelings from my own viewing of it not too long ago, but will never hold anything against anybody that didn't care for it a great deal. My reason for saying that it was this close to being a great film is that 'The Furies' has so many strengths and those strengths were more than well done, they were brilliantly done.

It is hard knowing where to start with the praise, but lets start with the performances which were, with only one major exception, great. Stanwyck is a tremendously powerful presence, bringing her usual steel and vulnerability while Huston in sadly his last film is mesmerising. His best moments are intensely moving at times and have even more so a lot of menacing fire, the lack of any Oscar nomination or any award attention for his performance here is in my view criminal. Anderson proves herself to be a scene stealer and the tension between her and Stanwyck is one of the best executed and most interesting character/acting relationships in 'The Furies', not to mention her great last line. Bondi and Dekker are good, even though their roles are somewhat small and Gilbert Roland is appealing.

Most of the character/acting relationships are handled very well. Liked the tension between Stanwyck and Anderson and Stanwyck is far more convincing with Roland than she is with Wendell Corey, much more of a sense of them being in love. The most interesting is the father-daughter relationship, which had furious intensity and at times creepiness. Excepting Vance, the characters are interesting. TC being the meatiest and quite larger than life while not unbalancing the film.

Furthermore, Mann directs brilliantly, and the atmosphere and evocative setting is enhanced by Victor Millner's magnificently atmospheric, beautifully crafted cinematography that was deservingly Oscar-nominated. And by Waxman's rousing and at times haunting score. The script is intelligently written and taut while allowing breathing space and the story is always absorbing and tense, there is melodrama here but it is not overwrought.

Despite all those great things, a couple of things could have been done better. Corey is very stiff and a complete blank as the main romantic lead. He and Stanwyck have no real chemistry either, which is something of a moderately big problem as he has more screen time than Roland (who has far more charm and easier chemistry with Stanwyck).

Also thought that Blanche Yurka was a bit too theatrical and out of place here, though her screen time was not near as big as Corey's so wasn't as distracting.

Shortcomings aside, all in all this was a very good film because the acting, direction and photography are so good. 8/10

This Antony Mann Western is little-known compared to his collaborations with James Stewart or Man of the West or a good number of other Mann films, but it's an equal to his best work. Barbara Stanwyck and Walter Huston (in his final performance) star as a daughter and her father, powerful ranchers who own the titular land. Their relationship, much as the title suggests, has a psycho-sexual tinge. When men call on Stanwyck, her father balks. And when hoochies cling to Huston, well, then things get real ugly! The Furies shows Mann bringing a lot of his noir skills to the Western genre. One can easily see how that genre influenced Mann's characterizations, but, in terms of film-making, he had largely moved on. The Furies is just dark and often nasty. I have to wonder why the film is so little known. My thought is that almost all Westerns feature male protagonists, with the most notably exception being Johnny Guitar. I'm not going to rag too much on that film, because I do like it, but The Furies is far superior. Stanwyck was rarely better. I might actually rate this as her best. Huston went out on one of his best performances. It's hard to believe he died before the film was even released with as much energy as he shows. My only real complaint with the movie is that it peaks too early. The standoff at the Herrera's fort is one of the greatest sequences in the history of the genre, and it's so good that the remainder of the film drags a bit. Still, a masterpiece. Thanks again, Criterion!

This one just keeps pulsating and bringing on the goods. Another of author Niven Busch's psychological westerns (preceded by "Duel in the Sun" and "Pursued"), this one has a dynamic father/daughter duo, a pretty and meek son (the late John Bromfield), and a smooth gambler seeking revenge for the death of his father. In fact, most of the characters are seeking revenge at one point or another---though the "Furies" of the title is the name of the contested ranch, in fact it could just as well refer to the motivations behind many of the characters' actions. Knockout score and photography and acting. Astounding that this one is not commercially available.

Probably a rarity as I can see it: Anthony Mann's The Furies would fit in just as well on AMC or TCM as it would, if it would ever screen old movies from the 40s and 50s, on the Lifetime network. What this means is that for the film being technically classified as a Wetern, it really has a lot more to offer for audiences of hardened men looking for another memorable performance from Walter Huston, and for women looking for a tough but conflicted heroine with Barbara Stanwyck's character. Mann has terrific source material to work with (the writer also wrote Duel in the Sun), in part because it doesn't cater simply to those looking for a shoot-out. On the contrary, The Furies derives its fascination as a work of psychologically complex family games of power and personal ownership. The 'Elektra complex' issue touched on by other reviewers isn't misplaced, but there's more to it.

This isn't quite to say it's entirely one of Mann's best films, or a masterpiece on the Western genre. It takes a little time to get started, past some of the daughter/father scenes of laughing with one another, and for the drama to really get plugged into about the dealings of ownership of the land of TC Jeffordses. The father, TC (Huston), says he'll give all he has to his daughter, Vance (Stanwyck) to run, but it might not be that easy of a transition. We see this tangled web develop, of Stanwyck's two love interests, one from way back with the Herrera's (still very bitter with TC for taking their land) and another with a banker who has a real love-hate thing for the fiery daughter of a big-bad baron like TC. And both the Jeffords' characters being what they are- really big, amazing personalities- require the actors to pull them off.

Luckily, Mann has the right two people with Huston and Stanwyck, especially with the latter the star projects such confidence and darkness and, at the same time, vulnerability it's not hard to see how she could have been the star in her day. Mann also gets some rich work from a supporting cast; one of which, playing the matriarch of the Herrera clan, is very memorable in a specific shoot-out scene where she talks to herself frantically with TC in her gunshot sight. There's also further development about a level of payback in the third act, and other more melodramatic touches involving TC's bond with an older woman that really gets Vance's gaul (not even so much her father bonding with her, but for her assertion into the clan to push her out far away into Europe, leading to a startling confrontation and a pair of scissors). If you're not strapped-in for some almost soap-opera-ish touches, look elsewhere.

But overall, Mann directs all of this with a fine eye for the darker corners of the western landscape, of the dry and barren lands of the deserts- some of these look shot at night, or developed to look darker than they are- with the cacti and horses riding on in them striking as something more evocative to go along with the big rooms and typical locations of a circa 1870 New Mexico set. And there's even a hanging scene in the film that should rank on any film-lover's list of important scenes; Scorsese even included it in his documentary on American movies, and it's well worth the inclusion. For some good stretches of time, and particularly for the second 2/3 of the running time, The Furies does its job well on its audience, drawing in both sexes for various reasons into its story of land ownership, love and loss, and a father and daughter bond that is touchy and amusing at most pleasant moments. 8.5/10

This is a good film to watch as autumn turns to winter. It's filled with old hatreds, revenge both old and new, explosive emotions and a subtle intelligence. Walter Huston and Barbara Stanwyck go on a powerful tear as T.C. and Vance Jeffords. There are hints of incest in the complex presentation of the lives of this father and daughter.There, most of all, is a escalating chill that sweeps down into the furies, that freezes hearts and cools ardor.Films like "The Furies", swirl around the omnipotent lives of stern and demanding patriarchs. We await their comeuppance, their downfall. We await it and we regret that these larger then life men fail to hold on to their wealth, their loves, and sometimes their lives. It is a shame that Walter Huston was dead a year before this, his final film was released. His performance is mesmerizing.