La lance brisée

This is an enjoyable and luxurious remake from ¨House of strangers¨ in Western style . Cattle baron Matt Devereaux (magnificent Spencer Tracy as the ruthless wealthy owner who sadly contends his sons) is a widower who married an Indian woman (Katy Jurado , though plays Robert Wagner's mother in the film, she was only six years older than him in real life) . The Irish Matt is an egocentric and tyrannical self-made man that raises his family in an environment of hatred . He raids a copper smelter that is polluting his water . As Deveraux swears vengeance on those who have poised his stock . Half-breed son named Joe (Robert Wagner) takes responsibility for the raid and gets three years in jail . Serious conflicts arouse which split the family , as Ben Deveraux (Richard Widmark) attempts to divide the property among his brothers .

This over-the-top film contains intense drama , racial slur , familiar confrontation with dramatic taking on among father-sons and being beautifully realized . Interesting screenplay by Richard Murphy , based on a story by prestigious Philip Yordan . Good and agreeable Western that details the dissolution of a despotic cattle baron's family with King Lear's Shakespeare touches . The picture with exciting plot displays elements of Greek tragedy and a touching finale . It results to be a peculiar version about confrontation between father and brothers ; theme to be treated in other Hollywood films such as ¨House of strangers¨ (1949) also written by Philip Yordan , being directed by Joseph L Mankiewicz with Edward G Robinson (Spencer Tracy role), Luther Adler (Richard Widmark character) , Efrem Zimbalist (Hugh O'Brian role) and Richard Conte (Robert Wagner role) . Spencer Tracy's tour-de-force performance in the climactic courtroom scene was so powerful that it completely captivated the onlooking film crewmen . Richard Widmark as the oldest and meanest brother , in a smaller part that you'd expected from his billing , is nevertheless excellent as a bad guy . The other siblings are played by naive young Robert Wagner , tough Hugh o'Brian and slow witted Earl Holliman . Romantic interest is supplied by the ever vivacious and lovely Jean Peters who married Howard Hughes . Besides , an excellent plethora of secondary actors as Katy Jurado , E.G Marshall , Eduard Franz . Musical score well composed and conducted by Leigh Harline is impressive ; including catching leitmotif and enjoyable sounds from Western . Colorful and evocative cinematography in Cinemascope by Joseph MacDonald .

The motion picture well produced by the great producers Sol C. Siegel , Darryl F. Zanuck was stunningly directed by Edward Dmytryck . A veteran filmmaker, Dmytryck is one of Hollywood's most prolific directors who started his career in the early 40s . He was a craftsman whose career was interrupted by the activities of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), a congressional committee that employed ruthless tactics aimed at rooting out and destroying what it saw as Communist influence in Hollywood . A lifelong political leftist who had been a Communist Party member briefly during World War II, Dmytryk was one of the so-called "Hollywood Ten" who refused to cooperate with HUAC and had their careers disrupted or ruined as a result. The committee threw him in prison for refusing to cooperate, and after having spent several months behind bars , Dmytryk decided to cooperate . Dmytrick's biggest film was ¨The Caine Mutiny¨ , but he also realized another mutiny film titled : ¨Mutiny¨ with Angela Lansbury . Edward was an expert on warlike genre as ¨Back to Batan¨ , ¨Battle of Anzio¨ , ¨Young lions¨ and Western as ¨Broken lance¨ , ¨Alvarez Kelly¨ , ¨Warlock¨ among others . Rating : 7 , better than average . It's recommended for Western enthusiasts and Spencer Tracy fans .

Although a remake,this western strongly recalls the story of Joseph and his brothers in Genesis.After all,that's the hero's name ,and his brothers really sell him when they refuse to give more money to the bosses of the copper mine .Leonard Maltin wrote that it owes a deal to "king lear" too,the daughters becoming sons.Richard Widmark is the stand-out and easily outshines the "good" Robert Wagner and his two other brothers who are no more than walk-ons anyway.In his final confrontation with Tracy,he even surpasses the veteran :he succeeds,which is not a small feat, in making us believe that he had a very hard life and that he's not so bad after all.

"Broken lance" ranks among Dmytryk's best works ,more human than "Warlock" and a thousand times better than the latter days ' fiascoes such as "Alvarez Kelly" and the dreadful "Shalako".Released just after the brilliant "Caine mutiny" ,it compares favorably to it,in its own way.The opening is intriguing :we do believe ,for a short while,that Joe (Wagner) is the black sheep of the family ,and then , a long flashback -a device which is rarely used in westerns - brilliantly starting with the patriarch's(Tracy)painting in a deserted house ,tells the whole story.Also unusual is the rather long trial ,a reason for which some will classify the movie as talky,which is unfair,because so many qualities in a western are rare to find.Tracy's death is a real tour de force verging on supernatural.There's also a sensitive wistful performance by Katy Jurado ,as Tracy's second wife .

Pride, resentment, jealousy, and prejudice boil over in this complex grown-up western, featuring hard boiled performances by Spencer Tracy, as a tightly-wound cattle baron, and Richard Widmark as his hate-filled eldest son. Contrasting them are Robert Wagner and Katy Jurado as Tracy's virtuous (and favorite) youngest son and loyal Indian wife.

Right on target from start to finish, Broken Lance manages to squeeze three hours worth of epic drama into a lean ninety-six minutes. There's enough material here to have made a TV-miniseries.

As good as it was, in the end there were still a few unanswered questions. Did Wagner regain his birthright? How did he deal with his other two brothers and the governor? The film should have been fifteen minutes longer!

Edward Dmytryk was a skilled director. He showed plenty of memorable titles as in "Murder My Sweet" "The Caine Mutiny," "Warlock", "Raintree County"... where he showed narrative skill, a most correct direction of actors and impressive staging.

The one that concerns us: "Broken Lance" is, for our taste, one of his best films. Told from a long flashback that begins after Joe Devereaux returns to his old home after spending three years in prison, the narrative focuses on the eventful life of the landlord Matthew Devereaux (a superb and brilliant Spencer Tracy) and his difficult relationship with his children and unhappy with the environment that surrounds it. Matt is a man who loves nature and respects animals. It is also a just and loving husband with his Indian wife (Katy Jurado's always accurate Oscar nominee for this role), loves much the son she had with her (Joe), but the children of his former wife, now deceased, is intolerant and demanding. Their conflict develops into a crescendo that prevents us from a storm that seems inevitable.

Dmytryk will recreate every nuance of arrogance and the film emerges as a psychological portrait of great importance. Matt is contrasting as day. Defend the Indians and some even work for him. Your home is an earthly paradise and think, clearly, a man of privilege.But as in all light is usually a shade to Matthew is impossible to get along with their children and this makes the paradise into an inferno.

The river that crosses his land is a symbol of the flow of life: sometimes calm... sometimes with rocks impeding the flow. Sometimes of course... and sometimes murky. Remake of "House of Strangers" by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, the story of "Broken Lance" refers to "King Lear" by William Shakespeare and even "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Materials, all of these, essential in the cultural baggage of any human being.

"Broken Lance" can also be made in any list of classic western movies.

This is a western starring Spencer Tracy as the patriarch rancher Matt Devereaux who has four sons. The three sons from Spencer's first marriage are Ben (Richard Widmark), Mike (Hugh O'Brian) and Denny (Earl Holliman). When his first wife dies, Matt marries Katy Jurado, a Native American. They have a twenty five year marriage including Matt's youngest son, Joe (Robert Wagner).

The three older sons are a disappointment to Matt, and the eldest, Ben, hates his father and youngest brother. Matt rules his ranch with a iron fist, and he uses a whip with authority. Many cattle on the ranch have died because the creek water was poisoned by a copper mine. As a result, Matt rides out to the mine with all four of his sons, and together they destroy the mining equipment, injuring some of the miners in the process.

The law comes down hard on Matt for this, and somebody will have to serve jail time. Joe knows that his father would die in prison, so he serves the three year prison term. Ben refuses to go on principle, and Mike and Denny are just plain sniveling weaklings. Joe is released, and there are still problems on the home front. Ben is angry and defiant saying he worked sixteen hours a day since he was ten years old, and Matt suffers a stroke after a nasty fight with him. As a result of his incapacity, Matt signs over a piece of the ranch to each of his sons, and you know that share and share alike is just going to cause more trouble among this incongruent group.

Did I mention there is oil on the land? Who will sell out, and how will this all work out? Watch and find out. Spencer is excellent as Matt Devereaux, and his scenes with Richard Widmark are especially well done. Their arguments as father and eldest son are convincing.

This was the first film Spencer did after leaving MGM and the film is available free to AMAZON PRIME members. I'm bumping this from a 7 to a 6 because for those famililar with Fox classic films you'll probably recognize the plot as a loose western remake of a well known 40s Fox noir. That tended to reduce the suspense for me quite a bit.