L'homme qui n'a pas d'étoile

The man without a star is Douglas, and the Star is the picture here. Douglas apes, cavorts, and even sings his way thru the part of the seasoned cowboy attempting to teach a tenderfoot the ways of the range. Campbell is good as the young green-horn that learns his lessons perhaps too well. Although the fun seems a bit forced at times, this one is hard not to like.

Kirk Douglas is perfectly cast as Dempsey Rae, the happy wanderer cowboy, expert in guns and horses... Rae rides the open range of the Old West with an eye for the ladies and a fancy way with six-shooters...

The theme of the film is the gradual disappearance of freedom as the Wild West settles down to business and puts up barbed wire to mark the lines of investment... Dempsey Rae is a happy wanderer, content to move further and further west to escape the fences... He meets up with a naive farm-boy "Texas" (William Campbell) who yearns to be a man of action and almost as inept... In Dempsey "Texas" finds the right tutor...

The two team up and get themselves a job working for a beautiful ranch owner, Reed Bowman (Jeanne Crain), who turns out to be as unscrupulous as she is attractive... Reed is a 'cattle queen' who rides down the fences of her neighbors carrying the action to its absolute limit in order to prosper and make money...

Dempsey is happy to work for the lady for $30 a month and even happier to make love to her but he draws the line at laying his life for her in range wars... He quits the crooked beauty and drifts into the nearby town, to renew his acquaintance with Idonee (Claire Trevor), a madam with the proverbial heart of gold...

The likable Dempsey is rocked out of his contentment by his successor at the Bowment Ranch, a brute named Steve Miles (Richard Boone) who feels he has to defeat every man in sight, especially when motivated by his glamorous boss...

"Man Without a Star" is a mighty satisfactory entertaining Western, once its premise is established... William Campbell helps Douglas make it so... The two performances are sympathetic, with Campbell looking to Douglas for leadership...

Douglas comes out as a likable star when he announces his presence by throwing his 'good looking' saddle on a window; he is graceful when he combs his hair with water from a goldfish bowl; and he is charming when he plays the banjo and sings a gaily ballad called: "And the Moon Grew Brighter and Brighter."

Jack Elam is cast as the leering, treacherous gunslinger trying to knife Douglas...

Director King Vidor had long established his ability with action sequences and pictorial scope in films like "Northwest Passage," and "Duel in the Sun," and "Man Without a Star" has a full measure of Vidor directed bar room fights, stampedes and chases...

With a lot of color, humor and action Vidor's motion picture is a traditional cattle range movie distinguished by its sheer energy and forceful visual style... The film traces some sex interest between Douglas and Crain, centering on a bathtub 'inside' the house...

This is probably my favorite Kirk Douglas western. Although it has plenty of action this is not just another action western. Rather it deals with the implacable transition of the west from open range available to all to individually-controlled patches of range that are fenced off with barbed wire. Dempsey Rae (Douglas' character) loves open range and keeps drifting north to avoid the barbed wire which destroys it. Finally, however, he realizes that the small ranchers must fence off the range to protect themselves from the massive herds of a greedy rancher and her ruthless foreman and helps string and protect the wire that he hates so thoroughly. I love this under-rated western.

A cowboy is hired as a foreman for a powerful landowner , but he then helps ranchers to stop the egoistic cattle owner from taking over their lands . As he , subsequently , changes sides and will fight against her , as he helps mistreated settlers who put barbwire to protect their herd . The cowboy fighting for justice will tame his vital code he lives by and supporting other neighboring cattlemen who are harassed by her .

This is a moving western dealing with the ordinary conflict between freedom and the need for order and settlements . The picture regards interesting issues such as the economical abuses by powerful owners including violence , and the sexual resources that the beautiful land lady , gorgeous Jeanne Crain , uses to get her purports . Nice and feisty acting by the great Kirk Douglas as the sympathetic as well as impulsive gunfighter . Being one of the first movies that Kirk Douglas made through his own production company , Bryna Productions . Support cast is pretty good , such as : Claire Trevor , Richard Boone , Jay C. Flippen , Jack Elam , Paul Birch , George Wallace , Mara Corday , Roy Barcroft and special mention for William Campbell as a stubborn young gunfighter . Colorful and brilliant cinematography in Technicolor by Russell Metty , being filmed on location in Conejo Valley , Thousand Oaks , Janss Conejo Ranch , California , and Grand Canyon , Arizona . Besides , a moving , stirring musical score by two uncredited composers , Hans J. Salter and Herman Stein .

The motion picture , based on a screenplay by the Western expert Borden Chase , was compellingly directed by King Vidor and lavishly produced by Aaron Rosenberg who financed a lot of westerns for Anthony Man/James Stewart . Although he and Kirk had strong problems , as Douglas and Vidor had arguments , and the latter left the shooting and was fired . However , King shows some his peculiar visual style . In addition , the picture went on to become a box office hit . Vidor directed other good westerns as ¨Duel in the sun¨ , ¨Northwest passage¨, ¨Billy the Kid¨ , and ¨Texas Rangers¨ . And made several classic movies as ¨War and peace¨ , ¨Comrade X¨ , ¨Stella Dallas¨ , ¨Fountainhead¨ , ¨Our daily bread¨ , ¨The citadel¨ , ¨The crowd¨ , ¨Big parade¨ , among others .

Man Without a Star is not ranked as one of Kirk Douglas's great films, but it's a personal favorite of mine and a tour de force for this player.

I don't think any actor in screen history could ever go from zero to 120 in intensity as Kirk Douglas. His character Dempsey Rae in this film is a free footloose cowpoke with charm to spare. When provoked he changes like lightning and he's a man not to be trifled with. Kirk Douglas could do this better than any other actor.

Douglas gets good support here from western regulars like Jay C. Flippen, Eddy Waller, Roy Barcroft. Claire Trevor, although she's played more heart of gold floozies than anyone else in cinema history is never bad. Jeanne Crain as the boss bad gal did well being cast against type.

William Campbell was famous for two things, a role in the original Star Trek series as a Klingon Captain named Koloff and the fact he was married once to Judith Exner who also was linked to President Kennedy and Sam Giancana. He's pretty good in this however as Douglas's sidekick/protégé who turns on him for a while. And Richard Boone never gave a bad performance in his life and doesn't do so here as the foreman Jeanne Crain hires to run roughshod over the smaller ranchers.

Western fans and Kirk Douglas fans will love this.