Imagine Charles Bickford and Caroll Baker from The Big Country. Caroll has never met Gregory Peck and Bickford's never taken in a kid like Charlton Heston to raise in his own image. That's what you've got in Barbara Stanwyck and Walter Huston in Anthony Mann's The Furies.
The title is the name of Walter Huston's spread, like the Ponderosa for the Cartwrights. But Huston's is a guy who's got something going that neither Ben Cartwright or Charles Bickford had. This man he plays issues his own money, IOU notes described as TCS as per his character T.C. Jeffords. You take his notes and presumably they can be redeemed in regular coin of the realm later.
So he's a rich guy, but in his case rich is a relative term. And therein lies how Barbara Stanwyck after Huston hangs one of her childhood friends, Gilbert Roland, for horse stealing she vows vengeance on the father she loves above all.
This film with more than a hint of incest going on here marks Walter Huston's farewell performance. It's quite a contest between him and Stanwyck to see who out act each other.
Stanwyck has her own moment of fury when she goes after the elegant Judith Anderson who Huston has taken a fancy to and is planning to marry. That scene has to be watched, no further description is offered.
Blanche Yurka who learned revenge while playing Madame DeFarge in A Tale of Two Cities plays Roland's mother here and her DeFarge training comes in handy. Others in the cast are Wendell Corey, Thomas Gomez, Beulah Bondi, and John Bromfield.
Bromfield plays Stanwyck's brother a weak character who is disposed of rather early. I can't understand why his character wasn't developed more.
The Furies has some interesting moments, but as a western it's not half as good as Mann's work with James Stewart later on or with Devil's Doorway with Robert Taylor.
The title is the name of Walter Huston's spread, like the Ponderosa for the Cartwrights. But Huston's is a guy who's got something going that neither Ben Cartwright or Charles Bickford had. This man he plays issues his own money, IOU notes described as TCS as per his character T.C. Jeffords. You take his notes and presumably they can be redeemed in regular coin of the realm later.
So he's a rich guy, but in his case rich is a relative term. And therein lies how Barbara Stanwyck after Huston hangs one of her childhood friends, Gilbert Roland, for horse stealing she vows vengeance on the father she loves above all.
This film with more than a hint of incest going on here marks Walter Huston's farewell performance. It's quite a contest between him and Stanwyck to see who out act each other.
Stanwyck has her own moment of fury when she goes after the elegant Judith Anderson who Huston has taken a fancy to and is planning to marry. That scene has to be watched, no further description is offered.
Blanche Yurka who learned revenge while playing Madame DeFarge in A Tale of Two Cities plays Roland's mother here and her DeFarge training comes in handy. Others in the cast are Wendell Corey, Thomas Gomez, Beulah Bondi, and John Bromfield.
Bromfield plays Stanwyck's brother a weak character who is disposed of rather early. I can't understand why his character wasn't developed more.
The Furies has some interesting moments, but as a western it's not half as good as Mann's work with James Stewart later on or with Devil's Doorway with Robert Taylor.