A STORY OF FREE MEN One of the best performances of Kirk Douglas in a masterpiece directed by King Vidor. Jeanne Crain and Richard Boone as the villain also give praiseworthy performances. MAN WITHOUT A STAR can be found now in a superb DVD zone 2 release with remastered images and sound at Amazon.fr.
Open Range vs. Barbed Wire....Kirk To The Rescue Directed by King Vidor, "Man Without A Star"(1955) is a Western lover's Western. Kirk Douglas stars, as a drifter with no particular star to follow. He moseys into town, after saving the life of a young cow-poke wannabe, and we are treated to his fun side and lots of smiles as he whoops it up with saloon gal-pal Claire Trevor.
After landing a job on the biggest spread around,10,000 head to be exact, he discovers his boss, a tough beauty from the East(Jeanne Crain), will be adding another 5,000 head of cattle to her ranch and plans to ignore the friendly understanding the ranchers have. After all it's "open range" and she's entitled to use whatever she wants. The lady boss, is quite smitten with our guy Kirk, and he must decide between the land-grubbin beauty or barbed wire..which is the lesser of the two evils?
Kirk is wonderful in this role. His charm keeps you both smiling, and rooting for the good guys, throughout the film. He's funny but also tough and heroic as he goes up against the likes of some bad hombres, headed up by Richard Boone, who is always so good at being so bad. Claire Trevor adds her charms and William Campbell is fun as Kirk's new sidekick.Also look for Jay C. Flippen in a great role as foreman. The photography is wonderful in technicolor, and the songs(Frankie Laine on vocals), have the perfect Western feel about them.
The film defines the Western of the 50's and is Kirk Douglas in top form. Saddle Up and Happy Trails.....Laurie
THE MAN WITHOUT A STAR ONE OF THE BEST WESTERNS OF OUR TIME, KIRK DOUGLAS REALLY SHOWS HIS ACTING RAGE HERE. ALOT OF PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT THIS FILM BECAUSE IT DEALS WITH ISSUIES LIKE WHAT IT REALLY TAKES TO BE A MAN, OR GUN OR TWO FISTS. FRIENDSHIP, RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN A MAN A WOMAN. DRIFTER WHY HE DRIFTS TOWN TO TOWN. AND LAST HONOR. I WISH HOLLYWOOD WOULD WAKE AND SMELL THE COFFEE AND PROCLAIM THIS FILM OF ONE OF THE FINEST OF ALL TIME!!!!!!!
Very good, under-rated western. 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.
Man without a star I thought this was a good movie with alot of substance towards its story. It stars Jeanne Crain as a young, unmarried girl without much experiance in the world. I reccmommend it only if you don't mind the overacting thats seen alot in old, dramatic movies.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tailipoe
Trevor
