User reviews

There's a lot of Freudian subtext in this unusual 1950 Western, but what resonates most is how director Anthony Mann so smoothly transcends the testosterone-driven genre to come up with an entertaining hybrid of a woman's picture and a Greek tragedy. At the dynamic core of this film is the masterstroke of casting Walter Huston (in his last screen role) and Barbara Stanwyck as a spendthrift father and his headstrong daughter at odds over running the expansive ranch that gives the movie its name. In Roman mythology, the Furies were supernatural personifications of the anger of the dead. As females, they represent regeneration and the potency of creation, which both consumes and empowers. It is this single-minded sense of empowerment that drives Vance Jeffords to usurp her wily father T.C. while seeking his approval at the same time.

Set in 1870's New Mexico, the story written by Charles Schnee ("The Bad and the Beautiful") is steeped in not-so-indiscreet psychological baggage. T.C. lives by his own rules by borrowing liberally from banks, paying hired hands with his own script, and allowing Mexican settlers to live off his land. Unlike her weak-willed brother, Vance enjoys provoking her father but to what end is never clear as an unacknowledged cloud of incest hangs over their strange relationship. At the same time, T.C. has a sworn enemy in gambler Rip Darrow who is looking to avenge his father's death at T.C.'s hands. Vance falls for Darrow, but she's also drawn to Juan Herrera, a childhood friend and one of the Mexicans now considered squatters. Complicating matters even more is the arrival of T.C.'s pretentious fiancée Flo Burnett, a devious socialite out to rid the ranch of the Mexicans and push Vance aside as the female head of the beleaguered family. This ploy leads to a most shocking scene that fits well within the story's noirish shadings.

As T.C., Huston gives a grand performance evoking both as the old prospector in his son John's "The Treasure of Sierra Madre" and the conflicted industrialist in William Wyler's "Dodsworth". Although a bit old for her role at 43, Stanwyck combines her no-nonsense manner with a childlike vulnerability in illuminating Vance's most complex psyche. This is excellent work from an actress who always seemed home on the range. Generally a pliable third lead in films ("Rear Window"), Wendell Corey doesn't lend charisma or a convincing edge to his swagger as Darrow, but Gilbert Roland shines in the smallish role of Juan and strikes sparks with Stanwyck that should have happened with Corey. However, it is Judith Anderson (Mrs. Danvers in "Rebecca") who steals her brief scenes as Flo bringing out a palpable tension with Stanwyck in their almost-comically cutting scenes together (pardon the pun!). Veteran character actress Beulah Bondi also has a nice near-cameo as a banker's wife fully aware of her husband's prideful shortcomings.

The intensely passionate movie swirls in all its psycho-sexual emotionalism and Shakespearean-level acts of murder, revenge and greed, but oddly (and perhaps due to the edicts of studio censors), Mann applies the brakes in the disappointing final portion of the film. Still, it's well worth viewing in the new Criterion Collection's 2008 release chock-full of extras. First, there is the meticulously academic commentary track by Western author Jim Kitses ("Horizons West"). Then there is an interesting 17-minute interview with Mann ("Actions Speak Louder Than Words") conducted just prior to his death in 1967. Another interview is offered with Mann's daughter Nina specifically for this release as she recalls her father's often underrated body of work. More of a curio is a silly, obviously scripted 1931 interview with Huston where he evasively responds to the vacuous questions of a pretty reporter. The original theatrical trailer and a stills gallery round out the extras.

In his final film, Huston plays a larger than life character who owns a big ranch that he is struggling to maintain financially. Stanwyck is the head-strong daughter that he clashes with, particularly when Anderson enters the picture as his fiancé. One can imagine her character later became Victoria Barkley in "The Big Valley." Mann specialized in Westerns and he does well enough here, but the problem is that the script is not very interesting. Huston and Stanwyck are always worth watching, but Corey seems to be miscast as the romantic lead. Waxman, who won the Oscar for "Sunset Blvd." the same year, provides a lively score. Interestingly, both Mann and Waxman lived from 1906 to 1967.

This thing is a wild ride - it really crackles with energy! Plus its one of those rare films where the actors chew up the scenery and spit it back out, and its expertly done, absolutely right, and works beautifully. Also its a film made by adults, for adults, starring adults; all the leads are in their late 30s and up. It is very stylized and the black-and-white cinematography was nominated for an Academy Award. So many scenes stand out, but the whole section involving the "battle" with the Herrera family is particularly vivid. Gilbert Roland registers surprisingly well also, the role was perfect for him at that age. The Herrera mother nursing her hatred is wonderful. Its possibly the peak of Stanwyck's career; I'd argue that she was never able to make as good a film again. I would pay 100 TCs to see it another time!

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.

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!

I feel like "The Furies" is a rather auspicious name for a film, and unfortunately I was disappointed with the outcome. The Furies moves along briskly enough and kept me with it till the end, mostly out of curiosity to see if a real story would develop (it did not) and to marvel at the theatricality of some of the performances. I like Stanwyck but felt her performance here was a little stiff. Huston was a bit heavy-handed in his performance, and Corey was just plain miscast as the romantic lead. The oddly sensualized relationship between father and daughter was intriguing to see how far it would go, but it was the thinness of the story that just could support all of the aforementioned baggage. While I was ultimately disappointed by The Furies I'm still happy to have seen it. If you're a fan of westerns then I say you should definitely check it out, but for everyone else maybe not.

One of the best Westerns ever made. Superior to other films of its time because it possesses more realism and authenticity and shuns the silly, false and simplistic moralizing which was almost a requirement for American films of this period. This is a film about real, complex people involved is realistic, complex events. Film-maker Anthony Mann hailed from Great Britain - perhaps this had something to do with the unusual realism. Positives are: 1 - The beautiful cinematography alone is enough reason to rent. The lighting is superb, there is sumptuous use of darkness, and the twilight and night scenes are ravishingly beautiful. 2 - Strong, resourceful female characters instead of the usual phony, helpless, wilting flowers. These women are people in their own right, not merely appendages of some male character. 3 - The characters are an honest mix of good and bad qualities - not artificial cardboard cut-outs simplistically meant to serve as types. 4 - Minorities are portrayed as real people. The Mexicans are portrayed with sensitivity and understanding, instead of the usual condescending caricatures. 5 - Walter Huston, Barbara Stanwyck & Wendell Corey do an excellent job of bringing their characters to life. The other actors are solidly top drawer. 6 - Excellent story-telling at its finest. With repeated viewing, you see more deeply into the complex and surprisingly subtle motivations of the characters. The only negative is that the sensuality of real life was artificially pre-filtered out of the film; but in full fairness to "The Furies," this is true of all American films of this period, due to the de facto censorship which held sway at the time. In sum, a complex, vivid depiction of love, hate, greed, loyalty, betrayal, devotion, affirmation of life and the inexorability of death, as they course through the lives of real, breathing people. Anthony Mann was far ahead of his time in crafting this truthful gem. What a special achievement!

'The Furies' from 1950 stands and falls by its characters as the situation of the story is trite and deliberately over turbulent: when the characters are well written, acted and directed scenes are vivid but at other times 'The Furies' fades very badly into ham and hock.

Inconsistencies in tone and temperature are unresolvable and suggest to me a troubled experience during the production.

The photography is nice and the sets befitting the tale but the cast are inconsistent in their efforts to animate their characters and the themes of the film.

If you enjoy a different branch of western from the hay day of the American genre: as the late forties rolled into the early fifties; try 'The Furies' and partake of it's heavy handed assault on it's themes of family, rivalry, sex, greed, ambition, hubris and revenge made in an very offkilter manner due to its axis of attack being centered on a daughter-father-mistress power struggle and utilising usually indirect methods of character intrigue including sexual skirmishes and financial dealings and ploys.

I rate a cautious 6/10 and I recommend to people interested in a somewhat different take on the western, to fans of Walter Houston and Anthony Mann and to film fans who enjoy sexual politics. Certainly it is worth seeing for its unusual narrative crux.

For myself I don't elevate 'The Furies' any higher than this because it simply defies my suspension of disbelief at several junctures and overplays it's themes, undercuts it's characters, has too inconsistent a level of acting, a narrative that is overlong and uneven and ultimately leaves all of its characters insufficiently humanised for my own inclinations. Possibly a harsh and determined re-edit would greatly enhance the effect for me personally.

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.

Rambling Over-Acting and Psychologically Over-Wrought.

That Smothers the Bleak Cinematography and Adult Sensibilities.

Barbara Stanwyck Tries to Anchor Walter Huston's Bellowing and Gyrations.

But Huston Plays the Patriarch so Over-the-Top and Belligerent that You would Think its His Last Movie...It is.

Wendell Corey is Miscast as a Hard-as-Nails Gambler. Gilbert Roland Plays Better and His Scenes with Stanwyck come off the Best.

Alliances Shift and Deep-Rooted Affections and Respect are Unsteady.

Judith Anderson has a Small Part and Makes the Most of it and is Part of the "New" Violence that Mann is Known for.

Familiar Faces Abound and the High Production Value is Everywhere.

But the Story is one of Low-Intrigue and Boils Down to Family Foundations and Strong Payback and Back Again.

Frustratingly Fraught to Freudian Formulas and Essentially a "Woman's Western".

The Movie Does have an Edge to it that Foreshadows the 1950's Maturation of the Genre.

But Overall there is something Flat and Forced about the Whole Thing.

Anthony Mann would Make 2 Other Westerns in 1950. "Devil's Doorway" and "Winchester 73.

Both are Far Superior to this Disappointment.

Still it's Packed with a Production Quality that Can't Be Ignored...And is...

Worth a Watch.

No need to recap the sprawling, epic-sized plot. As another reviewer points out, it's like the screenplay is trying to shoehorn the novel's 1000-pages onto the screen. Instead, it's fascinating to watch the different acting styles compete with one another in this operatic western. The thespic turns run the gamut from cold under-playing by Corey to white-hot bravura from Huston to Stanwyck calibrating nicely somewhere in between. The movie's real showdown is between Anderson and Stanwyck, featuring two of the screen's premier tough- cookie women. It's a doozy. Then add the Medusa-like Blanche Yurka (Mother Herrera), and I was ready to crawl under the couch.

Anyhow, looks like Paramount was going all out in the production. So why b&w instead of the more logical Technicolor. My guess is the producers were caught up in the film-noir fashion of the time since the results suggest shadowy effects. Then too, none of the major characters, except maybe Herrera (Roland), is morally uncompromised, a key feature of noir. That may also account for Anthony Mann as director since he had cut his teeth on a succession of outstanding crime noirs.

Be that as it may, it's the actors that hold this narrative sprawl together; otherwise, it's easy to get lost in the many financial manueverings unusual for a western. I expect director Mann was just trying to hold things together since the overall results bear little of his usual stamp. Because of TV's popular pull, this sort of epic format would soon turn to Technicolor with productions like The Far Horizons (1955) and The Big Country (1958). All in all, the Furies remains an oddball obscurity, maybe too bleak and crowded for its own good, but a good vehicle for Huston to go out on.

"The Furies" (1950) with Barbara Stanwyck, Wendell Corey, and Walter Huston (his last film) is a loud and brash, semi-Freudian, drama/western/romance definitely rooted in the old Hollywood, directed by Anthony Mann, with interesting, sometimes rather dark outlining cinematography by Victor Milner and Lee Garmes. There is absolutely nothing subtle about "The Furies"; rather, it not only faces you face-to-face, but pokes your eyes out! Some will absolutely love it; some will hate it. I doubt if there are many who will find it in-between. Well, I do... It's a movie that lasts too long - 109 minutes. It should have been an hour and a half. It's a movie that's too brash; it would have been better to soften the Freudian Stanwyck (daughter) versus Huston (father): it nearly appears Oedipal, though its intent is to be less that and more competitive. Still, Stanwyck as female plays the part NOT that way, but instead as if she's a male or androgynous. Perhaps that's the way Niven Busch wrote his novel, but it plays on screen as too much to believe. All of this said, it's a grand film in a grand, old-fashioned presentation that seems to be the kind of movie that's actually coming back in vogue, only nowadays the characters aren't necessarily human, but super-human.

Stanwyck wants to inherit "The Furies", her father's ranch, a very huge, sprawling spread that includes one part that once was owned by the Darrow family, Wendell Corey's family. Corey's father was killed by Huston at one time or another in the past, evidently in competition for the ownership. Corey wants it back. He'll stop at nothing to revenge his father and get the property back. He then meets Stanwyck. Their relationship is a very curious one all the way through, and, frankly, the best part of the film: well-written and well-acted on the front of both actor and actress. The show also has squatters on the ranch, a group of evidently Hispanic native dwellers who've been on the property seemingly forever. Led by matriarch Blanche Yurka, her oldest son, Gilbert Roland, and younger ones who are now a sort of live-in coterie on the top of a high cliff area, they are forced off the land with several other families - eventually. The other families were forced off first; now this last family, originally allowed to remain, are forced off. They resist. Roland is eventually hanged by Huston. Roland had admitted his love for Stanwyck since childhood. Stanwyck certainly loves him, but not romantically, more in an agape way. She now is forced into ultimate hate for her father. What's a family to do? Where does the film need to go?

The end is tragic but grand; solemn but governed by toughness and genuine respect. It's not very real, but it's overly so, in a Hollywoodish way. Hard to summarize... Definitely worth the watch, but once is enough for this decade. Perhaps I'll try again in my middle 80s: by then I'll have enough wisdom or enough senility to enjoy this all over again and not look for critical faults.

Bought this recently from Criterion. Nice Blu-Ray print! Also comes with Niven Busch's novel: nice package! There's a commentary on the Blu-Ray if you wish. There are other extras, too. The only one I cared for was an interview of Huston made in 1931 which was cute. Enjoyed all less than 10 minutes of it.

The Furies is directed by Anthony Mann and adapted to screenplay by Charles Schnee from the Niven Busch novel. It stars Barbara Stanwyck, Walter Huston, Wendell Corey, Judith Anderson and Gilbert Roland. Music is by Franz Waxman and cinematography by Victor Milner.

"This is a story of the 1870's. . .in the New Mexico territory. . .when men created kingdoms out of land and cattle. . .and ruled their empires like feudal lords. Such a man was T.C. Jeffords. . .who wrote this flaming page in the history of the great Southwest."

Anthony Mann was a fascinating and talented director, his career in direction of films can be broken into three sections. The 40s where he progressed from "B" movies to film noir, the 50s where he can be credited as a main player in taking the Western to a new and more adult level, and finally the 60s where he would helm two enormous historical epics. In short he was versatile and one of the most significant American directors during that 30 year period. 1950 was a prolific year for him, a year that saw him direct four movies, three westerns and Side Street, a crime procedural with noirish leanings. Of the three Westerns, it's Winchester '73 that has the big reputation and the distinction of being the first of the five westerns made with James Stewart that are rightly held in high regard in Western movie circles. Yet the other two, seemingly under seen or forgotten about, are at least worthy of the same praise. With Devil's Doorway, in this writers' opinion, actually a better movie than Winchester '73.

The Furies serves as the perfect bridging movie between Mann's film noirs and his Westerns because it blends the two courtesy of the Western setting and the story, taking both and cloaking it neatly with noirish atmospherics. To which it is underpinned by two very strong and passionate father and daughter characters played by Huston and Stanwyck. She is wealth obsessed and single mindedly driven, yet still having shades of vulnerability, whilst he is a crude land and cattle baron who has a kink for Napoleon! It's their relationship, as murky and stand offish as it is, that is at the core of The Furies. However, there are a number of plot off shoots also dwelling in the narrative, making this a complex story, one that pulses with psychological smarts and psycho-sexual undercurrents, with part of the latter appearing to be an incestuous arc between father and daughter. While it's not a Western for those after the more "traditional" gun play trappings of the genre, it does have some smart set pieces and moments of adrenaline raising. Including a shocking scene that wouldn't be out of place in a Hitchcock thriller. But ultimately this above all else is about the story and the flawed characters within.

This was to be Huston's last film appearance, he would sadly pass away shortly after filming of The Furies had wrapped. Nice to report that he signed off from the mortal coil with a top performance, attacking the role of T. C. Jeffords with gusto and relish - with the ending of the film proving to be rather poignant. Stanwyck is excellent as Vance Jeffords, an actress capable of putting many layers to any character she was asked to play, here she two folds it by being utterly unlikable with ease, yet in a blink of an eye garnering our sympathy by way of child like vulnerability. In support Corey is fine as card sharp Rip Darrow, the man who Vance deeply courts, and someone who has a serious agenda with T. C. Jeffords. Yet it's Judith Anderson who takes the acting honours in the support ranks. Charged with the task of playing a character who threatens to take Vance's place in her fathers world, Anderson nicely combines subtle underplaying with emotive driven thesping. With Mann going for heavy atmosphere, Milner's photography is deep in focus and suitably evocative, and Waxman provides a robust - storm-a-brewing, musical score.

Prime Mann offering that's deserving of more exposure and more appreciative praise. 8.5/10

During the 1940's director Anthony Mann cut his teeth on gritty low budget film noirs (Raw Deal, Border Incident, Side Street), before venturing into tough westerns, often starring James Stewart. 'The Furies' finds him in crossover mode on that rare as hen's teeth phenomenon, the noir western.

With starkly striking black and white photography and a pervading darkly sombre tone, feisty, rebellious Barbara Stanwyck becomes increasingly alienated from her bombastic, despotic father (Walter Huston). Tensions ignite when widowed Huston brings refined, but cold and condescending (especially to Stanwyck) Judith Anderson, home to roost. The friction between them soon escalates into something far more volatile than handbags at five paces. Throw into the mix, deeply despised gambling machine, Wendell Corey and a Mexican family with an axe to grind over land loss and it all adds up to a pretty potent pot of simmering savagery. Even Huston's sporadic bursts of raucous laughter bear an ominously hollow ring.

Unfortunately, amidst all the feuding, bickering and bitter animosity, the narrative loses momentum and fails to generate any real suspense, veering into the realms of talky soap opera. Consequently,the movie draws towards its conclusion stumbling, rather than galloping into the sunset.

With a cast that reads like a 'Who's Who' of ever dependable Hollywood 'A' and 'B' listers, 'The Furies' leaves a peculiar after taste - the sense of an opportunity to create something genuinely memorable, in part, sadly squandered.

NB. For a truly essential noir western, check out 'Pursued' (1946)

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.

Huston and Stanwyck are loving but constantly battling father and daughter running the biggest ranch in New Mexico which Huston says is hers when he dies. Matters are complicated though by her friendship with Mexican Gilbert Roland, who Huston considers a trespasser, her love for slippery entrepreneur Wendell Corey and Huston's attraction to potentially money grabbing Judith Anderson.

Not as epic as say The Big Country, but the scale of the drama and the various stories that hold this together make it feel like it is, driven primarily by the tour de force performances and star power of the 2 leads. Dramatic, sometimes quite brutal western with a sharp, witty script that pulls you along nicely until the inevitable climatic scenes between the 2.

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

Barbara Stanwyck has some serious daddy issues in this weird cross between a women's picture, western and film noir from 1950.

Walter Huston plays the daddy, and he steals the show in a vibrant performance. He owns a ranch called The Furies, which he hands over to his daughter when he tires of the daily management. But things go awry when he brings home a new wife from the city (Judith Anderson, excellent) and she has some ideas of her own about how things should be run. Tensions boil over to the point where father and daughter hate each other, and Stanwyck hatches a scheme to bankrupt her father and take the ranch away from him.

It's an uneven movie at best. Characters seem to turn on a dime -- Huston and Stanwyck go from idolizing one another to hating each other back to idolizing each other -- but maybe that's the point. They're both ruled by their passions, and those passions extend to the father/daughter relationship, and sometimes confuse it, as much as to their business practices.

Anthony Mann provided the noirish direction, and Franz Waxman delivers a frenzied, out-there score.

Grade: B+

The good: Atypical western, complex story, solid acting with Judith Anderson and Gilbert Roland in standout supporting roles. The tension between Anderson and Stanwyck is a highlight. Very good cinematoraphy (Oscar nomination).

The weak: Stanwyck, in yet another tough as nails woman role (typecast), and Huston's (his last flm) father-daughter characters are insufferable with no redeeming qualities. I simply didn't care about either one of them. The ickyness of their relationship doesn't help. Wendell Corey is wooden at times and arguably miscast.

Overall, worth watching. It's just not a "classic."

Airless, baroque 'noir/western/woman's picture' full of grandiloquent posturing and petty nastiness, entirely lacking the sober, tragic sense of the classical Oresteia, which the heavy symbolism of the name given to the ranch, and to the film, contrives only to parody. A car-crash vehicle for Stanwyck's self-indulgent hamming. And about as bonkers and boring as that other woman-dominated Western, Nicholas Ray's insane Joan Crawford vehicle 'Johnny Guitar.' I'll give it 4 because the monochrome lighting camerawork is so good.