The Furies (1950) Review

Title: The Furies
Year: 1950
Director: Anthony Mann
Country: US
Language: English

1950 was a great year for cinema. Joseph Mankiewicz's All About Eve would sweep the Oscars with 14 nominations, Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard would improve film noir, and Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon would push Japanese Cinema into the mainstream. With The Furies (1950) Anthony Mann would create one of the most emotionally complex Westerns in cinematic history. It is very different from the hyper masculine Westerns of John Ford (The Searchers).

A firebrand heiress (Barbara Stanwyck) clashes with her tyrannical father (Walter Houston), a cattle rancher who fancies himself a Napoleon, but their relationship turns ugly only when he finds himself a new woman.

Full of psycho-sexual subtext that would make even Sigmund Freud blush, Anthony Mann manages to transition a male driven genre into a film that is part women's picture, part Shakespearean tragedy. Borrowing film noir elements, such as the femme fatale & dark screenplay elements, The Furies isn't afraid to get its hands dirty. Quite frankly, I'm surprised many elements of this picture passed the censorship committee as it can even be considered risque today.

There are many elements to admire in The Furies. The cinematography, by Vector Milner, is often quite breathtaking. The peak of Stanwycks' career; she plays an emotionally & physically strong character that was rarely seen at the time. Walter Houston, playing his last onscreen role, gives us a King Lear-like performance as a charismatic yet deceitful ranch owner. 

The Furies is audacious & full of energy. It is one of the best Westerns that I have come across; shocking that it's not as beloved as classics like The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance and High Noon. This film comes with an incredibly high recommendation, despite some subject matter (men openly slapping women) being dated and distasteful.