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Universal International Pictures
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A love-bargain is like barbed-wire...fight it and you'll get hurt!
A wandering cowboy gets caught up in a range war.
John Chard
May 28, 2017 · via TMDB
To fence or not to fence, that is the question. Man Without A Star is directed by King Vidor and adapted by Borden Chase & D. D. Beauchamp from the Dee Linford novel. It stars Kirk Douglas, Jeanne Crain, Claire Trevor, William Campbell & Richard Boone. Photographed by Russell Metty in Technicolor around the Thousand Oaks area in California, with the title song warbled by Frankie Laine. Dempsey Rae (Douglas) is easy going and a lover of life, so much so he has no qualms about befriending young hot head Jeff Jimson (Campbell). The pair, after a scare with the law, amble into town and find work at a ranch owned by the mysterious Reed Bowman. Who after finally showing up turns out to be a lady (Crain), with very ambitious plans. As sexual tensions start to run high, so do tempers, as the boys find themselves in the middle of a range war. It's all very conventional stuff in the grand scheme of range war Western things, but none the less it manages to stay well above average in spite of a tricky first quarter. For the fist part Vidor and Douglas seem to be playing the film for laughs, with the actor mugging for all he is worth. Add in the wet behind the ears performance of Campbell and one wonders if this is going to be a spoof. But once the lads land in town and the girls show up (Trevor classy, Crain smouldering), the film shifts in gear and starts to get edgy with Vidor proving to have paced it wisely. The thematics of era and lifestyle changes, here signified by barbed wire, are well written into the plot. While interesting camera angles and biting photography keep the mood sexually skew whiff. Boone lifts proceedings with another fine villain performance, and Jay C. Flippen in support is as solid as he almost always was. 7/10
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
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Kirk Douglas
Dempsey Rae
Jeanne Crain
Reed Bowman
Claire Trevor
Idonee
William Campbell
Jeff Jimson
Richard Boone
Steve Miles
Jay C. Flippen
Strap Davis
Myrna Hansen
Tess Cassidy
Mara Corday
Moccasin Mary
Eddy Waller
Tom Cassidy
Sheb Wooley
Latigo
George D. Wallace
Tom Carter
Frank Chase
Little Waco
Paul Birch
Mark Toliver
Roy Barcroft
Sheriff Olson
William Phillips
Cookie
Jack Elam
Knife Murderer (uncredited)
Malcolm Atterbury
Fancy Joe Toole (uncredited)
William Challee
Brick Gooder (uncredited)
Frank Mills
Tramp (uncredited)
Harry Tenbrook
Tramp (uncredited)
Bud Westmore
Makeup Artist
King Vidor
Director
Virgil W. Vogel
Editor
Frankie Laine
Vocals
Borden Chase
Screenplay
Prairie Pals
Trail to Gunsight
Drifting Along
Under Arizona Skies
Cowboy Blues
Trails End
Vengeance for Vengeance
Code of the Lawless
Cyclone Prairie Rangers
Hi, Gaucho!
Once Upon a Time in the West
For a Few Dollars More
North of 36
Raiders of the West
West of Texas
Gun to Gun
A Fistful of Dollars
Rio Bravo
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Duck, You Sucker
The Big Country
Giant
The Wild Bunch
They Call Me Trinity
Stallion Road
Along the Navajo Trail
Legends of the Fall
El Dorado
The Great Race
Cowboy in the Clouds
The Cowboy and the Bandit
Cowboy from Lonesome River
Colorado Sunset
The Duke of Chimney Butte
The Fighting Stallion
Thundering Romance
Calamity Jane
The Sons of Katie Elder
Support Your Local Sheriff!
Day of the Badman
Soldier Blue
The Man From Snowy River II
Will Penny
River of No Return
Young Guns
The Hanging Tree
Oklahoma!
Appaloosa
Man in the Saddle
The Tulsa Kid
Return of the Lash
Cowboy Serenade
Stormy Trails
Cat Ballou
Angel River
Old Shatterhand
The River's Edge
Wild Rovers
The Hired Hand
The Night of the Grizzly
It Can Be Done Amigo
A Lawless Street
Heaven with a Gun
Arizona Trail
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Guns of a Stranger
A Tenderfoot Goes West
The Light of Western Stars
Bad Man's River
Silver Spurs
Two-Gun Caballero
Phantom Rancher
All Hat
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The Magnificent Seven
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Shane
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Hombre
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Old Yeller
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Ramrod
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Firecreek
The Rare Breed
Return of the Gunfighter
The Stalking Moon
The Kentuckian
Mar 24, 1955
(New York City, New York)
Apr 27, 1955
(Los Angeles, California)
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1987 · 14 wins
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2008 · 14 wins
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1978 · 13 wins
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2000 · 12 wins
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1981 · 11 wins
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