The Lusty Men (film)
Encyclopedia
The Lusty Men is a 1952
western
film
made by Wald-Krasna productions and RKO Radio Pictures. The film stars Susan Hayward
, Robert Mitchum
, Arthur Kennedy
, and Arthur Hunnicutt
. It was directed by Nicholas Ray
and Robert Parrish
and produced by Jerry Wald
and Norman Krasna
from a screenplay
by David Dortort
, Horace McCoy
, Alfred Hayes
, Andrew Solt, and Jerry Wald based on the novel by Claude Stanush. The music score was by Roy Webb
and the cinematography
by Lee Garmes
.
The film's world premiere was at the Majestic Theatre in San Antonio, Texas
.
competitor Jeff McCloud (Robert Mitchum) is injured by a Brahma bull
he was trying to ride, he decides to quit. He hitchhikes to his childhood home, a decrepit place now owned by Jeremiah (Burt Mustin
). Run down as it is, it is the dream home for Wes Merritt (Arthur Kennedy) and his wife Louise (Susan Hayward). They are painstakingly saving up the money to buy it from Wes's meager wages as a cowhand. Jeff gets a job at the same ranch.
Wes enters a local rodeo behind his wife's back. When he does well, he decides to join the rodeo circuit, with Jeff as his partner and trainer. Louise is wholeheartedly against the idea, but goes along. She makes her husband promise to quit once they have saved enough for the house.
As Louise becomes acquainted with rodeo life, she becomes more and more disenchanted. Jeff's friend Booker Davis (Arthur Hunnicutt), once a champion competitor himself, is now a crippled old man with little to show for his efforts. When Buster Burgess (Walter Coy) is gored and killed by a bull, leaving a bitter widow (Lorna Thayer), Louise can no longer bear to watch her husband compete. However, Wes is seduced by his great success and the money he is winning. He refuses to quit when they have enough for the house.
Matters come to a head when Babs (Eleanor Todd) invites Wes to a party she is throwing, and makes a play for him. Louise fights back by putting on her only good dress and going to the party with Jeff. She pours a drink on her rival's head before leaving. In the hallway, Jeff asks her if she could love another man, but she is true to Wes. Coming on the tail end of the conversation, Wes tells Jeff that he is tired of taking all the risks and giving him half the prize money.
Jeff decides to go back to the rodeo, despite not being in shape. He gains back Wes's respect by doing well. Then, in the bronc riding
event, his foot gets stuck in the stirrup
after a successful ride, and he is fatally injured. Seeing this, Wes comes to his senses and quits.
1952 in film
The year 1952 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 10 - Cecil B. DeMille's circus epic, The Greatest Show on Earth, premieres at Radio City Music Hall in New York City....
western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
made by Wald-Krasna productions and RKO Radio Pictures. The film stars Susan Hayward
Susan Hayward
Susan Hayward was an American actress.After working as a fashion model in New York, Hayward travelled to Hollywood in 1937 when open auditions were held for the leading role in Gone with the Wind . Although she was not selected, she secured a film contract, and played several small supporting...
, Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
, Arthur Kennedy
Arthur Kennedy (actor)
Arthur Kennedy was an American stage and film actor known for his versatility in supporting film roles and his ability to create "an exceptional honesty and naturalness on stage" especially in the original casts of Arthur Miller plays on Broadway.- Early life and education :Kennedy was born John...
, and Arthur Hunnicutt
Arthur Hunnicutt
Arthur Lee Hunnicutt was an American actor known for his portrayal of wise, grizzled, old rural characters...
. It was directed by Nicholas Ray
Nicholas Ray
Nicholas Ray was an American film director best known for the movie Rebel Without a Cause....
and Robert Parrish
Robert Parrish
Robert R. Parrish was an American actor, film editor, film director, and writer. He received an Academy Award for Film Editing for the 1947 film, Body and Soul....
and produced by Jerry Wald
Jerry Wald
Jerry Wald was an American producer and screenwriter for motion pictures and radio shows.Born Jerome Irving Wald in Brooklyn, New York, he had a brother and sons who were active in show business. Jerry began writing a radio column for the New York Evening Graphic while a student at New York...
and Norman Krasna
Norman Krasna
Norman Krasna was an American screenwriter, playwright, and film director. He is best known for penning screwball comedies, melodrama, and early films noir. Krasna also directed three films during a forty-year career in Hollywood...
from a screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
by David Dortort
David Dortort
-Further reading:*"David Dortort." The Complete Marquis Who's Who. Marquis Who's Who, 2010. Gale Biography In Context. Web. Retrieved 22 Sept. 2010. Fee, via Fairfax County Public Library...
, Horace McCoy
Horace McCoy
Horace McCoy was an American writer whose hardboiled novels took place during the Great Depression. His best-known novel is They Shoot Horses, Don't They? , which was made into a movie of the same name in 1969, fourteen years after McCoy's death.-Early life:McCoy was born in Pegram, Tennessee...
, Alfred Hayes
Alfred Hayes (writer)
Alfred Hayes was a British screenwriter, television writer, novelist, and poet, who worked in Italy and the United States...
, Andrew Solt, and Jerry Wald based on the novel by Claude Stanush. The music score was by Roy Webb
Roy Webb
Roy Webb was a film music composer.Webb has hundreds of composing credits to his name, mainly with RKO Pictures, and while most of the movies he scored were fairly light in content, he is today best known for his dark horror and film noir scores...
and the cinematography
Cinematography
Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
by Lee Garmes
Lee Garmes
Lee Garmes, A.S.C. was an American cinematographer. During his career, he worked with directors Howard Hawks, Max Ophuls, Josef von Sternberg, Alfred Hitchcock, King Vidor, Nicholas Ray and Henry Hathaway, whom he had met as a young man when the two first came to Hollywood in the silent era...
.
The film's world premiere was at the Majestic Theatre in San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
.
Plot
When longtime professional rodeoRodeo
Rodeo is a competitive sport which arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain, Mexico, and later the United States, Canada, South America and Australia. It was based on the skills required of the working vaqueros and later, cowboys, in what today is the western United States,...
competitor Jeff McCloud (Robert Mitchum) is injured by a Brahma bull
Brahman (cattle)
The Brahman or Brahma is a breed of Zebu cattle , later exported from India to the rest of the world. The main breeds used were Kankrej, Gujurat, Nelore or Ongole and the Gir or Gyr cattle...
he was trying to ride, he decides to quit. He hitchhikes to his childhood home, a decrepit place now owned by Jeremiah (Burt Mustin
Burt Mustin
Burton Hill "Burt" Mustin was an American character actor.-Early life:Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to W. I. and Sadie Mustin, Mustin was a 1903 graduate of the Pennsylvania Military College , earning his degree in civil engineering...
). Run down as it is, it is the dream home for Wes Merritt (Arthur Kennedy) and his wife Louise (Susan Hayward). They are painstakingly saving up the money to buy it from Wes's meager wages as a cowhand. Jeff gets a job at the same ranch.
Wes enters a local rodeo behind his wife's back. When he does well, he decides to join the rodeo circuit, with Jeff as his partner and trainer. Louise is wholeheartedly against the idea, but goes along. She makes her husband promise to quit once they have saved enough for the house.
As Louise becomes acquainted with rodeo life, she becomes more and more disenchanted. Jeff's friend Booker Davis (Arthur Hunnicutt), once a champion competitor himself, is now a crippled old man with little to show for his efforts. When Buster Burgess (Walter Coy) is gored and killed by a bull, leaving a bitter widow (Lorna Thayer), Louise can no longer bear to watch her husband compete. However, Wes is seduced by his great success and the money he is winning. He refuses to quit when they have enough for the house.
Matters come to a head when Babs (Eleanor Todd) invites Wes to a party she is throwing, and makes a play for him. Louise fights back by putting on her only good dress and going to the party with Jeff. She pours a drink on her rival's head before leaving. In the hallway, Jeff asks her if she could love another man, but she is true to Wes. Coming on the tail end of the conversation, Wes tells Jeff that he is tired of taking all the risks and giving him half the prize money.
Jeff decides to go back to the rodeo, despite not being in shape. He gains back Wes's respect by doing well. Then, in the bronc riding
Saddle bronc and bareback riding
Bronc riding, either saddle bronc or bareback bronc competition, is a rodeo event that involves a rodeo participant riding on a horse , that attempts to throw or buck off the rider...
event, his foot gets stuck in the stirrup
Stirrup
A stirrup is a light frame or ring that holds the foot of a rider, attached to the saddle by a strap, often called a stirrup leather. Stirrups are usually paired and are used to aid in mounting and as a support while using a riding animal...
after a successful ride, and he is fatally injured. Seeing this, Wes comes to his senses and quits.
Cast
- Susan HaywardSusan HaywardSusan Hayward was an American actress.After working as a fashion model in New York, Hayward travelled to Hollywood in 1937 when open auditions were held for the leading role in Gone with the Wind . Although she was not selected, she secured a film contract, and played several small supporting...
as Louise Merritt - Robert MitchumRobert MitchumRobert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
as Jeff McCloud - Arthur KennedyArthur Kennedy (actor)Arthur Kennedy was an American stage and film actor known for his versatility in supporting film roles and his ability to create "an exceptional honesty and naturalness on stage" especially in the original casts of Arthur Miller plays on Broadway.- Early life and education :Kennedy was born John...
as Wes Merritt - Arthur HunnicuttArthur HunnicuttArthur Lee Hunnicutt was an American actor known for his portrayal of wise, grizzled, old rural characters...
as Booker Davis - Frank FaylenFrank FaylenFrank Faylen was an American movie and television actor.Born Frank Ruf in St. Louis, Missouri, he began his acting career as an infant appearing with his vaudeville performing parents on stage...
as Al Dawson - Walter CoyWalter CoyWalter Darwin Coy was an American stage, radio, film, and, principally, television actor, originally from Great Falls, Montana. He was best known for narrating the NBC western anthology series, Frontier, which aired early Sunday evenings in the 1955-1956 season.-Career:Coy performed on Broadway...
as Buster Burgess - Carol NugentCarol NugentCarol Lou Nugent is an American actress who began her career as a child. Nugent appeared in over 20 feature films and 11 television programs during the 1940s, 50s and 60s. Her 1959 marriage to actor Nick Adams was widely publicized until his death in 1968.-Early life:Nugent was born in Los...
as Rusty Davis, Booker's teenage daughter - Maria HartMaria HartMaria Hart , was an actress under contract to MGM from 1941 to 1948.-Biography:She was born as Barbara Ann McGhee on May 28, 1923 to Edna and James William McGhee. She had roles in The Fighting Stallion and Border Outlaws...
as Rosemary Maddox - Lorna Thayer as Grace Burgess
- Burt MustinBurt MustinBurton Hill "Burt" Mustin was an American character actor.-Early life:Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to W. I. and Sadie Mustin, Mustin was a 1903 graduate of the Pennsylvania Military College , earning his degree in civil engineering...
as Jeremiah - Karen King as Ginny Logan, Red's wife
- Jimmy Dodd as Red Logan, another rodeo competitor
- Eleanor Todd as Babs