Review of The Man from Laramie (1955) by James H — 29 May 2010

Like the Sons of Katie Elder, The Man from Laramie deals heavily with father/son relationships in the old west, and how the weak son fails the empire-carving father. The son Dave (Alex Nicol) isn't just weak and ignorant, he's also mean-spirited.

Vic (Arthur Kennedy) is put in charge of "keeping" Dave, but Dave travels across the ranch like an oafish baby, and Vic can only keep him in line so well. But Vic has other reasons for disliking Dave, especially the fact that when the old man (Donald Crisp) dies, Dave will inherit (and likely fritter away) all the hard work he's put into the ranch.

Lockhart (James Stewart) has come to to town supposedly to deliver a shipment to the general store, but his real agenda is to discover who sold the repeating rifles to the apaches who killed his brother.

There are no stereotypical villains in this movie, no one is strictly speaking "evil" (except perhaps dave, who just wants to be the man his father was), they're more misguided. When the old man came out west, he had to be tough, as there wasn't any law to protect him and his property.

Times have changed, and he wants his son to learn how to do the bookkeeping, but all Dave wants to do is play cowboy and spends every opportunity looking for a fight. Lockhart is shrewd and cool as a cucumber as he works towards finding his revenge, and it's a vengeance that won't be denied.

The psychology of the characters is well fleshed out and puts the Man from Laramie a step above the stereotypical black-and-white westerns.