Broken Lance (1954) Reviews

• Absorbing Western Drama From An Absorbing Urban Drama

  jpdoherty2009-10-14

  20th Century Fox's BROKEN LANCE ('54) was -alongside "Garden Of Evil - the first western in the then new process of Cinemascope and Stereophonic sound! This was the splendid format which revolutionized picture making and throughout the fifties the studio was the forerunner, and were expert, at producing films in this new medium. Who can forget such memorable classics as "King Of The Khyber Rifles" (' 53), "Beneath The 12 Mile Reef" (' 54), "Untamed" (' 55), "The Last Wagon" (' 56) and "The Bravados" (' 58). All ablaze in that amazing new lifelike widescreen creation! BROKEN LANCE was a western remake of the studio's earlier "House Of Strangers" (' 49) and the change of setting suited the highly charged taut drama quite well! Richly photographed in colour in the new process by the great Joe McDonald it was solidly directed by Edward Dmytryk. Splendidly written and developed by Richard Murphy from Philip Yordan's original screenplay it was well acted by a nicely chosen cast. Spencer Tracy - in one of his rare forays into a western - plays Matthew Devereaux, the irascible autocratic cattle rancher who because of his harsh nature and domineering ways causes great enmity with his four sons. With one son Joe (Robert Wagner) there is a mutual respect but he treats the three others with derision and dissension. This eventually leads the eldest son Ben (Richard Widmark) wanting to take over the ranch. After an altercation - which causes the father to have a stroke - the story culminates in the ailing Matthew riding out after his three errant sons to prevent them from selling off the land and dying in the saddle from the exertion and strain of the pursuit. It is a wonderfully executed intense and powerfully dramatic sequence! Although he dabbled before in the genre and even played a cattle baron seven years earlier in "Sea Of Grass" (' 47) it is nonetheless unusual to see Tracy in a western! But he is excellent here in the role of the domineering patriarch out west and delivers the goods as if westerns were a common thing for him! (two years later he was to play a similar part in MGM's "Tribute To A Bad Man" (' 56) but was replaced by James Cagney at the last minute). The supporting cast were good too! Besides Wagner and Widmark the other brothers were played by Hugh O'Brien and Earl Hollimann. The lovely Jean Peters has the female lead but really has little to do in an under written part! But Katy Jurado gives a nice restrained performance as Tracy's Indian wife and earned an Oscar nomination for her efforts. Besides the stunning Cinemascope/colour Cinematography on locations in southern Arizona the picture also has a stunning score by the ever underrated and little known composer Leigh Harline! Harline was an interesting movie composer! He was born in Utah in 1907. After attending the University of Utah he joined the Utah Radio Orchestra. In Hollywood from the early thirties he went to work for the Disney Studios where he wrote the music for "Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs" and also for "Pinocchio" (' 40) from which came the huge song hit "When You Wish Upon A Star". This tune assured lifelong financial comfort for Harline! He stayed in Hollywood and worked mostly on a free-lance basis. Alfred Newman liked his work and had him score many of Fox's top pictures such as "House Of Bamboo" (' 55), "True Story Of Jesse James" (' 56), "The Enemy Below"(' 57) and "Warlock" (' 59). His music from BROKEN LANCE is probably his best work! The Main Title is a powerfully dramatic and engaging statement for full orchestra! Scored for baying brass and striking bravura strings - with faintly humming female chorus - it is at once thrilling and exhilarating! This theme is used in different guises throughout the picture and creates great impact first as Devereaux and his ranch hands ride across some magnificent Cinemascope landscapes in hot pursuit of some cattle rustlers and then again for the final chase sequence! There is also an Irish melody to point up the main protagonist's Irish background and a gentle love theme for the film's softer moments for scenes with Wagner and Peters. Thankfully this fine score has been preserved on an excellent record album! Harline's last score was his excellent music for "The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao" (' 64). He died in 1969! So quite a satisfying movie all round! It perhaps is not, and never will be, regarded as a brilliant western but it will always be remembered as a splendid reworking of the "King Lear" tale in a most pleasing, handsome and dynamic Cinemascope setting!

• OK But Could Have Been So Much Better

  jcurbaniak2005-07-09

  This 1954 western won an Academy Award for Best Writing and Katy Jurado was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Spencer Tracy is Matthew Deveraux, a self-made Irish (with a name like Deveraux? -- Cajun maybe -- but Irish?) cattle baron owning a huge herd and ranch. He is absolute patriarch over his 4 sons and Indian wife (Jurado), ruling with little feeling for his sons who he treats as hired hands but doting on his spouse. He does have a soft spot, however, for half-breed son Joe (Robert Wagner) which the other three sons from a previous marriage especially the oldest Ben (Richard Widmark) deeply resent. Joe has fallen in love with Barbara (Jean Peters), the governor's daughter further complicating things as the governor (E.G. Marshall) is highly prejudiced against Indians. A violent dispute with a copper mining company polluting creek waters leads to all kinds of legal trouble and Matt must sign the ranch away to his sons. Joe becomes the sacrificial lamb and goes to jail for 3 years basically to keep his father free. Meanwhile Ben now runs the cattle business as he sees fit and in direct defiance of his father's wishes. The film has beautiful landscape photography that is not to be missed. Both Tracy and Widmark offer strong performances. But there are some problems here that hold the film down. Wagner's performance is flat and he is not believable at all as being part Indian. Jurado has little to say or do and how she was Oscar nominated is hard to fathom. The other two sons portrayed by Earl Holliman and Hugh O'Brian are woefully underdeveloped just going along with whatever Widmark's character wants. By the end of the film they have disappeared entirely. Compare this with a film like the "The Sons Of Katie Elder" where the group dynamic and personalities of 4 similar western sons are much better developed and explored and you may feel somewhat cheated by what this film could have been. It's never quite clear (at least to me) why Joe has to go to jail since he did not even start the fight with the copper company. And why the copper company would care if anyone goes to jail (since they get everything they want in the settlement) is also a head scratcher. This just seemed a highly contrived plot device. Finally, another Indian, Two Moons (Eduard Franz - a serious miscast if I ever saw one), saves Joe at a critical point in the film. Wny he appears at just the right moment and his devotion to the Deveraux family is never fully explained (at least to my satisfaction). In fact, there is a whole subplot about Matt Deveraux and the Indians that is touched on but never explored as well. Matt has a surprising respect for wolves (especially for a cattleman) that begged for some further explanation. He is a complex multi-faceted character that should have been better developed. An average oater saved only by Tracy, Widmark, and the spectacular scenery. It could have been so much better.

• CinemaScope western with a great cast

  NewEnglandPat2006-03-14

  Spencer Tracy stars in this fine western of a tough cattle baron who is not above taking the law into his own hands to deal with rustlers and trespassers. The film also dwells on the internal strife within the family as three of the rancher's adult sons quarrel over the old man's mistreatment of them and resent his marriage to an Indian woman. The story is told in flashback and begins with the release from prison of Robert Wagner, Tracy's son from the union with his younger wife. The film is a quest for revenge by Wagner who blames his half brothers for Tracy's death while he was behind bars, with Richard Widmark being the leader and instigator against Wagner. Jean Peters appears as Wagner's love interest and Katy Jurado is Tracy's Comanche princess. Tracy's destruction of mining property gets him into big trouble and it is Wagner who takes the blame for Tracy and goes to prison instead of his father, which is the final break between the four brothers. The film was shot in CinemaScope and captures the beautiful expanses of the old west.

• Joseph and his brothers.

  dbdumonteil2003-11-11

  Although a remake,this western strongly recalls the story of Joseph and his brothers in Genesis.After all,that's the hero's name ,and his brothers really sell him when they refuse to give more money to the bosses of the copper mine .Leonard Maltin wrote that it owes a deal to "king lear" too,the daughters becoming sons.Richard Widmark is the stand-out and easily outshines the "good" Robert Wagner and his two other brothers who are no more than walk-ons anyway.In his final confrontation with Tracy,he even surpasses the veteran :he succeeds,which is not a small feat, in making us believe that he had a very hard life and that he's not so bad after all. "Broken lance" ranks among Dmytryk's best works ,more human than "Warlock" and a thousand times better than the latter days ' fiascoes such as "Alvarez Kelly" and the dreadful "Shalako".Released just after the brilliant "Caine mutiny" ,it compares favorably to it,in its own way.The opening is intriguing :we do believe ,for a short while,that Joe (Wagner) is the black sheep of the family ,and then , a long flashback -a device which is rarely used in westerns - brilliantly starting with the patriarch's(Tracy)painting in a deserted house ,tells the whole story.Also unusual is the rather long trial ,a reason for which some will classify the movie as talky,which is unfair,because so many qualities in a western are rare to find.Tracy's death is a real tour de force verging on supernatural.There's also a sensitive wistful performance by Katy Jurado ,as Tracy's second wife .

• A first-rate adult Western...

  Nazi_Fighter_David2000-06-10

  Tracy is a believable cowboy, nicely balanced for handling a bull whip, riding dangerously the hills... Tracy plays a despot, absolute ruler cattle baron "making the wrong move with the wrong people," using his force to restrain the pollution of his cattle's stream: "The river is on my land. You are on my land. You close this operation down." His first three sons (Widmark, O'Brien and Holliman) were unanimously disappointing to him... He considered them cattle thieves, treating them harshly, without mercy... Only the fourth son and the youngest one (Robert Wagner) by his present wife, a Comanche woman played by the clever, quick-witted Katy Jurado has his affection and care... The other sons looks only forward to his demise so they may take control over his cattle empire... Tracy — irritated and frustrated as a father — expends excessive reasons that arouses the sensation of hate provoking avaricious rebellion, and nearly destroys his younger kid Joe... It was interesting to follow Dmytryk's study of racial prejudice against the Indian wife of a domineering white father... Interesting to compare the rough resilience of Tracy with his character—isolated by mortal danger in "Bad Day at Black Rock," a character enlightened with real feelings specially in guessing the conclusion... Somehow this is missing in Dmytryk's "Broken Lance" where the autocratic father seems so artificial, an unfavorable comment that can be aimed against the movie itself... Widmark offers a fine performance as the unlikable eldest son, while Robert Wagner and Jean Peters manage the romantic interlude... The screenplay, based on 1949s "Home of Strangers" wins an Oscar and the fiery-eyed Mexican star Katy Jurado was nominated for best supporting actress... Filmed in CinemaScope and Technicolor and with great sceneries of the state of Arizona, "Broken Lance" remains a first-rate adult Western...