The Furies
Director: Anthony Mann
Year Released: 1950
Rating: 2.0
Egomaniacal landowner (Walter Huston, larger-than-life) takes on a rival's son, "squatters" living on his land and a wild bull, but it's his head-strong daughter (Barbara Stanwyck) who gives him the biggest fight - he alienates her by writing an excessive number of IOUs and by 'curing' his loneliness with a nasty mistress. It's clunky, plodding and not exactly subtle - an early close-up of Stanwyck and Pops makes it look like the two are about ready to kiss (good thing Mom's dead!) - only picking up in the last act when it gets to the real drama: the Daddy versus Daughter Plot and all its Freudian Hooey. Making Stanwyck a strong female figure in a male-dominated genre - able to be cunning like the guys - is a curious slant: she slaps but she can take a slap, too (which is about as 'feminist' as these things get, I reckon).
