Will Lockhart (James Stewart) leaves his home in Laramie on a mission to find out who was responsible for selling repeating rifles to the Apaches who killed his brother. Landing in Coronado, New Mexico, he finds that most of the territory is owned and ruled by Alec Waggoman (Donald Crisp),a fierce patriarchal rancher with one loose cannon son, Dave (Alex Nicol) and another surrogate son, Vic Hansboro (Arthur Kennedy) running the Barb Ranch. As he digs deeper, Lockhart finds he is in the middle of two wars, one of which may eventually conclude his revenge fuelled mission.

The Man From Laramie is the last of the five Westerns that director Anthony Mann made with leading man James Stewart. The only one filmed in CinemaScope, it is a visually stylish picture that is full of brooding psychological themes and boasts great acting and a tight script. It's no secret that Mann, before his sad death, was looking to make a Western King Lear, The Man From Laramie serves as a delicious starter to what would have been the main course. With its family dilemmas and oedipal overtones, Mann's Western is very Shakespearian in tone. That its characters are sumptuously framed amongst a harsh dangerous landscape further fuels the psychological fire; with the landscapes (terrificly photographed by Charles Lang) providing a link to the characters emotional states. So many scenes linger long and hard in the memory (none of which I would dare to spoil for would be new viewers),so much so they each reward more upon subsequent revisits to the film. There's some minor quibbles down the pecking order; for instance Cathy O'Donnell as Barbara Waggoman is poor and contributes little to proceedings, but really it remains a quality piece of psychological work that barely gives us reason to scratch the itch.

Taut, tight and tragic is The Man From Laramie, brought to us courtesy from the dynamite partnership of Mann & Stewart. 9/10

THE MAN FROM LARAMIE is a pretty decent western teaming Jimmy Stewart with Anthony Mann for the last of their western collaborations throughout the 1950s. I've always loved Jimmy Stewart and he doesn't disappoint here either, playing a thoroughly likable trader who becomes involved with some dastardly landowners and stands alone against them through steadfast stubbornness.

Stewart always brought a lightness of touch and warmth to his characters even when they weren't written as such and that's the case here. The plot is a typical one for a western but enlivened by some truly vicious scenes, particularly the early assault by Dave and his men which comes out of nowhere and is easily as gruelling as anything the modern-day likes of THE WALKING DEAD can care to throw at us.

The film is well shot and pretty lively with always something of interest to keep you watching. Mann brings the isolated desert landscapes to life with decent cinematography and fills the screen with interesting performers including Arthur Kennedy playing a much more rounded character than you'd expect and Donald Crisp as the hard-headed patriarch. Mann even finds time to include Jack Elam in a small but memorable performance. THE MAN FROM LARAMIE isn't one of the best westerns out there but it's certainly an enjoyable one that ticks all of the right boxes.

This film is pretty typical of a string of Westerns Jimmy Stewart made in the 1950s. All of them were very good--especially for Westerns, as they rose above a very glutted and mediocre genre. In other words, most Westerns of the time were really predictable and forgettable. Stewart's films, while not exactly "great art", were something more--perhaps due to the acting or perhaps due to the excellent production values, as these films weren't just made in a sound stage or in the Hollywood Hills.

This particular film has an advantage over some of Stewart's other Westerns because it once again pairs him with Arthur Kennedy, though in this film he isn't nearly as slimy. The film concerns Jimmy looking to investigate the illegal sale of repeating rifles to the Apache as well as exact revenge for his brother's death as a result of this sale. Along the way, he meets up with the local bully, Dave Waggoman, who is both a coward and a complete jerk. Well, I don't want to spoil the suspense--let's just say that the story takes a few twists and turns along the way so that the movie is both involving and interesting. The film isn't quite as good as it could be because the story is a little weaker than some Stewart Westerns. The whole business involving Donald Crisp just seems to work itself out too well in the end. But, still this is a film well worth a look.