Rating: 4.5/5
You can have it all. My empire of cows.
</i>I don't think I like being in love. It puts a bit in my mouth.</i>
In the 1870s, T.C. Jeffords (Walter Houston) laid claim to a sum of land called The Furies in New Mexico, and his daughter Vance (Barbara Stanwyck) is the heir to his estate. If T.C. is going to give Vance The Furies, she must marry a man T.C. can stand.
To settle things up with Anaheim Bank, T.C. must chase off the squatters on the land (aka the folks living there when T.C. claimed it). One family, The Herreras, is close to Vance, and Juan Herrera has been her secret friend since childhood.
Vance meets Rip Darrow (Wendell Corey), who holds a mutual grudge with T.C. over a piece of his family’s land that T.C. bought through a technicality. Vance falls in love with Rip, but T.C. warns her that Rip is only into money. Sure enough, when T.C. bribes Rip to leave Vance, Rip takes the money without hesitation.
Vance is heartbroken, but her worries increase as her father courts Flo Burnett, who plans to marry T.C. for his money and to manage The Furies. Where love once lived in Vance’s heart, hate consumes all else as she conspires to reclaim The Furies for herself.
This movie says Western on the box, but it’s more complex than that. It contains melodrama, screwball comedy, and even some noir as it dives into darker territory. There are no clear-cut heroes or villains, just individuals with competing desires and the deceitful measures they take to fulfill them.
The film implies women ran the West, manipulating men behind the scenes to do their bidding. That rules.
Barbara Stanwyck is so charismatic! She has lines in this that had me pumping my fists and cheering.
Economic, and at others breathtaking, the cinematography and lighting will sneak up on you. The sun gives a backlit glow to scenes that transcend the movie.
The only reason this isn’t a 5 for me is the rampant misogyny. Stanwyck gets slapped a bunch.
This move-watching experience is both moving and riveting. I don’t enjoy Westerns, but this has me wondering if I’ve been watching the wrong Westerns.
If you drink every time someone says “The Furies,” you’ll be dead by 20 minutes in.
T.C. Facts I Find Funny
- In all of T.C.’s dealings, he’s established his own “legal tender” called T.C.’s, but their value on the dollar is questionable.
- T.C. has Cotton Hill energy, just in the wild-ass things he says.
- T.C. looks like Paul F Thompkins. I have to believe he’s done a character like this.
- T.C. has two busts in his office: Napoleon and himself.
- T.C. throws a guy through a window for drunkenly snoring too loud.