Monday, March 9, 2009
Stanwyck and The Furies
Posted by Matt Brunson on Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 10:02 AM
The Main Library's tribute to actress Barbara Stanwyck continues tonight with a screening of 1950's The Furies. In his final screen appearance, Walter Huston stars as T.C. Jeffords, a tyrannical, self-made millionaire who rules over everyone around him with little room for charity or sympathy (one character cracks, "If you stop telling people lies about me, I'll stop telling them the truth about you"). Stanwyck co-stars as T.C.'s headstrong daughter Vance, who spends the film bucking up against her father on almost every count: sparring with him over the ranch and the surrounding land; romantically involved with the two men he most despises (gambler Wendell Corey and Mexican squatter Gilbert Roland); and taking an instant dislike to the older woman (Judith Anderson) she fears will steal the property away from her.
Hardly a formulaic Western, The Furies (incidentally, the name of T.C.'s ranch, although firmly rooted in Greek and Roman mythology) takes several unpredictable turns, some not as successful as others. But minor missteps and a weak-willed performance by Corey (both Stanwyck and Huston devour him alive) fail to break the film's galloping stride, and cinematographer Victor Milner earned his ninth and final Oscar nomination (he won years earlier for Cecil B. DeMille's 1934 take on Cleopatra) for his stark black-and-white camerawork.
The screening is at 7 p.m. tonight at ImaginOn. Admission is free.
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