The Lusty Men (1952)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
When he sustains a rodeo injury, star rider Jeff McCloud (Robert Mitchum) returns to his hometown after many years of absence. He signs on as a hired hand with a local ranch, where he befriends fellow ranch hand Wes (Arthur Kennedy) and his wife Louise (Susan Hayward). Wes has big dreams of owning his own little farm, and rodeo winnings could help finance it. Wes convinces Jeff to coach him in the rodeo ways, but Louise has her doubts. She doesn't want her man to end up a broken down rodeo bum like Jeff McCloud. Despite Louise's concern, the threesome hit the road in their Woody, chucking a secure present for an unknown future. Will they find success or sorrow? This picture features plenty of rodeo action and thrills. - Actors:
- Susan Hayward, Robert Mitchum, Arthur Kennedy, Arthur Hunnicutt, Frank Faylen, Walter Coy, Carol Nugent, Maria Hart, Lorna Thayer, Burt Mustin, Karen King, Jimmie Dodd, Eleanor Todd
- Directors:
- Nicholas Ray, Robert Parrish
- Producers:
- Norman Krasna, Jerry Wald
- Writers:
- David Dortort, Horace McCoy, Claude Stanush, Alfred Hayes, Andrew Solt, Jerry Wald
- Aka:
- Cowpoke / The Losers
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Classics, Drama
- Collections:
- The Instant Expert's Guide, The Instant Expert's Guide to: Wim Wenders
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Reviews (1) of The Lusty Men
Rodeo Soap. - The Lusty Men review by Steve
Melodrama set around the rodeo circuit of the new west in the 1950s. Robert Mitchum plays a busted up ex-bullriding champion who coaches Arthur Kennedy to riches and celebrity and sees him make the same mistakes... while the old hand falls for the rookie's combustable wife (Susan Hayward).
It's a bit like a trashy airport novel. It depicts the west as a place where working traditions have been transformed into leisure and entertainment. There are a few bum notes; Susan Hayward is a great actor and she brings a lot of energy, but she is too polished for a shack reared rodeo wife making do in budget trailer parks.
But it's a fun, volatile performance, and Robert Mitchum is easily a match as the brooding, bruised former champion. He was always a convincing cowboy. There's some fine low-rent poetic dialogue. Roy Webb's orchestral score evokes the big skies of the west without resorting to cliché, and gives the film an epic quality.
It presents a vivid impression of the wild west carnival, populated by drunk stars and their suffering wives and transient groupies. The riders compete for finite prize money, which they spend on the road until they drop out with broken bones, or punchy- or worse- and empty pockets. The ending is a dud, but we get to visit a credible, unfamiliar world.