CHEYENNE — I'm a movie buff and have been since I could buy my own ticket at age 11.
This attraction explains why I pay an extra $29 per month to access the TMC Classic Movie Channel.
Since this is the outdoor rodeo season in Wyoming and the West, it was timely to watch an old gem last week on TCM.
It was a 1952 black-and-white movie from RKO titled “The Lusty Men.”
This movie is about the darker side of the lives of professional rodeo performers, as it was years ago.
First of all, the film’s title was and is silly. Still it is a bit better than “The Cowpokes,” which was another label considered.
The film itself has good viewing quality thanks to the restoration work by Warner Brothers about 10 years ago. But the interposed old newsreel shots of real rodeos and cowboys and real parades and marching bands are a bit scratchy.
”The Lusty Men” was a big hit in its day.
Some critics said this movie was a masterpiece, and the best contemporary Western story up to then.
The original story, published in a magazine, carried a tinge of the Great Depression years, when jobs were nonexistent and desperate men did dangerous things like trying to ride angry bulls or agitated horses for money.
The movie plot is pure Hollywood studio vanilla. Curiously, it was made without a screenplay after the script writers failed to produce an acceptable version.
So the film was sort of pinned together each day as the studio players and crew went along under the sharp guidance of the talented director, Nicholas Ray.
The finished product meshing together the old newsreel film and the new story works. It shows the overall pageantry of the rodeo, the abundance of flags and horses, the enthusiasm of the crowds, the bravery of the clowns and the riders who are like modern-day gladiators.
The film stars Susan Hayward, Robert Mitchum and Arthur Kennedy.
Mitchum plays the part of Jeff, a rodeo champion who was off the circuit temporarily due to injuries from being gored in the leg by a bull. After years of rodeoing he is flat broke having blown his money on too much drinking, gambling and women during wild after-hour parties.
Jeff returns to his hometown in Texas, where he meets a young couple, Wes and Louise, Kennedy and Hayward.
Louise, who was raised by poor, nomadic parents, wants a home and stable life. She wants to buy a small ranch in the area and settle down. Wes is frustrated because it would take him years working as a cowhand to raise the $5,000 price tag on that ranch.
Wes sees in Jeff a way to get that money quicker. They partner with an agreement; Jeff will teach Wes all he know about rodeoing for half his winnings.
Louise hates the whole idea and the lifestyle she sees.
Wes, meanwhile, is a big hit with the rodeo crowd. He relishes the attention and is quickly drawn into the rodeo partying circle.
He buys a trailer from the widow of a rodeo veteran who dies from injuries incurred in the arena, leaving only a collection of his rodeo awards.
Unhappy, Louise stays in the trailer and cooks.
Jeff is interested in Louise; he is rebuffed.
Wes and Jeff have a falling out. Jeff, though not in good shape, signs up for a big rodeo and does well.
But after setting a record on a bucking bronc, he gets his foot caught in a stirrup. He is dragged and the horse falls on him. The result is fractured rib or ribs, piercing his lung.
Jeff dies in Louise’s arms.
Wes feels bad. “He was the best,” he says of Jeff.
When his name is called for the next event, he cancels out.
Wes and Louise leave for Texas to buy the ranch.
That was the end of the movie. Being Hollywood, the studio people wanted a happy ending. They wanted to see Jeff go off with an ex girlfriend or a new girlfriend while Wes and Louise head happily back to Texas.
Ray fought for his version and won.
Jeff’s death summarizes Ray’s ultimate message — that there are no real winners in rodeo.
As Jeff says in his final words;
"There never was a horse that couldn’t be rode; never was a cowboy who couldn’t be throwed."
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Contact Joan Barron at 307-632-2534 or jmbarron@bresnan.net
