Customer Reviews
Man of the west 
2008-11-24
Coop fans will enjoy this gritty western,directed by Anthony Mann.The throw down between our hero and Jack Lord is not to be missed!Above average plot with strong support.
Gary Cooper and Anthony Mann 
2008-11-22
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: From the Secret Files of Harry Pennypacker
Cheyenne Warrior: The Original Screenplay with Author Commentary
Shadow Watcher
Nobody Drowns in Mineral Lake
Gary Cooper stars in MAN OF THE WEST(1958), directed by Anthony Mann who also directed such classic James Stewart westerns as WINCHESTER. 73., BEND OF THE RIVER and THE NAKED SPUR.
This was one of Cooper's last films and, frankly, he seems a bit old for the role, even though the movie itself is an excellent adult western with complex characters and some good action scenes, particularly the final shoot-out.
Former outlaw Cooper, now a family man and rancher, is riding on a train that is robbed by his old gang. He, along with fellow passengers Julie London and Arthur O'Connell, are taken hostage, their lives threatened by half-crazed gang leader Lee J. Cobb, who wants Cooper to return to his old ways.
The film benefits from a strong script by Reginald Rose. Jack Lord is effective as a gang member.
© Michael B. Druxman, author of ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD
"Gary Cooper Series ... Man of the West (1958) ... United Artists" 2008-09-25
United Artists presents "MAN OF THE WEST" (1 October 1958) (99 mins/Color) (Dolby digitally remastered) -- Our story line and plot, On his way to hire a schoolteacher, a homesteader (Gary Cooper) is left a hundred miles from anywhere when the train he is on is robbed --- With him are an attractive dancehall girl (Julie London) and an untrustworthy gambler (Arthur O'Connell) and he decides to get shelter nearby from outlaw relatives (Lee J. Cobb) he used to run with --- They don't trust him and he loathes them but they decide he can help them with one last bank job --- The rest of the gang is Robert J. Wilke, Royal Dano, Jack Lord, and John Dehner. Lee J. Cobb is Dock Tobin and though he's 10 years younger than Cooper, he plays his uncle. Along for the ride are fellow train passengers Julie London and Arthur O'Connell --- It's an admirable cast --- Jack Lord as a wild and rebellious killer, John Dehner as a cool but equally violent person, Lee J. Cobb as a filthy old man who was the leader of the gang and who surely was the example for the other gangmembers and Arthur O'Connell and Julie London as the innocent bystanders who Cooper must look out for --- Also thought that the content and violence was very well done to help people get the feeling of what people could be like --- All in all, "Man of the West" is not only one of Cooper's best but one of the best westerns ever --- Anthony Mann's final foray into the western genre is a disturbing examination of man's basic instincts, rising in intensity to the level of Shakespearean tragedy.
Under the production staff of:
Anthony Mann - Director
Walter Mirisch - Producer
Will C. Brown - Book Author
Reginald Rose - Screenwriter
Ernest Haller - Cinematographer
Leigh Harline - Composer (Music Score)
Victor Heerman - Editor
Richard V. Heermance - Editor
Hilyard M. Brown - Production Designer
Edward Boyle - Set Designer
Yvonne Wood - Costume Designer
Jack Solomon - Sound/Sound Designer
Emile LaVigne - Makeup
Richard Moder - First Assistant Director
SPECIAL FEATURES:
BIOS:
1. Gary Cooper (aka: Frank James Cooper)
Date of Birth: 7 May 1901 - Helena, Montana
Date of Death: 13 May 1961 - Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California
2. Anthony Mann (Director)
Date of Birth: 30 June 1906 - San Diego, California
Date of Death: 29 April 1967 - Berlin, Germany
the cast includes:
Gary Cooper ... Link Jones
Julie London ... Billie Ellis
Lee J. Cobb ... Dock Tobin
Arthur O'Connell ... Sam Beasley
Jack Lord ... Coaley
John Dehner ... Claude
Royal Dano ... Trout
Robert J. Wilke ... Ponch (as Robert Wilke)
Frank Ferguson ... Marshal of Crosscut
Tom London ... Tom, Henry's Friend
Hats off and thanks to Les Adams (collector/guideslines for character identification), Chuck Anderson (Webmaster: The Old Corral/B-Westerns.Com), Boyd Magers (Western Clippings), Bobby J. Copeland (author of "Trail Talk"), Rhonda Lemons (Empire Publishing Inc) and Bob Nareau (author of "The Real Bob Steele") as they have rekindled my interest once again for B-Westerns and Serials --- If you're into the memories of B-Westerns with high drama, this is the one you've been anxiously waiting for --- please stand up and take a bow Western Classics --- all my heroes have been cowboys!
Total Time: 99 mins on DVD ~ United Artists ~ (5/13/2008)
badbones 
2008-09-01
Not as good as I remember when I watched it as a teenager. I would put this movie in the middle of Gary's over all westerns. My favorite is Vera Cruz with him and Burt Lancaster.
Man of the West 2008-07-16
I first saw this movie about 40 years ago. I thought it was great then and it is still great. Gary Cooper gives an outstanding performance. Jack Lord is excellent as a bank and train robber, this is pre Hawaii 5-0. Lee J. Cobb is great as the patriarchal head of an outlaw clan. One of the great western classics from before the advent of the spaghetti westerns.
One of Coop's last Westerns 2008-06-24
Studio: Tcfhe/mgm Release Date: 05/13/2008 Run time: 83 minutes Rating: Nr
A Word About the New DVD 2008-06-13
Just to let you know, the new DVD is anamorphic widescreen. On top of that it has been remastered and cleaned up quite a bit. Its a great transfer of a great film.
Its a shame there isn't any special features about this landmark western, however regardless of that fact, this DVD is a must own for any fan of the genre.
Well Hello Link! 2008-04-25
This Western stands far above 95% of the other films in this genre. Why? Great direction, flawed and therefore interesting characters, quirks, twists, classic conflicts, Julie London at the height of her mythic beauty, memorable dialogue, enigmatic situations, wonderful actors and performances. This is most definitely not a formulaic picture. When is the last time you saw a fight in a western where one guy rips the clothes off of another, just for humiliation sake?
Gary Cooper is topnotch as usual, here toward the end of his long and glorious career, but taking some chances by playing a once-super nasty hombre who's now gone straight. My friends and I memorized long passages of the dialogue, particularly the lines spat out by gang leader Doc Tobin, played magnificently by Lee J. Cobb. Here's Doc waxing nostalgic, upon first recognizing Link after many years : "Uvalde.....Saltillo.....Black Fork! Remember them times?? We killed that bank guard together. You held him and I took the top of his head off?" Later Link complains that Doc makes him stay in a room with the creepy mute Trout, played by one of filmdom's alltime great psychos, Royal Dano. Doc again: "Being with Trout is like being alone!" If you don't know about Royal Dano, think of Crispin Glover to get an idea. The two are probably related somehow.
What a great supporting cast as well, featuring, besides Dano, some of the dirtiest and most lowdown badguys ever: the frightening John Dehner as Cousin Claude, and that unsung antihero of countless westerns, snarling Robert J. Wilke. And we would be remiss if we did not mention the guy who got his pants ripped off and ends up shedding tears of humiliation: Jack Lord!
MUST SEE WESTERN CLASSIC 2008-03-13
A classic western and one of Mann's greatest films [film noir or western, and perhaps best thought of as a film noir stuffed into the mold of the western]. Great script, wide open scenery, widescreen Cinemascope photography, great soundtrack, a 'narly Gary Cooper (as "Link"), and assorted nasty character actors. View it not only as a straight ahead western narrative, but also as a metaphor for any man seeking redemption from a twisted past.
The Tobin gang is Link's "family" [he is literally the link between evil (his past with them) and good (his current domesticated life and hoped for future)], and the story is that of his attempted escape and redemption as he rebels against this family's history of violence and criminality. A redemption that eventually involves the extermination of this family involving multiple fratricides, and for the finale, partricide.
The penultimate shoot out with his "cousin" Claude is is one of the great scenes in the Western film genre. Simply reflect on the classic line after Claude is shot by Link (delivered in a moan dripping with regret): "...it could have been so different...". Perhaps the ultimate statement regarding the individual's attempt to escape his/her past, fate, and, in this case, certainly, a monstrously dysfunctional family of range roving psychopaths.
The "rape" of mad dog "brother" Jack Lord (say it ain't so Dan-O!) is thrown in as a bizarre twist in this festival of Freudian bloodletting - I can only imagine the unsettling feeling that 50's audiences had when viewing the spectacle of this brother on brother trist. It's no wonder the film did not go down well at the time of its release - it is easily the darkest Western made up to this point in time.
Doc Tobin's last line before he shuffles off to big sky country sums up both the ending of the film and the beginning of the end of the Western genre. The Wild Bunch is just a decade away. For a darker vision of the Western World (no teaser here) one would have to go to Oakley Hall's "Warlock", or, Cormac McCarthy's, "Blood Meridian" - both novels, and both highly recommended.
An overlooked Western that deserves another look. 2008-01-22
Why was this film not liked by alot of people when it came out? Lee J. Cobb is one of the best leaders of a band of outlaws I have ever seen in movies. Gary Cooper is great, definitely not on par with his masterful perfomances in "FRIENDLY PERSUASION", "HIGH NOON", or "THE WESTERNER", but he is very good. The rest of the cast play their roles wonderfully. Royal Dano plays a mute, but he usually did portray either a very quiet character or a somewhat different character, so he is alright. John Dehner is also very quiet, calm, cool, and collected, but in his last scene, in his gunfight with Cooper, he becomes very nervous and worried, because he knows that Cooper is coming for him, but he does not know where Cooper is. Robert Wilke turns in a usual villainous role as Ponch, another member of the gang. His performance is definitely not as good as his small roles in his earlier part of an adversary against Gary Cooper, as one of the bad-guys from High Noon, his earlier work with director of this movie, Anthony Mann, in "THE FAR COUNTRY", his later work as "Wallace", the braggart competing against James Coburn, in "THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN", or the first mate of the Nautilus in one of my other favorites, the Disney version of "TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA". Julie London is good, but I cannot compare her to anything else because I have never seen her in anything else but this movie. Arthur O'Connell fits his role like a glove. A role of a person who is talkative, nosy, and very nervous under pressure. Enough with the okay-but-not-perfect performances. On to the ones who should have won some awards for their portrayals. These people would be Lee J. Cobb and Jack Lord. Lee J. Cobb is a particular standout with his deep, cackling, cracked voice of an old man. He is also the only one out of the entire cast, except for London and O'Connell, that actually likes Cooper's character, Link Jones. He is obviously very surprised when Link kills him, because of the soft spot that he has held for Link ever since their good old days of being outlaws. Anthony Mann required Cobb to ham up his voice from just a deep, resonant, booming presence into the voice of an old, old man that has seen better days, both physically and metaphorically, has apparently lost his mind, is usually drunk, and still harbors feelings of a type of father-son relationship for Link. This father-son relationship is what was a big factor towards Dock Tobin's demise. But, unfortunately, it also gives Link an edge against Dock so he can surprise him by drawing his gun to kill him before Tobin can draw his. Jack Lord is absolutely superb as Coaley. He has a particular characteristic in this movie. This characteristic would be the sneer that he has- very cruel, unforgiving, evil, and nasty all at the same time. Another standout from Lord's performance is one of his last scenes, which is his fight with Link, that ranges from in the middle of the small circle of wagons, to a tree a little distance away, and back again. The last part of the fight is definitely the best part of the fight. The reason for this is because Link tears Coaley's clothes off, down to his undershirt, in exchange for what Coaley forced London's character, Billie Ellis, to do, earlier in the movie, back at the gang's hideout shack. Then, Coaley pulls his gun on Dock, but who he really wants to kill is Link. He fires at Link, but somebody else is killed, because they jumped in front of the gun to save Link's life. Dock then kills Coaley. All through this fight, ever since Link gained the upper hand, that is, Coaley was crying. He was still crying when Dock shoots him. This is when we realize that Coaley was a coward, and had, ever since Link "joined" with them again, been jealous of Dock's preference of Link above the rest of them. Coaley just obviously could not stand it. There are two other performances that deserve praise. These would be the one-of-a-kind relationship between Billie and Link, which is very hard to put into words. They cannot get married, but if Link was single, we all know that she would marry him in a heartbeat. When you think about it, Link and Billie do not really need to get married, because the audience would not know what to expect if they were. Cooper and London are perfect for their roles just the way they are. The last, but certainly not the least performance is the great scenery. Sure, its not nearly as good as the scenery in Mann's colloborations with James Stewart, but the scenery in MAN OF THE WEST is not Oregon or Canada/Alaska, such as in "BEND OF THE RIVER", Stewart and Mann's second Western, or in The Far Country, Stewart and Mann's fourth Western. However, the scenery in Man of the West is quite superb. But all these great performances make up an even greater movie. Man of the West would not be what it is, a great Western, if it did not have the performances of Cooper, Cobb, Lord, and all the rest.
Also Recommended: "THE WESTERNER" (1940), "HIGH NOON" (1952), "THE FAR COUNTRY" (1954), "FRIENDLY PERSUASION" (1957), "THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN" (1960)
THIS REVIEW IS DEDICATED TO ANYONE, LIVING OR DEAD, INVOLVED IN THE MAKING OF "MAN OF THE WEST".
