''The Man from Laramie'' is a 1955 American

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

film directed by

Anthony Mann Anthony Mann (born Emil Anton Bundsmann; June 30, 1906 – April 29, 1967) was an American film director and stage actor. Mann initially started as a theatre actor appearing in numerous stage productions. In 1937, he moved to Hollywood where ...

and starring

James Stewart James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military pilot. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morality ...

Arthur Kennedy John Arthur Kennedy (February 17, 1914January 5, 1990) was an American stage and film actor known for his versatility in supporting film roles and his ability to create "an exceptional honesty and naturalness on stage", especially in the origi ...

Donald Crisp Donald William Crisp (27 July 188225 May 1974) was an English film actor as well as an early producer, director and screenwriter. His career lasted from the early silent film era into the 1960s. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor ...

, and

Cathy O'Donnell Cathy O'Donnell (born Ann Steely, July 6, 1923 – April 11, 1970) was an American actor who appeared in '' The Best Years of Our Lives,'' '' Ben-Hur,'' and films noir such as ''Detective Story'' and '' They Live by Night''. Early life O' ...

. Written by

Philip Yordan Philip Yordan (April 1, 1914 – March 24, 2003) was an American screenwriter of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s who produced several films. He acted as a front for blacklisted writers although his use of surrogate screenwriters predates the McCar ...

and Frank Burt, the film is about a stranger who defies a local cattle baron and his sadistic son by working for one of his oldest rivals. The film was adapted from a serial of the same title by Thomas T. Flynn, first published in ''

The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely ...

'' in 1954, and thereafter as a novel in 1955. Shot in

Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

, ''The Man from Laramie'' was one of the first Westerns to be filmed in

CinemaScope CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its creation in 1953 by ...

to capture the vastness of the scenery. This is the fifth and final Western collaboration between Anthony Mann and James Stewart, the other four being ''

Winchester '73 ''Winchester '73'' is a 1950 American Western film directed by Anthony Mann and starring James Stewart, Shelley Winters, Dan Duryea and Stephen McNally. Written by Borden Chase and Robert L. Richards, the film is about the journey of a pr ...

'' (1950), '' Bend of the River'' (1952), ''

The Naked Spur ''The Naked Spur'' is a 1953 American Western film directed by Anthony Mann and starring James Stewart, Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan, Ralph Meeker, and Millard Mitchell. Written by Sam Rolfe and Harold Jack Bloom, the film is about a bounty hunter ...

'' (1953) and ''

The Far Country ''The Far Country'' is a 1954 American Technicolor Western film directed by Anthony Mann and starring James Stewart, Ruth Roman, Walter Brennan, John McIntire and Corinne Calvet. Written by Borden Chase, the film is about a self-minded advent ...

'' (1954). Mann and Stewart also collaborated on three other films: ''

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its populati ...

'' (1953), '' The Glenn Miller Story'' (1954) and ''

Strategic Air Command Strategic Air Command (SAC) was both a United States Department of Defense Specified Command and a United States Air Force (USAF) Major Command responsible for command and control of the strategic bomber and intercontinental ballistic missile ...

'' (1955).

Plot

Will Lockhart delivers supplies from Laramie to Coronado, an isolated western town. He immediately ends up tangling with the Waggomans, influential family owning the sprawling Barb Ranch. Lockhart is quietly searching for information about someone who sold

repeating rifle A repeating rifle is a single-barreled rifle capable of repeated discharges between each ammunition reloads. This is typically achieved by having multiple cartridges stored in a magazine (within or attached to the gun) and then fed individually in ...

s to the

Apache The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño a ...

s; his brother, a young lieutenant, was one of many U.S. Cavalry soldiers killed in an Apache attack on a far reach of the Barb Ranch. Patriarch Alec Waggoman is haunted by dreams of a stranger who intends to kill his adult son, Dave. He is also gradually losing his eyesight and cannot count on the immature and impulsive Dave. Lockhart is told by Barbara Waggoman, Alec's niece, that he can collect salt for free from a dry lake, as cargo for his return journey. But Dave Waggoman accuses him of stealing the salt, shoots most of Lockhart's mules and burns all his wagons. Lockhart returns to town, provokes a fistfight first with Dave and then ranch foreman Vic Hansbro. Alec shows up and offers Lockhart compensation for his destroyed property. Sheriff Tom Quigby suggests that Lockhart then leave town quickly to avoid trouble. Lockhart continues searching for the gun runner. Local drunk Chris Boldt tells him that he may know something, but is seen shortly afterwards attacking Lockhart with a knife. When he is himself found stabbed dead, Sheriff Quigby briefly arrests Lockhart on suspicion for the killing. Vic considers himself a second son to Alec and is engaged to marry Barbara. Alec depends on and respects Vic, but holds him responsible for Dave's misbehaviour, and threatens to pay the compensation for Lockhart's destroyed property out of Vic's wages. Dave follows Lochhart and attacks him. But the gunfight ends when Dave is shot in the hand by Lockhart. Lockhart is overpowered by the Barb Ranch cowbows, who look on bewildered as Dave then shoots Lockhart through the hand with Lockhart's own gun. Afterwards, Vic rides after Dave and catches him trying to contact the Apaches to deliver 200 repeating rifles for which the Apaches have paid Vic and Dave in advance. After being held at gunpoint by a paranoiac Dave, Vic shoots Dave in self-defense, killing him, but then lies about the incident, allowing Alec to believe that Lockhart was responsible. Meanwhile Lockhart who is nursing his wounded hand takes refuge with a rival rancher, Kate Canady. She was Waggoman's long-ago fiancée, before he married Dave's mother, and now seeking to find a truce. Alec goes over the ranch's account books and finds a payment for a wagon load of "fencing wire", that is very overpriced, though the Barb Ranch has no wire fences at all. He suspects that it conceals a rifle purchase and sets out to discover for himself if Dave was both stealing from him and selling rifles to the Apaches. Vic is unable to talk him out of it, so just before they reach the wagon, the two struggle and Alec is accidentally pushed off his horse and over a cliff. Assuming the old man is dead, Vic rides away. Lockhart, who is searching for a hidden wagon load of rifles which he heard the Apache had paod for and expected to receive shortly, finds Alec wounded but still alive and takes him to Kate to tend to his wounds. When he regains consciousness, Alec is able to tell Lockhart about Dave and Vic and the rifles. Lockhart finds Vic sending a smoke signal to summon the Apaches to come for their rifles. Lockhart forces Vic to help him push the wagon off the hilltop (supposedly destroying the rifles). When he can't bring himself to kill Vic in cold blood, he tells him to just get away from him. Vic rides away, but is intercepted and killed by the Apaches. Alec and Kate plan to get married. Barbara intends to leave Coronado, and head back east. As Lockhart leaves town, he tells Barbara she will be passing through Laramie on the way and asks her to look him up there. Saying to "ask anyone where to find Captain Lockhart" he confirms that he was an officer in the U.S. Cavalry.

Cast

as Will Lockhart *

as Vic Hansbro *

as Alec Waggoman *

as Barbara Waggoman *

Alex Nicol Alexander Livingston Nicol Jr. (January 20, 1916 – July 29, 2001) was an American actor and film director. Nicol appeared in many Westerns including ''The Man from Laramie'' (1955). He appeared in more than forty feature films as well as dire ...

as Dave Waggoman *

Aline MacMahon Aline Laveen MacMahon (May 3, 1899 – October 12, 1991) was an American actress. Her Broadway stage career began under producer Edgar Selwyn in ''The Mirage'' during 1920. She made her screen debut in 1931 and worked extensively in film, thea ...

as Kate Canady *

Wallace Ford Wallace Ford (born Samuel Grundy Jones; 12 February 1898 – 11 June 1966) was an English-born naturalized American vaudevillian, stage performer and screen actor. Usually playing wise-cracking characters, he combined a tough but friendly-fac ...

as Charley O'Leary *

Jack Elam William Scott "Jack" Elam (November 13, 1920 – October 20, 2003) was an American film and television actor best known for his numerous roles as villains in Western films and, later in his career, comedies (sometimes spoofing his villaino ...

as Chris Boldt * John War Eagle as Frank Darrah * James Millican as Tom Quigby *

Gregg Barton Gregg Barton (Born Harold Wilson Barker, June 5, 1912 – November 28, 2000) was an American actor, who played various roles in feature films and television series. Career Born in Oswego, New York, Barton is possibly best remembered for having ...

as Fritz *

Boyd Stockman Ira D. Boyd Stockman (February 12, 1916 – March 10, 1998) was an American actor and stuntman. He was best known for his appearances in the American western television series '' The Adventures of Kit Carson'', and for playing the role of Spud O ...

as Spud Oxton *

Frank DeKova Frank de Kova (March 17, 1910 – October 15, 1981) was an American character actor in films, stage, and TV. Biography De Kova was born in New York City. He was a teacher at a school in New York before joining a Shakespeare repertory group. He ...

as Padre

Production

Producer Aaron Rosenberg says that the reason Stewart and Mann never worked together for a sixth Western collaboration after ''The Man from Laramie'' was a disagreement over the quality of '' Night Passage'' (1957), which according to Mann (who worked pre-production) was "trash". Mann quit the movie, replaced by director James Neilson, feeling that Stewart was only making the film so he could play his accordion, something that enraged Stewart so much that the two didn't speak again.

Theme song

The film's theme song was written by Lester Lee and Ned Washington. It was recorded in the United States by

Al Martino Al Martino (born Jasper Cini; October 7, 1927 – October 13, 2009) was an American singer and actor. He had his greatest success as a singer between the early 1950s and mid-1970s, being described as "one of the great Italian American pop croone ...

and in the United Kingdom by Jimmy Young. Young's version reached number-one the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in October 1955, remaining there for four weeks, while Martino's version peaked at number 19 in the chart that September.

Chart performance

Jimmy Young

Al Martino

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Man From Laramie, The 1955 films 1955 Western (genre) films American Western (genre) films CinemaScope films Columbia Pictures films 1950s English-language films Films scored by George Duning Films based on American novels Films based on Western (genre) novels Films directed by Anthony Mann Films shot in New Mexico Revisionist Western (genre) films 1950s American films