The Furies

A fraught, violent Freudianism stampedes through Charles Schnee's script (adapted from Niven Busch's novel) for Anthony Mann's intense Western - only his second stab at the genre which would bring out his very best qualities: his gritty treatment of physical and mental conflict, his classical intelligence and expressive use of landscape. In comparison, The Furies smacks of primitivism, its central feud between Stanwyck and her cattle baron father Walter Huston being both overwritten and underdeveloped. That said, these two performers are so compelling in their own right that Mann could get away with murder with them on the screen together.