man from laramie

As the final collaboration between director Anthony Mann and star Jimmy Stewart, The Man from Laramie (1955) takes a decidedly more conservative approach than their previous groundbreaking films like Bend of the River or The Naked Spur, Westerns that eschewed a conventional hero and cast Stewart in roles defined by rage, paranoia and downright insanity. Here he’s simply a wandering ex-army officer on a quest for justice on the edge of the frontier…with his own theme song, no less!

But the fact that The Man from Laramie plays it safe, so to speak, should in no way diminish one’s enjoyment of it. Mann’s Shakespearean horse opera gathers a great deal of momentum as the story moves along, and Stewart peppers his performance with glimpses of some slightly unhinged character traits still lurking in the stables.

Making his way through Indian country to deliver supplies to a small New Mexico town, Will Lockhart (Stewart) has a secret agenda: to find the gunrunner responsible for his brother’s death at the hands of armed Apaches. He quickly runs afoul of the local cattle baron, Alec Waggoman (Donald Crisp), his spoiled and mentally unbalanced son (Alex Nicol) and an ambitious ranch hand who dreams of inheriting the whole spread (Arthur Kennedy). Lockhart inserts himself into this power struggle in hopes of weeding out the guilty party.

As Julie Kirgo’s insightful liner notes point out, this is all a play on Mann’s long-planned adaptation of Shakespeare in the West, most obviously King Lear with Waggoman as the aging king torn between two inheritors and Lockhart serving as a sort of “presentational actor,” pushing the tragedy along. No knowledge of the bard is necessary, however. Laramie’s story fits quite comfortably in traditional stories of vengeance, power and renegade Indians. But it does provide a bit more resonance for a film whose collective characters are only truly engaging when they’re performing acts of violence.

Speaking of which, Stewart seems to revel in these moments of onscreen torture: dragged through a blazing fire by lasso and disfigured at point-blank range by an enemy bullet. His performance takes on an entirely different demeanor in these scenes as opposed to his confident cowboy act in every other. And it’s these physical outbursts - along with a friendly rivalry with Bend of the River co-star Arthur Kennedy – that makes The Man from Laramie such an essential chapter in the Mann-Stewart chronology.

There aren’t enough adjectives to throw at Twilight Time’s 3000-copy limited edition blu-ray available only at . The new 4K transfer, presented in its correct aspect ratio for the first time, is wonderfully sharp and vivid. The Cinemascope image gives it a natural curl around the edges, creating an expansive, immersive experience. Extras include an isolated score and effects track plus original theatrical trailers.