broken lance

Loosely based on Shakespeare's patriarchal tragedy King Lear, 1954's Broken Lance stars Spencer Tracy as Matt Devereaux, a tyrannical rancher who defends his self-created kingdom with vicious authority from enemies both within and without. The three sons from his first wife (led by Richard Widmark as the eldest) bear the brunt of his constant disappointment and discipline. While the fourth, Joe (Robert Wagner), earns a more liberal hand; a situation which leads to a dangerous amount of brotherly resentment.

After taking the law into his own hands by burning down a mining operation that was poisoning a nearby stream, Matt finds himself in a legal bind and is forced to turn over ownership in the ranch to his sons. But it's Joe who does the hard time to keep his father out of jail. And after his release, these complicated family ties get pulled into an even tighter knot.

To be honest, there's little about Broken Lance (1954) that deserves special mention. As Julie Kirgo points out in her liner notes for Twilight Time's 3000-copy limited edition Blu-ray, it's the sort of quality filmmaking that studios pushed out on a regular basis during their hey-day. And it's certainly not the first time a Shakespeare adaptation has strut and fret its way across the western stage. But it's director Edward Dmytryk's elegant execution that makes film such a comfortable watch and, for collectors, such a welcome addition.

At this point in his career, Tracy could play a lovable curmudgeon in his sleep. But the role of Matt Devereaux is certainly more brutal than usual. And even though Matt recognizes the character flaw (often reminded by his stoic second wife, the daughter of a Native American chief, played by Katy Jurado), it's too little, too late to build any bridges with his neglected sons. It makes for a beautifully tense scene near the end of the film as Tracy and Widmark face-off over a pending land deal, a face-off that had been in the making for 30 long years.

Robert Wagner rides tall in the saddle, delivers his lines with authority and looks all kinds of handsome. Yet he makes little impression when lined up next to his two more charismatic co-stars. An exciting foot-chase finale set in a dangerously tight canyon proves him to be physically up for the challenge, but more often than not he disappears into Dmytryk's impressively shot scenery. Photographed against a gorgeous high desert backdrop in Cinemascope, Broken Lance is every bit the escapist Sunday afternoon spectacle a fan might hope it would be.

And Twilight Time's Blu-ray adds another western winner to their line-up, with a bright and colorful transfer (particularly in the romantic stage bound scenes), an isolated score track, trailer, newsreel and relaxed commentary track with actor Earl Holliman who covers this film and the bulk of his Hollywood career.