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By PAUL BRENNER
Raoul Walsh's 1947 noir western, has been lustrously restored by UCLA and is now available on DVD
through Artisan Entertainment.
"Pursued," is the darkest of the dark of westerns and film noir, the doom pervading cinematographer James Wong Howe's
overcast skies and imposing buttes like an extra presence. The film graces Teresa Wright with top billing, but the
shining star of the film is Robert Mitchum, in his first A-Picture lead.
Mitchum kisses the gloom with his heavy-lidded eyes, conveying the melancholy resignation of the shadows following him.
Told in flashback, the film anticipates Mitchum's performance in his next film, "Out of the Past." Mitchum's quiet
dignity belies the continual humiliations and rejections his character faces from scene to scene as Dean Jagger's
one-armed Angel of Death pursues him from childhood onward. Mitchum manages to maintain his dignity even after his bride
tries to kill him on his wedding night. The nominal mystery plot of "Pursued" concerns embittered families out for blood
and a dark secret from the past. But this Greek tragedy in spurs is all mood and Mitchum.
For anyone interested in Mitchum, westerns, or film noir, this is one DVD that should not be missed. |
