• It’s second tier Anthony Mann and Jimmy Stewart collaboration but still solid
  • Casting is sensational. I’ll get to Stewart in a second but Joanne Dru is perfect as the jaded and spirited beauty who is now a townie (after a failed trip to the city and getting burned by broken promises by men) and skeptical of outsiders (Stewart and Dan Duryea). Duryea is a nearly complete asshole and not far removed from his Scarlet Street role- perfect here
  • Stewart plays another monomaniacal man. He’s the epitome of singular focus, drive and ambition. It reminds me (probably a little because of the oil ties—he’s a possessed oil man) of DDL in there will be blood. Stewart’s character is almost fascist- really possessed by the oil idea (again not unlike is rigid Anthony Mann western characters or his Hitchcock characters (notably rear window possessed by the idea of the wife being dead or certainly Vertigo with his obsession)
  • A film about wildcatting—color film in the gulf coast
  • Not as good as either Mann’s westerns or his noir period
  • It’s a little unbelievable that Stewart continues to trust Duryea but there’s a great scene where Duryea comes up big at a big comment. I love the shot of Stewart’s satisfied face
  • Recommend but not near top 10 of 1953