Shane (1953)

Director:

George Stevens

Writers:

A.B. Guthrie Jr. (screenplay)
Jack Sher (additional dialogue)

Release Date:

24 September 1953 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama | Western

Tagline:

The Greatest Story Of the West Ever Filmed [re-release]

Plot:

A weary gunfighter attempts to settle down with a homestead family, but a smoldering settler/rancher conflict forces him to act.

Plot Keywords:

Homestead | Gunfighter | Settler | Gun | Cattleman

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 2 wins & 9 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Sat. Feb. 20

12:00 AM

TCM

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Alan Ladd	...	Shane
Jean Arthur	...	Marian Starrett
Van Heflin	...	Joe Starrett
Brandon De Wilde	...	Joey Starrett
Jack Palance	...	Jack Wilson (as Walter Jack Palance)
Ben Johnson	...	Chris Calloway
Edgar Buchanan	...	Fred Lewis
Emile Meyer	...	Rufus Ryker
Elisha Cook Jr.	...	Frank 'Stonewall' Torrey
Douglas Spencer	...	Axel 'Swede' Shipstead
John Dierkes	...	Morgan Ryker
Ellen Corby	...	Mrs. Liz Torrey
Paul McVey	...	Sam Grafton
John Miller	...	Will Atkey, bartender
Edith Evanson	...	Mrs. Shipstead

Runtime:

118 min | West Germany:90 min (cut version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

West Germany:12 (f) | New Zealand:G | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 (1953) | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (certificate #15895) | UK:PG (2003) | UK:U (1960) (cut) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:PG | Australia:G

Filming Locations:

Big Bear Lake, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

In the funeral scene, the dog consistently refused to look into the grave. Finally, director George Stevens had the dog's trainer lie down in the bottom of the grave, and the dog played his part ably. The coffin (loaded with rocks for appropriate effect) was then lowered into the grave, but when the harmonica player began to play "Taps" spontaneously, the crew was so moved by the scene that they began shoveling dirt into the grave before remembering the dog's trainer was still there.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Shane is talking with Ryker, before Shane shoots Wilson there is dirt on little Joe's forehead. When Little Joe is talking to Shane at the end the dirt is gone.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Joey: Somebody's comin', Pa!
Joe Starrett: Well, let him come.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "What's My Line?: (1956-09-30)" (1956)

Soundtrack:

Taps

No More Guns In The Valley

A lonesome stranger rides on to a homesteader's farm looking for water and right after him comes the big cattle baron with several riders issuing the latest of several warning to this particular squatter about getting off 'his' range. Something about the man's bullying attitude rubs the stranger the wrong way and he decides to stay and lend a hand.

So begins the classic western Shane which has entertained millions since its release in 1953. It gave Alan Ladd his career role and resulted in Oscar nominations for Jack Palance and Brandon DeWilde in the Best Supporting Actor category. It could have revived Alan Ladd's career, but for a fatal career decision by his agent/wife Sue Carol.

Shane was shot in 1951 completely on location in the Grand Teton mountains in Wyoming. Another reviewer pointed out that director George Stevens seem to meticulously shoot the same scene from many angles. He did just that and spent a year editing his masterpiece.

But in the mean time Sue Carol made a decision for her husband to leave Paramount and sign with Warner Brothers. Had she held out and waited for Shane's release, she might have gotten a great deal from Paramount that might have included better parts. As it was Paramount had no reason to push this film at Oscar time, so Ladd got no nomination for Best Actor which he could have with some studio backing. By the time Shane was out, Ladd was with Warner Brothers and doing some of the same routine action adventures films that he was doing at Paramount. No classic roles for that man any more.

The rancher versus homesteader is an old western plot story and there have been many films made from both points of view. Shane leaves no doubt that the homesteaders are in the right. The cattleman's point of view is eloquently argued in Elia Kazan's Sea of Grass by Spencer Tracy. That western icon John Wayne's been on both sides of the fence, in McLintock he's a cattle baron, in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance he's a small rancher and protector of the homesteader.

Even Emile Meyer as Rufe Ryker does make a valid point that his kind settled the west when it was really wild. Van Heflin as Joe Starrett argues equally eloquently that doesn't give him the right to say no one else has any rights in the territory.

Shane marked the farewell big screen performance of Jean Arthur. A talented, but terribly strange woman with a whole lot of issues, Arthur delivers a good performance as Van Heflin's missus. She felt she was miscast as a farmer's wife, in westerns she saw herself more in the frontier woman roles she did in The Plainsman and Arizona. And at that she much preferred screwball comedy to any western. They weren't making her kind of films any more as she saw it, so she left.

When Shane's done doing what fate brought him to do in the valley he has to leave. For the community to grow there must be no more guns in the valley as he well realizes. So he leaves to an unknown fate, living in the hearts and memories of the Starrett family and the rest of the small farmers, especially young Brandon DeWilde.

And in the hearts of all lovers of the western genre including this little cowpoke who saw him as a small lad on the big silver screen so many years ago.