Shane (1953)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

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:

Settler | Homestead | Gun | Cattleman | Gunfighter

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 2 wins & 9 nominations

Cast

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 face-off between Wilson (Jack Palance) and Elisha Cook Jr. (Torrey), Torrey tells Wilson that he is "a low-down, lyin' Yankee". Although director George Stevens kept directing Palance at this point to smile - an expression of amused contempt at Cook - Palance continued take after take to show too much menace and not enough of a smile mixed in. Finally, Stevens took Cook aside and whispered something to him. During the next take, Cook read his line, and added "and a son of a bitch, too!" This time, Stevens got his take. When Shane faces Wilson, Shane says "You're a low-down Yankee liar".

Goofs:

Continuity: The distance between Marian and Joe instantly changes from the distant shots and close-ups when Shane is leaving out the back gate at the beginning of the movie after the Rykers have left.

Quotes:

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

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: Godzilla vs. Megalon (#3.12)" (1991)

Soundtrack:

Taps

Hell Bent For Leather

Considered by most a masterpiece and by a few 'a waste of film', 1953's SHANE is a mini-epic that tells of the arrival of the mysterious stranger who comes to 'town' and impresses the innocent and threatens the guilty. A good versus evil western was never been more defined. Alan Ladd plays the stranger in an outfit that has been criticized since day-one. He wears a buckskin shirt ala Davy Crockett and if I heard it once, I heard it a thousand times, "that shirt ain't right"! Well, 'pards, I ask you, "Have you ever heard of "Buckskin Frank Leslie?" Just happens to be one of the baddest-ass real life western gunslingers who ever strapped on a gun-rig. Why they haven't made westerns about Leslie I will never know. Doc Holliday, known for reckless bravery, knew enough to stay out of Frank's way. And P.S. he was known for his 'patented' Buckskin Shirt. But I digress...

Shane was directed by George Stevens who admittedly directs with a strictness that borders on fascism. And yet he pulls it off with aplomb. Ladd's character is criticized as well, because he is played by Ladd himself, an actor that is an easy target for certain critics. There's the old joke about Ladd standing in a hole (outside of camera view) to match the heights of his leading ladies, or by standing on a ramp or box so their heights in close-ups would be matched for love scenes. Is this the 'stuff' of western heroes? Not hardly. So here we have "little Alan" taking on one of the most vicious actors that ever played 'Satan Incarnate', the incomparable Jack Palance! Jack's 'Lucifer' is a messenger from hell hired by the bad'uns to save them all from Ladd's goodness. Jack wakes up shortly after arriving in town to assassinate another little man, Elisha Cook Jr., in a scene which was completely and shamelessly ripped off by Eastwood in 'Pale Rider'. The death is completely believable and establishes Palance's character as unstoppable.

The characters in Shane are cut from a woodcarving, they glisten with familiar yet surprising motivations. Ben Johnson, the Sainted actor of westerns plays a very small part that almost steals the film. The bad guys in this film are a textbook rendition of meaness.

But some say that the action is subdued in Shane. But I say the build-up is worth the wait as the final climatic shoot-out has been described by many western film scholars as the best that was ever put to film.

Shane a waste of film? I think not.