BROKEN LANCE (USA, 1954) ****
Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox; Production Company: 20th Century Fox; Release Date: 29 July 1954 (USA), 11 November 1954 (UK); Filming Dates: 2 March 1954 –1 May 1954; Running Time: 96m; Colour: DeLuxe; Sound Mix: Mono (35 mm optical prints) | 4-Track Stereo (35 mm magnetic prints) (Western Electric Recording); Film Format: 35mm; Film Process: CinemaScope (anamorphic); Aspect Ratio: 2.55:1; BBFC Cert: U.
Director: Edward Dmytryk; Writer: Richard Murphy (based on a story by Philip Yordan); Executive Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck (uncredited); Producer: Sol C. Siegel; Director of Photography: Joseph MacDonald; Music Composer: Leigh Harline; Film Editor: Dorothy Spencer; Art Director: Maurice Ransford, Lyle R. Wheeler; Set Decorator: Stuart A. Reiss, Walter M. Scott; Costumes: Travilla; Make-up: Ben Nye, Helen Turpin; Sound: W.D. Flick, Roger Heman Sr.
Cast: Spencer Tracy (Matt Devereaux), Robert Wagner (Joe Devereaux), Jean Peters (Barbara), Richard Widmark (Ben Devereaux), Katy Jurado (Señora Devereaux), Hugh O’Brian (Mike Devereaux), Eduard Franz (Two Moons), Earl Holliman (Denny Devereaux), E.G. Marshall (Horace – The Governor), Carl Benton Reid (Clem Lawton), Philip Ober (Van Cleve), Robert Burton (Mac Andrews).
Synopsis: The saga of the Devereaux rancher family, set in 1880’s Arizona.
Comment: A well-made Western that is buoyed by a strong cast and a story that, whilst a familiar tale of familial rivalry, remains absorbing throughout. Tracy is superb as the patriarch rancher tough on his sons and those who seek to profit from his land. Jurado gives a subtle supporting performance as his Indian wife, for which she was nominated for an Oscar. Wagner and Widmark slug it out with gusto. It’s all captured in vivid cinemascope by MacDonald with a sympathetic score by Harline. Notable for its plot similarities to King Lear amongst other work. It is the second of three movies written by screenwriter Yordan (who won an Oscar here for Best Story), based on the novel, “I’ll Never Go Home Again,” by Jerome Weidman. The other two were HOUSE OF STRANGERS (1949), with Edward G. Robinson, and THE BIG SHOW(1961) with Esther Williams and Cliff Robertson.