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Even by today’s standards The Furies is unconventional, and that’s what makes it so interesting. Part film noir, part Western, the story revolves more around relationships than gunfighting, and the relationships are unusual to say the least. Gregarious eccentric T. C. Jeffords is constantly challenged – by Mexican squatters (depicted in a surprisingly humanistic way for 1950) who strive to keep a small piece of Jefford’s land that they feel is theirs by natural right and most directly by his daughter Vance who constantly pushes the boundaries of their father-daughter relationship. One moment she’s defying him by pursuing the son of her father’s dead arch rival and the next she’s coyly kissing dear old dad on the lips and caressing him in a not-so daughter-like fashion. William Huston is fantastic as T. C., a tough and formidable foe against any but his daughter. Vance’s braggadocio elicits pride and guffaws from T.C., even when she angers him. She admits she is a woman who needs a man who can keep her in line, but to her father’s chagrin, she may have met her match in the callous and dominating Rip. Once the backdrop is set, the action quickly revolves around T. C.‘s finances. Having created his own legal tender – IOUs that he has disseminated less than judiciously – he finds himself in need of liquidity. When a bank loan requires the eviction of the squatters, despite Vance’s promise to protect a childhood friend who has long suffered his unrequited love for her, and when the widowed T. C. brings home another woman, whom Vance recognizes as a threat to her bond with her father and to her inheritance, all that is Freudian erupts! Love, power and desire become live wires around which the protagonists’ wheels of fortune twirl. Stanwyck as Vance and Huston are larger than life and all the supporting actors do the screen justice in this complexly layered melodrama that is better seen than explained.

Very engrossing western epic from director Anthony Mann boasts excellent, bristling performances by Walter Huston (in his final role) and Barbara Stanwyck. Really more of a dark psychological domestic drama set in the Old West than a traditional horse opera, but Mann makes excellent use of the wide open spaces for some extraordinary western imagery. A classic, even if the ending is a bit unsatisfying. Great boisterous score by Franz Waxman.