Criterion’s first foray into the western couldn’t be more appropriate in the genre’s history, for this transitional work from Anthony Mann bridged the gap from his early noir to his more famous genre staples with James Stewart, a film epic in scope, but tightly wound around one neurotic, larger than life frontier family. Walter Huston runs The Furies, an enormous cattle ranch that houses native squatters on the outer flats; one day when he burns the squatters out of their home at the insistence of his new fiancé, Easterner Judith Anderson, killing his daughter’s (Barbara Stanwyck) best friend (Gilbert Roland), a rift of Shakespearian proportions splits father and daughter down loyalty lines. Also, Stanwyck is hooked up with no good gambler Wendell Corey, the son of Huston’s long dead archenemy, and that doesn’t sit well with strong-headed papa. Of course this is all family melodrama, not necessarily groundbreaking stuff, but what’s important is the way Mann and cinematographer Victor Milner blend western conventions with the style of classic Film Noir, easily lending itself the reputation as the film that propelled Mann from “Side Street” and “T-Men” to “The Naked Spur” and “Winchester 73” with ease.