Man in the Saddle
by Andr? De Toth
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Alexander Knox, Ellen Drew, Joan Leslie, Randolph Scott, Richard RoberDirector: Andr? De Toth
Brand: Sony
Producer: Randolph Scott
Cinematographer: Charles Lawton Jr.
Editor: Charles Nelson
Producer: Harry Joe Brown
Writer: Ernest Haycox
Writer: Kenneth Gamet
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Subtitled); Japanese (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 87 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-09-06
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Sony Pictures
Movie Reviews of Man in the Saddle
Movie Review: Randolph Scott takes on Skull Ranch and its owner, the jealous megalomaniac Will Isham
Summary: 4 Stars
There's a small lake that straddles the boundary separating Will Isham's Skull Ranch and Pay Lankershim's land. Isham (Alexander Knox), a powerful, determined and jealous megalomaniac, offers $50,000 cash if Pay sells his ranch to him this night, Isham's wedding night. It's worth maybe $9,000. There's enough water for both our herds, Pay says. "You don't get the idea," Isham says with a tumbler of brandy in his hand. "I'd only own half a lake. I don't own half of anything, Lankershim. I own it all, lock, stock and barrel. That goes for anything. Whatever I have is mine and mine alone. I'll share with no one."
Now Skull's boundary is up against Owen Merritt's land...and it will only be a matter of time before Isham goes after Owen (Randolph Scott). He's even brought in a hired gun to speed things along. And the woman Isham just married? Turns out Laurie Bidwell (Joan Leslie) is the woman Owen loves. She made her choice, however, because she wanted position and money, and that meant Isham, not Owen. After Owen nearly gets killed in a stampede engineered by Isham's men, Laurie is beginning to have doubts about her choice. She'd better remember what Isham told Pay: "Whatever I have is mine alone. I'll share with no one."
When Owen's men start getting killed, he decides to do some killing of his own. It's not long before it's just Owen Merritt against the power of Skull, and that means Will Isham and his hired guns. Thank goodness Owen has a few loyal ranch hands and one friend, spunky, feisty Nan Melotte, the blonde young owner of a small ranch next to Owen's. We know things are going to get much rougher in the next hour.
Man in the Saddle may be a B western, but it's a Randolph Scott B western. With me, that usually means a strong story even with clich?s, most often a good villain or two, enough action to quickly pass the time and, of course, Scott. He was a big guy who could come across as grim, judgmental and dead serious. He also had perfected the persona of an honorable man of action. He had the screen presence to carry even B westerns. He had no trouble dominating his films, even when playing against an alpha male like Lee Marvin. I've always found a good deal of pleasure watching a Randolph Scott western.
Joan Leslie has a much more complicated character to play than most B movie westerns call for. Her Laurie Isham comes from a hardscrabble past. She loves, in her way, Owen. She marries Isham because she yearns for position and security. She winds up trying to be loyal to both. Leslie manages to carry it off so well we sort of admire Laurie and how she's trying to handle the fix she's put herself in. To see Joan Leslie at her freshest and friendliest, find a copy of The Sky's the Limit. At barely 18 she stars opposite Fred Astaire and shares a fast, funny song and dance routine with him, "A Lot in Common with You." Leslie just about keeps up with Astaire and he makes it seem easy for her. When she can manage just two air-borne turns (which she does with grace and precision), he hits three but places himself just a little in front of her to disguise the difference.
For those fond of pound-'em-into-the-ground fistfights, Man in the Saddle features a lulu. Scott and John Russell, an equally big guy who plays a man with a vicious temper who has a hankerin' for Nan, start walloping each other in a mountain shack, then slip-slide down a rocky, snow covered mountainside going after each other with fists, rocks and tree limbs. The stunt doubles earned their money with this one.
Man in the Saddle is no classic, but it turns out to be one of the better westerns Scott made during this period. The DVD transfer looks fine. There are no extras.
Summary of Man in the Saddle
In MAN IN THE SADDLE we see Randolph Scott in an archetypal role as Owen Merritt, a man of few words, unerring aim and unbreakable principles, who swallows his pride when the woman he loves marries for wealth. But when her wildly jealous husband vows to ruin Merritt's ranch, Merritt strikes back. A satisfying combination of action, romance, and breathtaking high-desert scenery, MAN IN THE SADDLE also features Tennessee Ernie Ford in a rare movie appearance.Though well short of the classics he would go on to make with Budd Boetticher (Seven Men from Now, The Tall T, et al.), Man in the Saddle is measurably superior to most of Randolph Scott's other '50s Westerns. The script has enough characters, criss-crossed revenge subplots, and tortuous romances for a miniseries; yet somehow, within a B-movie running time, director Andr? De Toth manages to give all of them enough attention so that the movie makes sense, even threatens to get really interesting. He also finds distinctive ways to stage standard set pieces like, say, a saloon shootout. And there's a cumulatively amazing fistfight that starts in a mountain cabin, totally uses up that set, then spills downhill through snowfield and waterfall. Randy's character is a more complicated fellow than usual, and the Scots-Canadian actor Alexander Knox, best known for his Oscar?-nominated turn as Woodrow Wilson, makes a creepily compelling range baron. --Richard T. Jameson
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