Jack Arnold 's follow-up to "the incredible shrinking man " ,by far his masterpiece , " man in the shadow" is a "modern" western ,with a very simple screenplay .
Very simple ,but very efficient too,and from the first sequence on ,a violent beat up which causes the death of a bracero ranch hand : an old man,who considers the young victim his son,saw the whole scene .But does the life of a bracero matter when you deal with a tycoon ,who rules the nearby town ,can ruin it,can starve it by not selling his crops to them?
Orson Welles is ideally cast as the tycoon ,but his character seems influenced by his hateful foreman ,his evil genius ,who also desires his daughter ( the key to the movie is "cherchez la femme" ); Jeff Chandler ,the marshall, is considered a pawn in their game (so you're the sheriff,you were elected and you can be fired if you do not follow the rules) ;but in spite of the danger ,he soldiers on ...
He's alone in the whole town , where the inhabitants are too afraid of the wealthy owner's power; even his wife does not really support him .His situation looks like Gary Cooper's in "high noon" (1952)
Very simple ,but very efficient too,and from the first sequence on ,a violent beat up which causes the death of a bracero ranch hand : an old man,who considers the young victim his son,saw the whole scene .But does the life of a bracero matter when you deal with a tycoon ,who rules the nearby town ,can ruin it,can starve it by not selling his crops to them?
Orson Welles is ideally cast as the tycoon ,but his character seems influenced by his hateful foreman ,his evil genius ,who also desires his daughter ( the key to the movie is "cherchez la femme" ); Jeff Chandler ,the marshall, is considered a pawn in their game (so you're the sheriff,you were elected and you can be fired if you do not follow the rules) ;but in spite of the danger ,he soldiers on ...
He's alone in the whole town , where the inhabitants are too afraid of the wealthy owner's power; even his wife does not really support him .His situation looks like Gary Cooper's in "high noon" (1952)