The Furies

The Furies (1950).

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This film is very much a slow boil. At first I was pretty ehhhh about it, but by the end I was RIVETED.   Just completely into it. So I definitely recommend it, although I will say that you probably won't "like" a single one of the characters. So if you're one of those people who just NEED to have likable characters - go elsewhere. You'll want to shake just about every character in the movie at one point or another. Which is great! Or at least it is to me. 

Even though this post is going up in February, I'm writing it in December.... the day after I saw Django Unchained, and this movie is also very revenge-y. Although obviously only about 1% as violent.

The only all-around likable character in the movie. Appears for approximately 5 minutes.

Summary (via) - 

Barbara Stanwyck and Walter Huston are at their fierce finest in master Hollywood craftsman Anthony Mann’s crackling western melodrama. In 1870s New Mexico Territory, megalomaniacal widowed ranch-owner T. C. Jeffords (Huston, in his final role) butts heads with his daughter, Vance (Stanwyck), a firebrand with serious daddy issues, over her dowry, choice of marriage, and, finally, ownership of the land itself. Both sophisticated in its view of frontier settlement and ablaze with searing domestic drama, The Furies is a hidden treasure of American filmmaking, boasting Oscar–nominated cinematography and vivid supporting turns from Judith Anderson, Wendell Corey, and Gilbert Roland.

The cinematography nomination was well-deserved.... the movie is beautiful.

Worst couple ever.

"I came to throw this cake in your HORRIBLE face, but instead I'll let you 1/2 drown me in a basin of water then make out with you! ROMANCEEEEEEE IN BLOOOOOOOOM!"

SPOILER ALERT - Barbara Stanwyck throws a pair of scissors at her and no act of violence has ever made me happier. Oops?

Here we go......

BOOM.

This is when things get really revenge-tastic and when my opinion of the movie's entertainment level vastly rose.

Honestly, they really don't have much in common at all, but if I was going to pair this movie with another for a double feature.... I'd chose Legends of the Fall. They're both family melodramas. Out in the wilderness. There's a bull in one, a bear in another. Unlikable characters in both. Of course Legends has Tristan, and The Furies does NOT have anything like that.

See all the previous movie posts here.