The Lonely Man

Last updated

The Lonely Man
The Lonely Man poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Henry Levin
Screenplay by Harry Essex
Robert Smith
Produced byPat Duggan
Starring Jack Palance
Anthony Perkins
Neville Brand
Robert Middleton
Elisha Cook, Jr.
Claude Akins
Lee Van Cleef
Cinematography Lionel Lindon
Edited by William B. Murphy
Music by Van Cleave
Production
company
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • June 21, 1957 (1957-06-21)
Running time
88 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Lonely Man is a 1957 American Western film directed by Henry Levin and written by Harry Essex and Robert Smith. The film stars Jack Palance, Anthony Perkins, Elaine Aiken, Neville Brand, Robert Middleton, Elisha Cook, Jr., Claude Akins and Lee Van Cleef. The film was released on June 21, 1957, by Paramount Pictures. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Plot

Riley Wade hates his gunfighter father, Jacob, for deserting Riley's mother, who then committed suicide. Jacob rides to Red Bluff hoping to reconcile with his son, unaware that King Fisher holds a grudge and intends to shoot down Jacob, first chance.

Riley accompanies his father on the trail, setting their family ranch ablaze first, never letting him out of his sight. Jacob's sight, meantime, is fading; he is slowly going blind, a fact he hides from his son. Riley refuses to forgive his father until old friend Ben Ryerson explains to him that Jacob didn't desert his mother at all.

King comes to town with his men. Riley, aware for the first time of his father's failing vision, acts as his eyes in directing Jacob where to shoot. King's men die and he tries to sneak away, but he and Jacob end up in a showdown anyway and kill one another. Jacob dies in his son's arms.

Cast

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lee Van Cleef</span> American actor (1925–1989)

Clarence LeRoy Van Cleef Jr. was an American actor. He appeared in over 170 film and television roles in a career spanning nearly 40 years, but is best known as a star of Italian Spaghetti Westerns, particularly the Sergio Leone-directed Dollars Trilogy films For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). In 1983, he received a Golden Boot Award for his contribution to the Western film and television genre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neville Brand</span> American actor (1920–1992)

Lawrence Neville Brand was an American soldier and actor. He was known for playing villainous or antagonistic character roles in Westerns, crime dramas, and films noir, and was nominated for a BAFTA Award for his performance in Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Perkins</span> American actor (1932–1992)

Anthony Perkins was an American actor, director, and singer. He is most notable for the role of Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's suspense thriller Psycho, which made him an influential figure in pop culture and the realm of horror films.

The British Poetry Revival is the general name now given to a loose movement in the United Kingdom that took place in the late 1960s and 1970s. The term was a neologism first used in 1964, postulating a New British Poetry to match the anthology The New American Poetry (1960) edited by Donald Allen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Palance</span> American actor (1919–2006)

Walter Jack Palance was an American screen and stage actor, known to film audiences for playing tough guys and villains. He was nominated for three Academy Awards, all for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, for his roles in Sudden Fear (1952) and Shane (1953), and winning almost 40 years later for City Slickers (1991).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elisha Cook Jr.</span> American actor (1903–1995)

Elisha Vanslyck Cook Jr. was an American character actor famed for his work in film noir. According to Bill Georgaris of They Shoot Pictures, Don't They, Cook appeared in a total of 21 films noir, more than any other actor or actress. He played cheerful, brainy collegiates until he was cast against type as the bug-eyed baby-faced psychopathic killer Wilmer Cook in the 1941 version of The Maltese Falcon. He went on to play deceptively mild-mannered villains. Cook's acting career spanned more than 60 years, with roles in productions including The Big Sleep, Shane, The Killing, House on Haunted Hill, and Rosemary's Baby.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claude Akins</span> American actor (1926–1994)

Claude Aubrey Akins was a character actor with a long career on stage, screen, and television. He was best known as Sheriff Lobo on the 1979–1981 television series B. J. and the Bear, and later The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo, a spin-off series.

<i>The Tin Star</i> 1957 American Western film by Anthony Mann

The Tin Star is a 1957 American Western film based on a short story, directed in VistaVision by Anthony Mann and starring Henry Fonda and Anthony Perkins, in one of Perkins' first roles. The film became one of the few low-budget westerns to be nominated for the Oscar for Best Writing, Story or Screenplay. Since its release, the film has become one of the classics of the genre. The supporting cast features Betsy Palmer, Neville Brand, John McIntire and Lee Van Cleef.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Middleton</span> American actor (1911–1977)

Robert Middleton was an American film and television actor known for his large size, beetle-like brows, and deep, booming voice, usually in the portrayal of ruthless villains.

<i>Rawhide</i> (TV series) American Western television series

Rawhide is an American Western television series starring Eric Fleming and Clint Eastwood. The show aired for eight seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights from January 9, 1959 to September 3, 1965 before moving to Tuesday nights from September 14, 1965 until December 7, 1965, with a total of 217 black-and-white episodes. The series was produced and sometimes directed by Charles Marquis Warren, who also produced early episodes of Gunsmoke. The show is remembered by many for its theme song, "Rawhide".

<i>They Wont Forget</i> 1937 film

They Won't Forget is a 1937 American drama film directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Claude Rains, Gloria Dickson, Edward Norris, and Lana Turner, in her feature debut. It was based on a novel by Ward Greene called Death in the Deep South, which was in turn a fictionalized account of a real-life case: the trial and subsequent lynching of Leo Frank after the murder of Mary Phagan in 1913.

<i>The Rebel</i> (American TV series) Western television series

The Rebel is a 76-episode American Western television series starring Nick Adams that ran on the ABC network from 1959 to 1961. The Rebel was one of the few Goodson-Todman Productions outside of their game show ventures.

<i>Gold of the Seven Saints</i> 1961 film

Gold of the Seven Saints is a 1961 American Western film adaptation of a 1957 Steve Frazee novel titled Desert Guns. Released by Warner Brothers, the 88-minute film starred Clint Walker, Roger Moore, Letícia Román, Robert Middleton, and Chill Wills. It was directed by Gordon Douglas, who had earlier directed Walker in 1958's Fort Dobbs and 1959's Yellowstone Kelly. Leigh Brackett wrote the screenplay and Joseph F. Biroc provided the black-and-white photography, most of which was shot in and around Arches National Park in Utah. The film did not do very well at the box office.

<i>A Man Called Shenandoah</i> American TV series or program

A Man Called Shenandoah is an American Western television series that aired Monday evenings on ABC-TV from September 13, 1965 to May 16, 1966. It was produced by MGM Television. Some of the location work for the 34 half-hour black and white episodes were filmed in California's Sierra Nevada and Mojave Desert.

<i>Day of Anger</i> 1967 film by Tonino Valerii

Day of Anger is a 1967 Spaghetti Western film directed and co-written by Tonino Valerii and starring Lee Van Cleef and Giuliano Gemma, and features a musical score by Riz Ortolani. The film credits the novel Der Tod ritt dienstags by Ron Barker as its basis, although Valerii and screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi have attested that this credit was primarily included to appease the West German co-producers, and that although some scenes are partially borrowed from it, the film is not an adaptation of Becker's novel.

<i>Baby Face Nelson</i> (1957 film) 1957 film by Don Siegel

Baby Face Nelson is a 1957 American film noir crime film based on the real-life 1930s gangster, directed by Don Siegel, co-written by Daniel Mainwaring—who also wrote the screenplay for Siegel's 1956 sci-fi thriller Invasion of the Body Snatchers—and starring Mickey Rooney, Carolyn Jones, Cedric Hardwicke, Leo Gordon as Dillinger, Anthony Caruso, Jack Elam, John Hoyt and Elisha Cook Jr.

<i>Laredo</i> (TV series) American Western television series

Laredo is an American Western television series that aired on NBC from 1965–67, starring Neville Brand, William Smith, Peter Brown, and Philip Carey as Texas Rangers. It is set on the Mexican border around Laredo in Webb County in South Texas. The program presented 56 episodes in color. It was produced by Universal Television. The series has a comedic element, but like another NBC series that premiered in 1965, The Wackiest Ship in the Army, it was an hour in length, had no laugh track, and characters were not infrequently killed in it, thus going against three unofficial rules for sitcoms at the time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert McWade</span> American actor

Robert McWade, was an American stage and film actor.

<i>Tumbleweed</i> (film) 1953 film by Nathan H. Juran

Tumbleweed is a 1953 American Western film directed by Nathan Juran and starring Audie Murphy, Lori Nelson, and Chill Wills. The film is based on the story "Three Were Renegades" by Kenneth Perkins, originally published in the December 1938 issue of Blue Book. IMDb and other sources mistakenly call the film a remake of the 1948 film Relentless, which was based on a similarly named story, "Three Were Thoroughbreds," by Perkins. The later story, "Three Were Renegades," was published as a sort-of sequel to the earlier story, "Three Were Thoroughbreds," and the plotlines of the two films mirror the plotlines of their respective source stories.

<i>A Short History of Decay</i> (film) 2013 American film

A Short History of Decay is a 2013 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Michael Maren. It stars Bryan Greenberg, Linda Lavin, Harris Yulin, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Benjamin King and Kathleen Rose Perkins. Though its title is taken from the work of philosophy by Emil Cioran, it is not an adaptation of the book.

References

  1. "The Lonely Man (1957) - Overview". TCM.com. June 14, 2011. Retrieved March 28, 2015.
  2. Tana Hobart (2014). "The-Lonely-Man - Trailer - Cast - Showtimes". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times . Archived from the original on August 20, 2014. Retrieved March 28, 2015.
  3. "The Lonely Man". Afi.com. Retrieved March 28, 2015.