The Lusty Men

Someone in the Johnson Office slipped up--the hero doesn't get the girl, he gets killed--magnificently of course, but conclusively. Probably ashamed of this faux pas, RKO has not given The Lusty Men much publicity, which is regrettable.

By all accepted cinema statutes, the hero should get the girl. In every third and a half scene, the moviegoer settles back and breaths, "Ah, now he gets the girl." But, faced with the alternatives of following form or preserving the sanctity of marriage, producers Wald and Krasna chose the latter. The girl married the heavy before the picture begins.

Also unique are the scenes of the West's Big Circuit rodeos. If Gene Autry jamborees in the Garden are the only rodeos you've seen, let RKO give you a seat on circuit shutes. And from there, watch the nation's brawniest, bronc-busting, bulldogging, Brahma bouncing riders bet their insurance policies against day money.

Despite the "real thing" riders used, Wald and Krasna could not quite capture the behind the stables aroma of the rodeo. The broken down has beens who follow the circuit wistfully and drunkenly, the all night gambling and drinking that goes on to help men forget the fear, the slickers who weaken ropes and slice cinches for half a man's day money, the camp followers, the clowns with enough courage to compete but not enough talent--all these might have bolstered the story, had they been used.

Instead, Big Bob Mitchum, the sloe-eyed superman, makes backhanded love to Susan Hayward, one of the lusty men's busty women, while hubby Arthur Kennedy proceeds to win the cowboy crown and the money.