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The Lusty Men Photos

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Movie Info

In the American West of the 1950s, talented rodeo rider Jeff McCloud (Robert Mitchum) quits after an injury. Returning to his hometown, he gets a job on a ranch. He strikes up a friendship with Wes (Arthur Kennedy), a fellow ranch hand who dreams of being a rodeo rider. Wes talks Jeff into training him, and joins the rodeo circuit with the reluctant approval of his wife (Susan Hayward). But when the two men start to disagree, Jeff returns to the circuit himself.

Genre:

western
Original Language:

English
Director:

Nicholas Ray
Producer:

Jerry Wald, Norman Krasna
Writer:

David Dortort, Horace McCoy
Release Date (Streaming):

Mar 10, 2017
Runtime:

1h 53m
Production Co:

Wald/Krasna Productions

Cast & Crew

Susan Hayward
Louise Merritt

Robert Mitchum
Jeff McCloud

Arthur Kennedy
Wes Merritt

Arthur Hunnicutt
Booker Davis

Frank Faylen
Al Dawson

Walter Coy
Buster Burgess

Show all Cast & Crew

Critic Reviews for The Lusty Men

All Critics (15) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (15)

Portrayed with Ray's usual sympathy for outsiders, the central threesome are decent, flawed romantics .

October 13, 2014 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Keith Phipps
The Dissolve
A somewhat slow starter, once underway it is kept playing with growing interest under Nicholas Ray's firm direction.

October 23, 2007 | Full Review…

Variety Staff
Variety
The story isn't much (the security of family life versus the rootlessness and danger of working as a rodeo rider), but the situation is rich in emotional resonances which Ray conjures into life convincingly.

June 24, 2006 | Full Review…

Time Out
The punch of the film is in its details of rodeo life as it is, and for this R. K. O. and Producer Jerry Wald have a dynamic film.

March 25, 2006 | Rating: 3.5/5 | Full Review…

Bosley Crowther
New York Times
A masterpiece by Nicholas Ray -- perhaps the most melancholy and reflective of his films.

January 1, 2000 | Full Review…

Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
Mitchum is the most convincing cowboy I've seen in horse opry, meeting every situation with the lonely, distant calm of a master cliché-dodger.

November 25, 2020 | Full Review…

Manny Farber
The Nation
A good action yarn, burdened from time to time by excessive dialogue, about the professional rodeo circuit and the hardy horse-tamers who inhabit it.

October 7, 2019 | Full Review…

Clyde Gilmour
Maclean's Magazine
Beautifully shot... plenty of symbolic imagery.

January 28, 2019 | Full Review…

Raquel Stecher
Out of the Past
A key American vision, with Ray's sense of failure and transience and grace pulled together into Mitchum's wink of soulful nonchalance

November 9, 2014 | Full Review…

Fernando F. Croce
CinePassion
Ray's last b/w film captures the life of rodeo players with vivid details, lyrical images, and melnacholy mood, centering on a romantic triangle, well played by Arthur Kennedy, Susan Hayward, and especially Robert Mitchum as the aging champ.

July 1, 2009 | Rating: B+ | Full Review…

Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
Ray's direction is superb, and all three leads give bravura performances.

October 23, 2007 | Rating: 4/4 | Full Review…

TV Guide
Functions as mini-ethnography, laying bare the alluring and dangerous world of bronc- and braman-riding, while spinning an artful melodrama about aging, fame, and failure

August 7, 2006 | Full Review…

Leo Goldsmith
Not Coming to a Theater Near You

View All Critic Reviews (15)

Audience Reviews for The Lusty Men

Mar 31, 2011

this is one of nicholas ray's best films with a terrific performance by robert mitchum. i can't quite make out why i have never heard about this before. it might be the ridiculous title. anyway, a great gritty and realistic rodeo story. don't pass it up

Stella D Super Reviewer
Dec 09, 2007

spare tough little drama of the rodeo circuit. Fine performances

jay n Super Reviewer