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The titular spiked wheel's trajectory from cowboy's boot to scoundrel's throat, Anthony Mann's "plain arithmetic." The betrayed bounty hunter (James Stewart) sets his sights on the fugitive outlaw (Robert Ryan) perched on craggy hilltops, a sudden rockslide has a boulder bouncing down an inch away from his ear and barely missing the camera itself. The bandit's companion (Janet Leigh) comes along with his capture, the ride back also includes the luckless prospector (Millard Mitchell) and the "morally unstable" Cavalry lieutenant (Ralph Meeker), a mighty twisty trail. "Ain't that the way? A man gets set for trouble head-on, and it sneaks up behind him every time." Five characters in the Rocky Mountains, a plein air chamber piece and a masterwork of location shooting. The derivations from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre are embraced by Stewart in a magnificently neurotic turn, a man knotted with bitterness undergoing an alfresco exorcism—the abyss is never far off, an unbuckled saddle strap is enough to send him off the edge of the cliff and the edge of his mind. Around him, Mann composes a procession of cogent vistas, cooling Metrocolor brightness with the stark lushness of Colorado in spring. Dappled forest light prepares the skirmish with Blackfoot natives, swift camerawork (a close-up of Stewart shot in the thigh turns 45° to frame a dead warrior dragged by his horse) gives way to a wide-angle view of the carnage. Brief and compact movements are prevalent, the tighter the image the better: Refuge in a cave means the camera pans from the grinning prisoner to a rock formation before tilting up to reveal a precarious ceiling. (Ryan connives like Iago, yet there he is with the moral position: "Choosin' a way to die, what's the difference? Choosin' a way to live, that's the hard part.") The astonishing river climax is a virtual instruction manual for Boorman's Deliverance. Cinematography by William C. Mellor.
--- Fernando F. Croce |