Main Cast: Kirk Douglas, Jeanne Crain, William Campbell, Claire Trevor, Richard Boone
Release Year: 1955
Country: US
Run Time: 89 minutes
Plot
In this deceptively titled and paced Western, Kirk Douglas shines in the hyper-macho role of Dempsey Rae, a good-natured drifter with a mysterious past up from Texas, a top hand with a gun, a horse, or a herd, who can even play the banjo and sing. He rides into a Wyoming town in a freight car, in the company of much younger drifter Jeff Jimson (William Campbell), who knows even less about the West than he does about life. Dempsey gets Jeff out of a few scrapes with the law, and both get hired by the foreman (Jay C. Flippen) of the Triangle Ranch. With 8,000 head, the Triangle is already the largest spread in the territory, but the new owner from back east, Miss Reed Bowman (Jeanne Crain), arrives with plans to move in another 22,000 head onto the open range, threatening to squeeze out the smaller ranches completely. Meanwhile, the other ranchers plan on saving some of the grass for winter feed and fence it off with barbed wire. When Bowman discovers that she can't hold onto Dempsey as either a man or a foreman, she seduces Jeff -- who's too quick to become a man -- to run interference on him, and hires a crew of gunmen led by Steve Miles (Richard Boone) to tear down the wire. A range war is about to break out, and Dempsey, who wants no part of barbed wire and carries the scars to show why, plans on pulling out. But then Miles and his men overplay their hand, and Dempsey throws in with the smaller ranchers. The body count suddenly starts going against Miles, who digs in for a final fight, and now it's Jeff and Bowman who find themselves caught between two unstoppable forces that they've helped unleash. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Review
The title of this Western, along with its pacing, is extremely deceptive, referring not to the badge of a lawman as one might expect in this genre, but to the star that a man might follow in navigating unknown territory -- it refers to Kirk Douglas' Dempsey Rae, a laconic, good-natured (but lusty and two-fisted) cowpoke who's wandered a long way from his former home in Texas. It takes audiences a little while to figure out what Rae is about, just as they might find themselves wondering exactly what this Western -- based on a story co-authored by oater-veteran Borden Chase (whose actor son Frank Chase appears here, as Little Waco) -- is about. That's mostly because it's divided into three distinct "acts," each with its own texture and feel but all interlocked. The first act is the most genial, introducing Rae and Jeff Jimson (William Campbell, in one of his best performances), a tenderfoot drifter that Rae takes under his wing, through a string of scrapes with the law, with even some comic relief injected into the proceedings. Dempsey's character suddenly darkens, showing a dangerous, self-destructive side, almost exactly 30 minutes into the movie, when one character introduces the subject of barbed wire. That opens up the second act, in which Dempsey is tempted by the lusty Reed Bowman (Jeanne Crain, playing a more appealing version of a character that Barbara Stanwyck might have also portrayed), whose motivations, mixing carnality and greed, help to break up the friendship between Dempsey and Jeff. And Dempsey is confronted by Steve Miles (Richard Boone), a Texas gunman with whom Rae obviously has some history, at the wrong end of a gun. And the third act shows Rae's redemption, of his self-respect and manhood. There's enough violence either threatened or shown to satisfy genre fans, and also a surprisingly complex array of characters set within a realistic dramatic framework, which gives this movie an appeal beyond the boundaries of the Western. Director King Vidor allows Douglas to carry his portrayal almost -- but not quite -- over the top, and gets from Crain a convincingly lusty and libidinous performance as his would-be romantic foil; their scenes together push the limits of 1950s film proprieties in ways that are far more believable than much of the overheated action in the earlier, Vidor-credited Duel in the Sun. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Alexander Golitzen - Art Director, Richard H. Riedel - Art Director, Rosemary Odell - Costume Designer, Frank Shaw - First Assistant Director, King Vidor - Director, Virgil Vogel - Editor, Joseph E. Gershenson - Composer (Music Score), Hans Salter - Composer (Music Score), Herman Stein - Composer (Music Score), Joseph E. Gershenson - Musical Direction/Supervision, Bud Westmore - Makeup, Russell Metty - Cinematographer, Aaron Rosenberg - Producer, John P. Austin - Set Designer, Russell A. Gausman - Set Designer, Leslie I. Carey - Sound/Sound Designer, Joe Lapis - Sound/Sound Designer, Daniel D. Beauchamp - Screenwriter, Borden Chase - Screenwriter, Dee Linford - Book Author
Man Without a Star is a 1955western film starring Kirk Douglas as a wanderer who gets dragged into a range war. It was based on the novel of the same name by Dee Linford.
Plot
Easygoing cowboy Dempsey Rae (Kirk Douglas) and his impressionable young friend Jeff Jimson (William Campbell) wander into town and are hired to work for an absentee rancher named Reed Bowman. When Bowman finally shows up, Dempsey is surprised to find that he has been working for a very attractive woman (Jeanne Crain), one who has very ambitious plans. These lead to conflict with her neighbors.
