Synopsis
Man Without a Star (1955) is King Vidor's western, available to watch online on iFILM. Drifting cowboy Dempsey Rae (Kirk Douglas) hops a freight car with nowhere in particular to be and steps off into a country on the brink of a range war.
Dempsey hates barbed wire — to him it's the death of the open country he loves. And barbed wire is exactly what the fight is about. Reed Bowman (Jeanne Crain), the sharp-elbowed owner of a big spread, hires him as foreman and crowds thousands of head of cattle onto land the small homesteaders also depend on. Dempsey is pulled between a beautiful boss who treats people as obstacles and the settlers she's running over. There's also a green young partner he reluctantly teaches the trade and the gun to — a bond that comes back to bite him.
Vidor skips the heroic posturing and tells the story of a man who flees every attachment until he has no choice but to take a stand. Douglas is charming and prickly at once, and even picks out a tune on the banjo. Sturdy genre classic for anyone who likes their 1950s westerns unvarnished. Stream Man Without a Star (1955) online on iFILM.
Starring
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