Pages tagged “the furies”

DVD Release Date: June 24
Director: Anthony Mann
Writers: Charles Schnee, Niven Busch (book)
Cinematographer: Victor Milner
Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Walter Huston
Studio/Run Time: Criterion Collection, 109 mins.

Greek tragedy in the old West

In A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies, the iconic filmmaker says that, of the four Westerns director Anthony Mann released in 1950, only “The Furies could have been a Greek tragedy.” There are also grace notes of King Lear and Dostoevsky present amid the film’s severe landscape. So it’s no surprise that, when The Criterion Collection added the first Western entry to its esteemed catalog, it opted for such an idiosyncratic choice. Rather than gunplay and granite-faced cowboys, The Furies instead simmers with land rights, hostile business takeovers, and the crackling Electra complex between Stanwyck and Huston. Huston plays cattle baron T.C. Jeffords, while Stanwyck plays his daughter, Vance. Alternately deemed a she-fox, unbridled filly and herd of stampeding cattle, Vance is intent on inheriting the family land—known as the Furies—until her father brings home a new bride and hangs her paramour. It’s then that we learn the adage, Hell hath no fury like Barbara Stanwyck scorned.

Watch the trailer for The Furies:

Um, whoops. Somehow, it's been over a month since the last installment of Rhymes With Five-- sorry, things got a little busy around here. But fret no more: PasteMagazine.com's very finest aimless roundup of non sequitur whatevers is back and... well, whether or not it's "better than ever" or "here to stay" is debatable, but for now, at least, here we are.

This week, I stumbled across three separate DVD covers that knocked me on my feet. Turns out, they're all upcoming releases from The Criterion Collection-- and, turns out, Criterion has churned out some really beautifully designed DVD packages over the years.

This morning, I spent way longer than I should have (shh, Internet, don't tell anyone I was dilly-dallying during magazine deadline) browsing through titles and cover art on their website. In addition to the staggering visual impression of their full catalog, I was struck by just how many great films I'm wildly unfamiliar with.

So, in celebration, here are my five favorite Criterion covers of movies I've never seen (that I probably should soon). What are yours?