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Some
remote place in rural Texas, where the only things that can earn respect from both
people and animals are the hand that tames them and the willpower that breaks
them. T.C. Jeffords (Walter Huston) is very much the local deity, a Zeus by
turns irascible or patronizing, but whose craving for more lands to rule over
leads to near-bankruptcy. It is obvious that his son is unable to fill his (rather
large) boots but fortunately for the family estate of "The furies",
his daughter Vance (Barbara Stanwyck) is more than up to the job. Indeed, Vance
is both "The furies" ' shadow manager and her late, delicate mother's
body double in T.C.'s worshipping heart, if not elsewhere - and by that I really
mean that their relationship screams of latent incest. Like father like
daughter - so much so that both of them would rather crush their opponent and
risk self-destruction in the process, than surrender. This quite primitive line
of thinking is pushed to its most absurd when they come to fight each other
over their respective love interests.
How
could Vengeance and Destruction not be part of life at "The furies",
if only because of the ranch's name? Little by little, more or less directly,
each of the persons who could have brought T.C. and Vance back to their senses
will end up being destroyed as a result of their dispute. Flo (Judith
Anderson), the distinguished lady who was engaged to T.C., is disfigured by
Vance, who sees no other way to prevent her soon-to-be mother-in-law from
taking control of "The furies". It is also likely that the young
woman could not stand the idea of T.C. having fallen for someone so civilized
and educated, and therefore so unlike the rough and tough Vance herself. A
childhood friend (and not-so-secret admirer) of Vance and the leader of a clan
of Mexican squatters refusing to leave the land of their ancestors, the gentle
Juan Herrera (Gilbert Roland) will be hanged on T.C.'s order under a false
pretense. This execution is as much a form of retaliation for the attack
against Flo as it is a convenient way to eliminate Vance's only genuine
support.
Unsurprisingly,
Vance is attracted to Rip Darrow (Wendell Corey, who clearly does not play in
the same league as his two acting monsters co-stars), who grew up in a context
of unrelenting hatred for T.C. as the man who triggered his father's decline. It
makes sense that the man that Vance chooses to love is the only one who is
compelled to oppose T.C.'s domination over the region - and as such, she is
confident that he is also the one man T.C. could never approve of as his
daughter's husband.
Both
Jeffords father and daughter are above the idea of compassion, and negociating
never was, and never is, an option for them. All they ever do is wipe their
enemies out - and why should they do otherwise when their sheer brutality gets
them what they want? Their relationship is reminiscent of that among great
predators: the challenging of the old by the young to take over the pack is a
rite of passage, an integral part of the life cycle. Just like wolves, T.C. and
Vance can't help getting at each other's throat - but even so their innate
violence is what make them so much alike, and so far apart from the rest.
Ultimately, they will always get back together to lick each other's wounds.
The furies looks very much like a transposition of Wuthering Heights in Texas: all the
locations have this distinctive gothic flavor enhanced by a strongly contrasted
photography and ominous landscapes and the relationships between the
characters are as loud as un thunderstorm over Emily Brontë's moors. The
casting of Judith Anderson, who played the part of Mrs Danvers in Rebecca (a movie that was itself
adapted from a book capitalizing on gothic imagery), only adds to this eerie atmosphere.
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