Event

THE LUSTY MEN

Monday, October 17 @ 7:00 PM Music Box Theatre 3733 N. Southport Ave. Admission: $7

THE LUSTY MEN
Directed by Nicholas Ray - 1952
One of the superlative works turned out in the waning days of RKO as the studio atrophied under the erratic, inattentive leadership of Howard Hughes, THE LUSTY MEN should never have come out so well. All its characters have seen better days, too: Robert Mitchum as the washed-up saddle tramp who knows when to walk; Arthur Kennedy as the ranch hand who still clings to a childhood of bronco-busting stardom; and Susan Hayward, who made the mistake of shackling herself to the immature Kennedy. Based on a Life magazine article and a mountain of research on the slang, rituals, and attitudes of modern-day cowpokes, the film had at least six writers; Mitchum and Ray purportedly threw out much of this work and simply improvised, writing the next days scenes when filming concluded each evening. Accordingly, THE LUSTY MEN plays like a burnished myth, a folk mosaic that simply rose from the dirt. The best linesNever was a bull that couldnt be rode, there was never a cowboy that couldnt be throwed approach the archaic sublime. Restored by Warner Bros. in collaboration with The Film Foundation and The Nicholas Ray Foundation. (KW)
113 min - RKO Radio Pictures - 35mm from Academy Film Archive

Short: Universal Color Parade: Junior Jamboree (Thomas Mead, 1957) 35mm - 9 min