The Lusty Men

Released Oct 24, 1952

1h 53m

Western

List

100%

Tomatometer

17 Reviews

83%

Audience Score

250+ Ratings

In the American West of the 1950s, talented rodeo rider Jeff McCloud (Robert Mitchum) quits after an injury. Returning to his hometown, he gets a job on a ranch. He strikes up a friendship with Wes (Arthur Kennedy), a fellow ranch hand who dreams of being a rodeo rider. Wes talks Jeff into training him, and joins the rodeo circuit with the reluctant approval of his wife (Susan Hayward). But when the two men start to disagree, Jeff returns to the circuit himself.

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Keith Phipps

The Dissolve

Portrayed with Ray's usual sympathy for outsiders, the central threesome are decent, flawed romantics .

Rated: 4/5

Oct 13, 2014

Full Review

Variety Staff

Variety

A somewhat slow starter, once underway it is kept playing with growing interest under Nicholas Ray's firm direction.

Oct 23, 2007

Full Review

Time Out

The story isn't much (the security of family life versus the rootlessness and danger of working as a rodeo rider), but the situation is rich in emotional resonances which Ray conjures into life convincingly.

Jun 24, 2006

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Jeffrey M. Anderson

Combustible Celluloid

Nicholas Ray's beautifully layered, black-and-white rodeo picture.

Rated: 4/4

Feb 20, 2024

Full Review

Jacques Rivette

Cahiers du Cinéma

Nicholas Ray has always offered us the story of a moral dilemma where man emerges as either victor or vanquished, but ultimately lucid: the futility of violence, of all that is not happiness and which diverts man from his innermost purpose.

Jun 7, 2022

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Manny Farber

The Nation

Mitchum is the most convincing cowboy I've seen in horse opry, meeting every situation with the lonely, distant calm of a master cliché-dodger.

Nov 25, 2020

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j f

I’ve lusted harder a couple times this week. But it’s not bad.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

11/23/23

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Russ G

Robert Mitchum's the epitome of cool. An entertaining film, if a bit melodramatic, about a now gone way of life. I watched this as I don't think I'd seen Susan Haywood in anything before.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

11/02/22

Full Review

Audience Member

Rodeo settings and action. Love story is behind it. Good watching. Period piece that mentions Santa Fe, Tucson, Phoenix, and other rodeo hotspots in the American Southwest.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/05/23

Full Review

anthony j

Badly dated and filled with grainy old rodeo clips. Some decent acting but the emotion, or stiff lack thereof, over deaths, was jarringly weak and the ending predictable. A forgettable movie with a beat-it-to-death theme of rodeo being a tough, but addictive way of life. Okay, we GET it!

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Robert Mitchum's treatment of Susan Hayward is the real story happening during this movie. Her complaints against Mitchum went all the way to the top of RKO -- but Hayward had been "borrowed" from Fox, and supposedly, "there wasn't much they could do about it." "Brutal Misogyny": a much better movie and true to life story. I enjoyed TCM's abbreviated version of Mitchum's bullying.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/16/23

Full Review

andrey k

A tough American classic, it is so american as a movie can be featuring the very american activity - rodeo. The movie tells a classic story of a man bent on earning an "easy-coming" money risking at the same time all he has, including his life and the woman he loves. It's very well-acted with formidable presence of Robert Mitchum and especially Susan Hayward on the part of which the movie hinges. The rodeo sequences are breathtaking and awe-striking. It sure is a good ride this movie is.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Nicholas Ray

Director

Susan Hayward

Louise Merritt

Robert Mitchum

Jeff McCloud

Arthur Kennedy

Wes Merritt

Arthur Hunnicutt

Booker Davis

Frank Faylen

Al Dawson

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Synopsis

In the American West of the 1950s, talented rodeo rider Jeff McCloud (Robert Mitchum) quits after an injury. Returning to his hometown, he gets a job on a ranch. He strikes up a friendship with Wes (Arthur Kennedy), a fellow ranch hand who dreams of being a rodeo rider. Wes talks Jeff into training him, and joins the rodeo circuit with the reluctant approval of his wife (Susan Hayward). But when the two men start to disagree, Jeff returns to the circuit himself.

Director: Nicholas Ray
Producer: Jerry Wald, Norman Krasna
Screenwriter: David Dortort, Horace McCoy
Production Co: Wald/Krasna Productions
Genre: Western
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 24, 1952, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 10, 2017
Runtime: 1h 53m

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