The Man From Laramie

James Stewart is looking for the man who killed his brother. Also starring Arthur Kennedy.

It's maybe the best of the Mann / Stewart films I've seen so far. I'm not sure if it deserves to be called a true classic. I think I still prefer Mann's film noirs (like Raw Deal and Desperate) to his westerns. They're fine, but he doesn't seem to have it in his blood the same way John Ford did. However, crime films fell out of flavour in the 50s, and westerns was the big thing. Directors who wanted to work didn't have that much of a choice. This film was apparently one of the first westerns to be shot in cinemascope, a choice that makes sense for a genre where the landscape is such a big part of the story.