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The Lusty Men

Play trailer Poster for The Lusty Men 1952 1h 53m Western Play Trailer Watchlist
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100% Tomatometer 17 Reviews 81% Popcornmeter 250+ Ratings
In the American West of the 1950s, talented rodeo rider Jeff McCloud quits after an injury. Returning to his hometown, he gets a job on a ranch. He strikes up a friendship with Wes, 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. But when the two men start to disagree, Jeff returns to the circuit himself.

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The Lusty Men

Critics Reviews

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Keith Phipps The Dissolve 10/13/2014
4/5
Portrayed with Ray's usual sympathy for outsiders, the central threesome are decent, flawed romantics . Go to Full Review Variety Staff Variety 10/23/2007
A somewhat slow starter, once underway it is kept playing with growing interest under Nicholas Ray's firm direction. Go to Full Review Time Out 06/24/2006
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. Go to Full Review Jeffrey M. Anderson Combustible Celluloid 02/20/2024
4/4
Nicholas Ray's beautifully layered, black-and-white rodeo picture. Go to Full Review Jacques Rivette Cahiers du Cinéma 06/07/2022
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. Go to Full Review Manny Farber The Nation 11/25/2020
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. Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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j f @LiberteBurrows 07/07/2023 I’ve lusted harder a couple times this week. But it’s not bad. See more Russ G @RT78760655 11/02/2022 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. See more 12/05/2020 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. See more anthony j @RT51283733 11/15/2020 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! See more 05/27/2019 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. See more 07/08/2017 Robert Mitchum as rodeo cowboy. See more Read all reviews
The Lusty Men

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Cast & Crew

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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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The Lusty Men

The Lusty Men (1952) The Lusty Men (1952) The Lusty Men (1952) View more photos

Movie Info

Synopsis In the American West of the 1950s, talented rodeo rider Jeff McCloud quits after an injury. Returning to his hometown, he gets a job on a ranch. He strikes up a friendship with Wes, 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. 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