Jubal

Jubal Troop comes down off the mountain broke and on foot. The rancher Shep Horgan picks him up, takes him in, gives him work and quickly trusts him. Shep's wife Mae is unhappy and makes her interest in Jubal plain. But the real problem is not the woman: it is Pinky, who has worked the ranch for years, has had Mae before, cannot bear Jubal's rise, and starts dripping poison into Shep's ear. The film is usually read as Othello moved to a western ranch, with Pinky as the direct equivalent of Iago. That is what works: everything up to the moment a gun is drawn moves by what is said. Delmer Daves directed. Glenn Ford plays Jubal, Ernest Borgnine plays Shep, Rod Steiger plays Pinky and Valerie French plays Mae, with Charles Bronson in the cast. Borgnine's Shep is not the usual rancher of the genre: generous, loud and well meaning, and the tragedy grows precisely out of that. Who it is for: anyone who likes psychological westerns and fifties widescreen colour. Who it is not for: anyone expecting action. Guns are barely used, Mae is badly served by the script, and the ending is tied off too quickly.