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The Furies (1950)
In Anthony Mann's dark and noirish psychological western:
- the close, semi-romantic relationship between feisty,
strong-willed and rebellious daughter Vance Jeffords (Barbara Stanwyck),
and her childhood friend and confidant, Mexican ranch-hand friend
Juan Herrera (Gilbert Roland), while also intimately involved with
Rip Darrow (Wendell Corey)
- the scene in which Vance reacted to the news, told
to her by gold-digging, haughty San Francisco socialite Flo Burnett
(Judith Anderson), that her widowed cattle baron father T.C. Jeffords
(Walter Huston) (of "The Furies" ranch) would be marrying
Flo the following week, and meanwhile, the room of her deceased mother
would be prepared for Flo's return: ("Ah, then, your father
hasn't told you...why he's journeying to San Francisco with me. We're
to be married there. While we're away, this room will be done over
completely, and then I think the room will suit me just perfectly");
Vance stood, thought about it, and then asked accusingly and resentfully: "Why
do you marry?...You want his money and you know it"; Flo reacted:
("A woman of my age can get very lonely. And I find TC companionable...I
once married for love. The marriage failed for the lack of money.
Money makes life soothing. I mean to have it. If some term me an
adventuress, why I suppose that's what I am")
- in reaction to the idea that the Furies ranch would
be taken over with Flo's management as a result of her marriage to
her father, Vance sought jealous revenge against Flo by hurling a
pair of scissors at her face, causing disfigurement and injury to
her right eye; Vance's father warned his daughter: "If she dies,
I'll kill you. Get out!"
- taking his own revenge, T.C. was determined to retaliate
against Vance: ("She's a cancer to be cut out") - and when
she fled to the Herrera squatter family's home, there was a shoot-out,
and the Herreras surrendered; Vance offered to plead for Juan's life
who was threatened with hanging (for theft of Furies' horses and
cattle), but he refused to have her humiliate herself: ("You
will not humble yourself"); before his execution, she kissed
him goodbye, using oft-repeated farewell words between them, before
he was executed: (Juan: "The kiss of a good friend."
Vance: "Till our eyes next meet." Juan: "Till then")
Juan Herrera's Hanging by Vengeful T.C.
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- following the cruel hanging, Vance delivered a
vengeful, harsh warning to her father that she would now ruin him:
("Do you want me to beg? Do you want me on my knees to you
for his life?...You're old and you're getting foolish, and you've
made a mistake. It's me you should have hung, because now I hate
you in a way I didn't know a human could hate. Take a good long
look at me, TC. You won't see me again until the day I take your
world away from you")
- the scene of T.C.'s vain request, since he was broke,
for Flo to return all the money and things he had given her, in order
to save the Furies, and her rationalization to refuse him: ("If
I gave you the money, and you saved yourself with it now, you'd get
rid of me....You'd get rid of me because you can't bear anything
ugly. You don't see your face when you look at me, Temple, but I
see it....If you saved yourself now, you'd find another woman - one
that wasn't marked, one who didn't drink too much, quite possibly
one who was rich. In any event, you'd get rid of me, for this face.
I'd find no one else. I'm bound to be lonely. Money is the only thing
that makes loneliness bearable, to some slight degree. So I must
refuse you, Temple. I must keep the money I have. And if that isn't
sporting of me, I can't help that.")
- and later, Vance's cunning swindling of her own father
to take over the Furies, as she had promised, and TC's congratulatory
and proud praise for his daughter: ("She's smart, and she's
a beauty, and she's full of lickin' fire. She's one in a nation.
And I'll tell ya, no one could have bettered her but TC Jeffords....And
so the Furies is in your hands. Man, I suppose that's where she best
be."); he realized he would have to start all over again: "I'm
back to scratch. That's when I had my fun, starting from scratch"
- the final scene in which the bereaved mother (Blancha
Yurka) of Juan Herrera gunned down T.C. on the main street, just
after he had signed the Furies deed "Paid in Full" over
to his daughter; his last words before slumping dead in the arms
of Vance: "There'll never be another like me"
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Vance Jeffords (Barbara Stanwyck) with Juan Herrera (Gilbert
Roland)
The News of Flo Marrying Vance's Widowed, Wealthy Father
T.C. Jeffords
Scissors Hurled into Flo's Face
Flo's Disfigurement - and Her Firm Refusal to Return
Money Given to Her by T.C.
T.C's Death in Vance's Arms
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