Man Without a Star (1955)

Director:

King Vidor

Writers:

Borden Chase (screenplay) and
D.D. Beauchamp (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

10 April 1955 (Japan)

Genre:

Western

Tagline:

a love-bargain is like barbed-wire...fight it and you'll get hurt!

Plot:

Dempsey Rae, a cowboy with no clear aim in life, winds up working on a spread with a hard lady owner just arrived from the East...

Plot Keywords:

Barbed Wire | Drifter | Ranch | Friendship | Homestead

Cast

Kirk Douglas	...	Dempsey Rae
Jeanne Crain	...	Reed Bowman
Claire Trevor	...	Idonee
William Campbell	...	Jeff Jimson ('Texas')
Richard Boone	...	Steve Miles
Jay C. Flippen	...	Strap Davis
Myrna Hansen	...	Tess Cassidy
Mara Corday	...	Moccasin Mary
Eddy Waller	...	Tom Cassidy (as Eddy C. Waller)
Sheb Wooley	...	Latigo
George Wallace	...	Tom Carter
Frank Chase	...	Little Waco
Paul Birch	...	Mark Toliver
Roy Barcroft	...	Sheriff Olson
William 'Bill' Phillips	...	Cookie (as Wm. 'Bill' Phillips)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Carl Andre	...	Texas Gang Member (uncredited)
Malcolm Atterbury	...	Fancy Joe Toole (uncredited)
William Challee	...	Brick Gooder (uncredited)
Jack Elam	...	Knife Murderer (uncredited)
Mark Hanna	...	Concho Perez (uncredited)
Jim Hayward	...	Duckbill - Bartender (uncredited)
Myron Healey	...	Mogollon (uncredited)
Jack Ingram	...	Jessup (uncredited)
Casey MacGregor	...	Hammer - Blacksmith (uncredited)
Frank Mills	...	Tramp (uncredited)
Ewing Mitchell	...	Ben Johnson (uncredited)
Milicent Patrick	...	Boxcar Alice (uncredited)
Lee Roberts	...	Brakeman (uncredited)

Directed by
King Vidor

Writing credits
Borden Chase		(screenplay) and
D.D. Beauchamp		(screenplay)
Dee Linford		(novel)

Produced by
Aaron Rosenberg	....	producer

Original Music by
Hans J. Salter		(uncredited)
Herman Stein		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
Russell Metty		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Virgil W. Vogel		(as Virgil Vogel)

Art Direction by
Alexander Golitzen
Richard H. Riedel

Set Decoration by
John P. Austin		(as John Austin)
Russell A. Gausman

Makeup Department
Joan St. Oegger	....	hair stylist
Bud Westmore	....	makeup artist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Frank Shaw	....	assistant director
George Lollier	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Sound Department
Leslie I. Carey	....	sound
Joe Lapis	....	sound

Stunts
Carl Andre	....	stunts (uncredited)
Fred Carson	....	stunt double: Richard Boone (uncredited)
Richard Farnsworth	....	stunts (uncredited)
Jack N. Young	....	stunts (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Rosemary Odell	....	costumes

Music Department
Joseph Gershenson	....	music supervisor
Henry Mancini	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)

Other crew
William Fritzsche	....	technicolor color consultant

Production Companies

• Universal International Pictures (UI) (as Universal - International)

Distributors

• Universal Pictures (1955) (USA) (theatrical)
• Universal Pictures (1955) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• MCA Home Video (1985) (USA) (VHS)
• MCA/Universal Home Video (1992) (USA) (VHS)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2009) (Australia) (DVD)

Also Known As:

"Mit stahlharter Faust" - Austria, West Germany
"Covek bez zvezde" - Yugoslavia (Serbian title) (informal literal title)
"Czlowiek bez gwiazdy" - Poland
"De man die geen noodlot had" - Belgium (Flemish title)
"Hombre sin rumbo" - Venezuela
"Homem Sem Rumo" - Portugal
"Homem sem Rumo" - Brazil (imdb display title)
"Horis syrmatoplegmata" - Greece (transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title)
"Kőkemény ököllel" - Hungary
"L'homme qui n'a pas d'étoile" - France
"L'homme sans destin" - Belgium (French title)
"L'uomo senza paura" - Italy
"La pradera sin ley" - Spain
"Mannen utan öde" - Sweden
"Mies ilman kohtaloa" - Finland
"Pigtråd" - Denmark

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Norway:16 (1955) | West Germany:16 (nf) | Australia:PG | Finland:(Banned) (1955-1967) | Finland:K-16 (1967) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Conejo Valley, Thousand Oaks, California, USA

Company:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

Trivia:

One of the first films that Kirk Douglas made through his production company. The film went on to become a box office hit.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: When Dempsey Rae and Jeff Jimson are rousted off the train near the beginning of the movie, they are standing in front of a boxcar that has a registration mark painted on the side indicating it was built in December 1923. However, the movie is set in the old West of the late 19th century.

Quotes:

[Dempsey has just given Jeff Jimson a quick-draw and gun-twirling lesson]
Jeff Jimson:Aw, Demps, when do I learn THAT?!
Dempsey Rae:You don't. That's all a lotta hogwash, kid. Look, know this: twirlin' a gun never saved a man's life. There's only one thing you gotta learn. (Pulls his gun and fires) Get it out fast! And then...put it...away...slow. Get what I mean, kid?

Movie Connections:

Featured in ... A Father... A Son... Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2005) (TV)

Soundtrack:

And the Moon Grew Brighter and Brighter

A very good western that's under-rated

This is probably my favorite Kirk Douglas western. Although it has plenty of action this is not just another action western. Rather it deals with the implacable transition of the west from open range available to all to individually-controlled patches of range that are fenced off with barbed wire. Dempsey Rae (Douglas' character) loves open range and keeps drifting north to avoid the barbed wire which destroys it. Finally, however, he realizes that the small ranchers must fence off the range to protect themselves from the massive herds of a greedy rancher and her ruthless foreman and helps string and protect the wire that he hates so thoroughly. I love this under-rated western.