Tonight's Movie: Pursued (1947) at UCLA
Tonight kicked off an excellent film series at UCLA: Tracking the Cat: Robert Mitchum in the West.
The two films on tonight's double bill were PURSUED (1947), directed by Raoul Walsh, and BLOOD ON THE MOON (1948), directed by Robert Wise.
Two special guests were on hand to introduce the films: Alan K. Rode of the Film Noir Foundation, who discussed BLOOD ON THE MOON, and Marilyn Ann Moss, author of the new book RAOUL WALSH: THE TRUE ADVENTURES OF HOLLYWOOD'S LEGENDARY DIRECTOR. Moss provided the introduction to PURSUED.

PURSUED is an old favorite which I first saw as a teenager. It's a murky story, told in flashback, which reflects Hollywood's mid-'40s interest in psychology. (There's more on that here and here.) Orphaned Jeb Rand (Mitchum) is deeply scarred by a nightmarish childhood trauma he can't quite remember.

Lurking in the background is evil, one-armed Grant Callum (Dean Jagger), Ma's brother-in-law, who's determined to kill Jeb. The tale takes an even stranger twist when Jeb is forced to shoot Adam in self-defense.

Mitchum and Wright are particularly good in the lead roles. This was one of Mitchum's earliest leads in an "A" picture; his Jeb is perenially stoic, no matter what he's confronted with, while Thorley's emotions are all over the place. There's a fine scene on their wedding night as Jeb forces Thorley to confront the fine line she's walking between hate and love. The movie was written by Wright's husband, Niven Busch.

PURSUED is available on DVD and VHS with an introduction by Martin Scorsese. Scorsese also helped fund UCLA's restoration of the film.
There's more about UCLA's Mitchum series in an article by Kenneth Turan at the L.A. Times.
3 Comments:
Wow, "Pursued" & "Blood on the moon" sound awesome, you've piqued my interest; I'll try to watch them soon! So cool you could attend to this kind of events, nice you got your book signed :)
This sounds like a great series. Thanks for the run down of the evening and the link to the schedule.
Thanks for your feedback, Clara and Robby, it was a great evening! Hope you can check out Mitchum Westerns on DVD or maybe Robby can even see one in person!
There are a couple more comments on the Mitchum evening which ended up under this post. :)
Best wishes,
Laura
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