Tonight on TV: This Western is little known, but it deserves all the kudos

First destined for a career in sports, Burt Lancaster ended up in the world of cinema, where he excelled in the roles of tough men with a soft heart. In 1954, director Robert Aldrich called her for the western Vera Cruz, which pitted her against Gary Cooper. The success of the film helped Burt Lancaster to go behind the camera the following year and in the same cut, “The Man from Kentucky”.

A story based on a novel Gabriel Horn By Felix Holt, set in 1820. Expecting wide open spaces and freedom, a Kentucky farmer and his son settle in a small village where they are tempted to settle down. Thus, the promise of suspenseful adventure gives way to the picturesqueness of a rural theme, not without giving way to scenes shot in real-world settings and magnified in Technicolor.

In his first film as a director – he repeated the experience in 1974 with the thriller Le Cop se rebiffe – Burt Lancaster thus signs a family western, which in its honest tone resembles the Disney production that came out at the same time. , called Davy Crockett, King of the Trappers. In The Man from Kentucky, we especially remember the touching moments of father-son complicity, as well as the memorable scene of the whip duel.

Very restrained in the title role, Burt Lancaster is surrounded by many talented actors, such as Walter Matthau, who was then making his debut on the screen, but also John McIntyre, John Carradine, Paul Wexler, Douglas Spencer or even Diane Foster and Diana Lynn.

Kentucky Man Burt Lancaster with Burt Lancaster, Diane Foster, Diana Lynn…

Tonight at Arte at 20:55.