Man Without a Star

Dempsey Rae is a drifting cowboy who has left Texas behind because ranchers there began fencing off the open range with barbed wire. Riding through Wyoming, he meets the young Jeff Jimson, and the two take jobs on a ranch recently bought by Reed Bowman, a determined woman from the East who is building up a large herd. She intends to stock the range beyond what its free grass can support, and the farmers around her stand in the way. Dempsey initially sides with Reed against the settlers, though barbed wire is something he has resented since his earlier days, and he soon finds himself caught between loyalty to his employer and sympathy for her neighbours. The conflict sharpens when Reed brings in outside men.

King Vidor directed the film, which sits between The Fountainhead and War and Peace in his filmography. Borden Chase and D.D. Beauchamp wrote the screenplay, Aaron Rosenberg produced, and Kirk Douglas stars as Dempsey alongside Jeanne Crain as Reed. Claire Trevor, William Campbell, Richard Boone and Jay C. Flippen appear in supporting roles, with twenty credited cast members in all. The film took about two million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds a 6.8 rating from roughly 4,300 votes, and on TMDB a 6.4 from about 125, while a small group of critics rated it 6.8.