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L'HOMME DES VALLEES PERDUES
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L'Homme des vallées perdues (Shane) is an American film realized by George Stevens, release in 1953 and based on the novel of the American writer Jack Schaefer.
This western evokes the life of the cowboys and the farmers at the time of the Wild West.
Personal comments : Louis de Funès is not marked in the credits, he does not appears of the film but, he doubles the voice of the American actor, Everett Sloane.
♦ Synopsis :
In summer, 1889, a solitary cowboy (former bounty hunter), Shane (Alan Ladd) arrives in a small valley of the Wyoming. He stops in a farm where lives peacefully the Starret family : Joe (Van Heflin), Marian, his wife (Jean Arthur) and their 10-year-old son Joey (Brandon de Wilde). Marian is attracted by the mysterious charm of the newcomer ; as for the young person Joey, he is simply subjected and fascinated by this very skillful man in the pistol and what he worships as a hero. At first, Shane will help the Starret family for the works of the farm. Then, Shane will lend strong hand to the farmers of the neighborhood in their fight against "ranchers" managed by Ryker (Emile Meyer). Ryker has already made kill a farmer by using the services of the hired killer Jack Wilson (Jack Palance). The purpose of Ryker was to seize lands of the farmers. Seeing it, Joe Starret decides to face only Jack Wilson. But Shane manages to convince Joe not to face Wilson in duel.
♦ Specification sheet :
- Title : L'homme des vallées perdues
- Original title: Shane
- Realization : George Stevens
- Scenario : A.B.Guthrie Jr. according to the novel of Jack Schaefer
- Music : Victor Young
- Photography : Loyal Griggs, Irmin Roberts, Col. Richard Mueller
- Editing : William Hornbeck, Tom McDoo
- Artistic direction : Cedric Gibbons and other
- Decorations : Hal Pereira, Walter Tyler, Emile Kuri
- Suits : Edith Head
- Production : the studios Paramount
- Country of origin : The United States
- Format : Colors (Technicolor) - 1,85:1 - 35 mm
- Genre : western
- Duration : 118 minutes
- Date exit : 1953 in United States
♦ Distribution :
- Louis de Funès : Double the voice of "Torrey" (Elisha Cook Junior)
- Alan Ladd : Shane
- Van Heflin : Joe Starret
- Jean Arthur : Marian Starret
- Brandon de Wilde : Joey Starret
- Jack Palance : Jack Wilson
- Ben Johnson : Chris Calloway
- Emile Meyer : Rufus Ryker
- Edgar Buchanan : Fred Lewis
- Elisha Cook Jr. (VF : Louis de Funès) : Frank "Stonewall" Torrey
- Edith Evanson : Mrs. Shipstead
♦ Comments :
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The movie is an archetype of the western with a solitary hero. Nobody knows where from comes this hero (Shane), nobody knows where he goes; dressed in white, Alan Ladd embodies the myth of the cowboy redresser of wrongs, opposite to a face(figure) of the bad absolute: jack Palance, threadlike, dressed in black, evoking " something venomous ". He saves the widow and the orphan without any condition. L'homme des vallées perdues is a cult movie which received the Oscar 1954 of the best photography.
- Clint Eastwood made a remake in 1985 : Pale Rider.
- Morris caricatures Jack Palance in Phil Defer, eighth album of the series Lucky Luke.
♦ Awards :
- 2 Oscars and 9 appointments.
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