Pursued. 1947. Directed by Raoul Walsh.

(9/4/01)

Pursued is another of those films that I didn't like very much at the beginning, but which grew on me as it went along.

One reason why I didn't like it at first was that it had a very abrupt beginning. Or so it seemed to me. My impression was that we weren't properly introduced to the characters. And it took me a while to settle into it.

Pursued tells a strange and intense story. A young boy is taken from a scene of violence by a widow with two children. It is clear that there is a history of violence between his family and the widow's family. There is a man who is intent on destroying him. But no one ever tells the boy just what it's all about. He is hated and hunted down without ever knowing why.

There is a tension between the boy and the widow, played by Judith Anderson, who simply tells him not to ask questions. And there is tension between him and the son of the family. And then he falls in love with the daughter of the family, movingly played by Teresa Wright.

It's like a Romeo and Juliet story, but it is more painful because the lovers do not understand the forces which are determined to keep them apart. This is compensated for by the fact that the lovers prevail.

Robert Mitchum is fine as the bewildered, tortured soul. I had a little difficulty accepting him in this part because I am most familiar with his more sinister roles--Night of the Hunter and Cape Fear. Those are the only two other Robert Mitchum films that I can think of. It took me some time to adjust.

Teresa Wright and Judith Anderson both contribute a lot to this film. I think that Anderson's best moment comes after the inquest, when Mitchum has been exonerated of the killing of her son. He approaches her as she and Wright are preparing to leave in their wagon and Anderson tells him to never come near her again.

I also liked the scene when Wright attempts to murder Mitchum but can't. She married him planning to kill him, but what is fascinating is that he knew what she was planning to do, but also knew that she wouldn't be able to do it. He knew her that well. That was a surprising and gratifying moment.

I very much liked the photography of the scene where they buried Prentice, the young man who was manipulated into picking a fight with Mitchum. That scene had an eerie quality which impressed me.

I never did figure out just what happened when the hero was a little boy. The explanations either came out too quickly at the end or else the "restored" sound quality was so poor that I couldn't make them out. It didn't really matter, anyway. What mattered was the story of this man, caught up in an impossible, bewildering situation and how he dealt with it.