Jubal (1956)

I did not like this at all. At best, it might have been a serviceable Western. Glenn Ford plays Jubal Troop (amusing name), who stumbles upon a ranch run by Ernest Borgnine. Borgnine hires him and likes him so much he soon makes him the foreman. Unfortunately, there's a jerk who's been there a lot longer than Ford who resents him. Even more unfortunately, he's played by Rod Steiger with a Cajun accent. Steiger absolutely stinks this film up. Every moment he's on screen I hated it. There's not too much interest besides that, though. Ford's character is mostly a bore, really disappointing considering how awesome he was when they gave him something to work with in 3:10 to Yuma the next year. A lot of the plot revolves around Borgnine's whore of a wife, Valerie French, who isn't very good, either. Ford's love interest, Felicia Farr, is a bore, too. Charles Bronson also appears. The color cinematography is pretty good.

Stalwart thesping by a veteran cast and stunning mountain scenery cannot compensate for the predictable script in "Broken Arrow" director Delmar Daves' modest ranching epic "Jubal," with likable Glenn Ford cast as the eponymous character. The story is fairly basic material. A lone cowboy staggers out of the mountains and onto the trail, starved, on foot without a horse, and practically dead. The owner of a sprawling ranch picks him up and brings him onto his property. Good Samaritan rancher Shep (Ernest Borgnine of "Marty") is a genuinely pleasant fellow who takes the cowboy, Jubal Troop (Glenn Ford of "Texas"), in and gives him a job. Meanwhile, one of the ranch owner's hands, Pinky (Rod Steiger of "On the Waterfront") doesn't like Shep's charitable gesture of kindness. He doesn't like it for another reason. Shep's beautiful wife Mae (Valerie French) is a no-good spouse who lusts after Jubal behind her husband's ignorant back. Pinky knows better, too, and does his best to aggravate a potentially nasty predicament. While Shep is hopelessly gracious to his men, overlooking Pinky's antagonism to Jubal, he is a complete fool where women are concerned and doesn't see what his faithless wife is doing to him. Pinky's wrath toward Jubal mounts when Shep gives him the rank of foreman. Meanwhile, some Christian settlers venture across Shep's land and Pinky leads an army of Shep's cowhands and other ranch hands from different ranches to drive these harmless folks out. Jubal intervenes on behalf of the settlers. Predictably, Pinky rides back to the ranch and warns Shep about Jubal's treachery. Initially, Pinky didn't like Jubal because he smelled sheep on him."Jubal" was one of those 'adult-themed' westerns that Hollywood made in the 1950s. The lady of the ranch throws herself at the hero, but he isn't having anything to do with her because he likes her husband. Unfortunately, Daves and scenarist Russell Hughes refrain from developing the roles into three dimensional characters. In other words, nobody changes over time. Every character remains steadfastly the same. Pinky epitomizes evil incarnate when he is not given his way. At one point, Pinky and Jubal opens fire their weapons on each other. As the only lady in this horse opera, Mae doesn't change an iota either. Eventually, Pinky convinces Shep that Jubal and Mae are having an affair under his nose and Shep calls an unarmed Jubal out. The ending leaves something to your imagination with regard to Pinky's comeuppance. Jack Elam and Noah Beery, Jr., co-star.

When Shakespeare's "Othello" met the Western movie in 1956 with director Delmer Daves commanding a cast and crew in the Grand Teton Range, the result was "Jubal": a solid, near-perfect gem that benefits enormously from gallant scenery and a plethora of solid performances. It derives from a Paul Wellman novel, about a cow hand who is found on the road by a cattleman. The cattleman hires him on his ranch and later promotes him to foreman, much to the disdain of his best hand and to the pleasure of his unhappy wife, who has taken a shine to the stranger.The title character is played by Glenn Ford, the same wonderful actor who appeared in such movies as "Gilda," "Cowboy," and "3:10 to Yuma" another Delmer Daves classic. As with all of his performances, Mr. Ford plays his character with a steady, calm, and naturalistic manner. Throughout his career Mr. Ford would tell people that he never really acted; he only played himself. Well, he certainly must have been a real charismatic personality, because that is evident in all his roles, especially in this one. He plays the noble cowboy in a believable, non-hyperbolic manner and that is what, I think, carries the whole movie.It also benefits from some other very good performances by Ernest Borgnine as the cattleman, the lovely Valerie French as his wife, and Rod Steiger as the jealous ranch hand. Mr. Ford has great interaction with all three of these characters, especially with Ms French. Their scenes together are the best and they do not go in the direction that one expects them to. By doing so, somehow they are more moving and charismatic that if they had taken the conventional route. I won't give away how so; I want you to see for yourself.The four leads are very good. I've already touched on Mr. Ford. Mr. Borgnine is his usual self, I doubt he ever gave a less-than-satisfactory performance or ever will. Ms French is beautiful but more than scenic in the role of the leading lady. Mr. Steiger is unnerving, just as his role requires him to be. Charles Bronson plays a supporting role that I wish had been larger, but does so with conviction as usual. If there's a weak performance in the movie, it's by Felicia Farr as the rawhider girl who Jubal takes a shine to. But apart from her, you get your money's worth in the acting department."Jubal" is not an entirely perfect movie because there are a few supporting roles and story lines that are not as furthered as they should have been, but the movie overall is very beneficial by what it has and is first-class entertainment for Western fans.

"There are two types of human beings that I deserve consideration: those men who get money at all costs because they consider only in this way shall be accepted by a woman and women who are attracted only by money, they decide to indulge in such men. Here ensured an unhappy relationship. First, as he is underestimated and is, therefore, deeply jealous, believe that because they have paid very well to the woman (who pulled out of the blue, he says) is entitled to her to be his slave. Not open to anyone who looks, speaks, or leave to have another man as a friend than him. He does not want to study or to work to avoid contact with others who may be attracted by her beauty. In short, a man so insecure and so afraid that if he had locked up in a cage that he alone had the key. Secondly, no woman, fairly lucid, is willing to live in such conditions. And so, feeling bitter about the persecution and imprisonment, and to understand that material objects did not fill, and that the openness and the deep affection that every woman wants, not what is in man, the woman begins to be hard on him, showing derogatory and does not respond to petting as he wanted. And so began the beatings, drunkenness, infidelities one way or another... and an eternal bitterness filled with tears and frustration, until one of the two decide that you must walk away from that relationship".This comment, I've taken verbatim from my book "Tomorrow the sun will rise", defines an experience similar to that recreates, to great effect, this master of cinema called in Delmer Daves his film "Jubal", a story of a landowner in his fifties (the always brilliant Ernest Borgnine) who married a beautiful and sensual young woman (Valerie French) who only sees in him a rough man, covered in money.Then their lives will intersect in a shepherd named Jubal (Glenn Ford) who, as estimated by the farmer, became his foreman and the type of man who will definitely attract the bitter girl.Daves then be responsible for defining human profiles are credible, they are nuanced and have actual reasons that explain their actions. The staging is sober, a real estates it is the scene of loneliness to this clash of emotions. "Jubal" is a psychological western where the action is focused essentially on the emotions and suspicions of the characters, from the shootings and fights to the background, without the least decay rate or the force of history. A film for any anthology of classic westerns.