After three years of hard labor in the state penitentiary, Joe Devereaux (Robert Wagner) is released and immediately escorted to the office of the Governor (E.G. Marshall), where Joe is "encouraged" to a make a deal with older half-brothers Ben (Richard Widmark), Mike (Hugh O'Brian), and Denny (Earl Holliman). Ben pressures Joe to sell out, to surrender his stake in the sprawling Devereaux Ranch, and attempts to buy him out with an offer of a small ranch in Oregon and $10,000 in cash, which Joe spitefully tosses into a spittoon.

In flashbacks it's revealed that Matt Devereaux (Spencer Tracy) had been a strong-willed but pigheaded father who treated his sons little better than hired hands. Denied his love and understanding, the three older sons turn materialistic, and Matt catches Mike and Denny stealing a few cattle to supplement their meager $40/month salary. Joe, a half-breed from Matt's marriage to an Indian everyone calls Senora (Katy Jurado), tries to intercede on his brothers' behalf, but Matt banishes them from his ranch.

Joe begins a romance with Barbara (Jean Peters), the Governor's daughter and Matt's niece, but the Governor objects to the relationship on racial grounds, which greatly offends Matt. Meanwhile, Matt's cattle begin dying from the pollution dumped into the stream at an upstream copper mine. Rather than deal with the crisis through proper channels, Matt bullies his way into a confrontation with local miners, and a resulting lawsuit could spell the end of Matt's beloved ranch.

Broken Lance works best when it zeroes in on the familial discord between father Matt and his unhappy sons. Tracy gives an exceptional performance during these scenes; Tracy, Widmark, Wagner, O'Brian, and Holliman look nothing alike (indeed, no two of them look alike!), but Tracy's performance carries the weight of years of tension and hostility and familiarity. He really seems to have been around his adult children all their lives, subtly addressing each one with the subtle differences that come with years of experience as their father. Often though, the script isn't up to the level of his performance.

Widmark's Ben mostly comes off as ruthless, but the script makes an effort to provide some understanding for his actions, that Joe was born into a wealthy family and thus felt beholden to Matt, while Ben had to struggle with his father during those harder early years, working 16 hours a day from the time he was ten years old. He feels more entitled to enjoy the fruits of his labors denied him by Matt, a valid point.

The undercurrent of racism isn't developed as much as it might have been, but Matt's disappointment in his brother's (brother-in-law's?) reaction to his daughter's relationship with half-breed Joe is nicely played. More disappointed than betrayed, Matt is caught off guard and as such shows his hurt.

Westerns often have gunfighters who gradually realize they've outlived their usefulness, that the civilization they helped tame with their violence now no longer wants any part of them. Broken Lance presents an interesting variation of this, a rancher whose violent, almost warlord-like way of doing business is anachronistic in a civilized society now populated by lawyers and stock brokers. And where aging gunfighters generally come to terms with their redundancy and essentially wander off to die (or die in a heroic blaze of gunfire), Matt stubbornly refuses to change with the times, wrongly assuming everyone'll eventually come around to his way of thinking.

Unfortunately, most of these components never quite jell as well as they might, much of it bogged down in long, static shots. One of the earliest CinemaScope films, Broken Lance reflects an unwarranted concern that, like the more encompassing Cinerama, audiences would find quick-cutting disorienting, and so many scenes are played out in long (sometimes several minutes-long) two-shots. One of these offers Tracy a showy exchange on the witness stand under the gun of a tough prosecuting attorney (Philip Ober), and though Tracy is fine the effect is not dramatic, like watching random testimony on Court TV.

Video & Audio

Fox has been doing an outstanding job with its library titles recently, and Broken Lance is no exception. Broken Lance's 16:9 anamorphic transfer is excellent, with as sharp and image and strong color (by De Luxe, original prints were by Technicolor) as you're likely to find with a Fox 'scope title from this early 1953-54 period. There are a few frames missing at 11:54, but this is a minor hiccup. This is a flipper disc, with a panned-and-scanned, full-frame version on the opposite side. The 4.0 stereo sound is terrific, complete with directional dialogue and sound effects. Mono audio in French and Spanish is available, with optional subtitles in English and Spanish.

Extra Features

The only extras are a Fox Movietone News excerpt on the 1954 Academy Awards, which fleetingly mentions Philip Yordan's Oscar win (by, says the narrator, the "Academicians") for Best Original Screenplay. Wide screen aficionados will enjoy the original Theatrical Trailer which not only touts the "miracle" of CinemaScope, but also "the Added Magic of Richer...Clearer...Directional, High Fidelity Stereophonic Sound!" It's in 16:9 anamorphic format, and apparently intended for 1.85:1 exhibition.

Parting Thoughts

Tracy's tyrannical, bearcat of a father is the main reason to watch Broken Lance. It's passable for what it is, with several fine scenes and interesting characters, but had its script gestated a bit longer, it might have been something memorable.

Stuart Galbraith IV is a Los Angeles and Kyoto-based film historian whose work includes The Emperor and the Wolf -- The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune. His new book, Cinema Nippon will be published by Taschen in 2005.