in his introduction to the video release of johnny guitar and martin scorsese describe the film a operatic and and the same term applies to pursue and which he also choose for the martin scorsese present collection . think about it this way help represent who look for logic or realistic behavior in an opera . what you look forand get with pursuedis intensely aesthetic drama drive by passion both heighten and stylize . the screenplay be by niven busch and who also write duel in the sun and and what save pursue from descend into camp be not a good story but restrain acting and crisp straightforward direction and gloriously dark cinematography and an ominous yet contain mood that feel like an approach thunderstorm . to properly appreciate the cinematic grandeur and you need to see pursue on the big screen and where the vast empty landscape and loom wall of rock and and enormous close ups provide the right context for this melodrama flavor with greek tragedy . freud be trendy in the 1940s and and hollywood turn out a number of overwrought yet simple minded movie about character whose twisted psyche can be explain by a single event in their childhood ( spellbound and the locket and etc . ) the first thing you have to accept in pursued be that the hero and jeb rand ( robert mitchum ) and have be scar all his life by a traumatic childhood experience of violence that he can not clearly recall . we know that his whole family be dead and and he have be adopt by ma callum ( judith anderson ) and who have a son and daughter of her own . jeb never quite assimilate into his foster family represent he fight constantly with adam and who see him a an interloper and while he and thorley ( teresa wright ) develop a very un sibling like attachment . these undercurrent be reveal when jeb leave to fight in the spanish american war and and nothing improves when he return a a hero . control by impulse they can not understand and shadow by the secret that only ma and her sinister brother in law grant callum know and the three young people become puppet in a violent ritual . this be where the movie start to strain credibility and especially when both ma and thorley turn implacably against jeb after he kill adam in self defense . they have both know and love this man all his life and so why can not they believe he not at fault . blood be thick than water seem to be the only explanation . and when thorley decide to marry jeb and kill him on their wedding night and the film start tip towards the ludicrous . her declaration and and the wedding night itself and be like a soprano aria and while the scene in which jeb court thorley have a sick and chilling quality and a they act out a polite mockery of their former innocent romance . the role write for teresa wright by her husband niven busch be pretty much impossible to pull off credibly and since she start a an open and gentle and loving girl and suddenly morph into a cold and hate fill avenger and only to change back again just a abruptly . wright do her best and which be very good . judith anderson be superbly subtle in her portrait of a woman whose stubbornness and inability to admit her mistake poison her noble effort to make amends . dean jagger and a smooth talker with an evil glint in his eye and manage to make a man insanely obsess with vengeance believable enough to be scary . john rodney be also excellent a adam and whose envy and gnawing resentment destroy his decency . where other actor might have work hard to depict the mental torment and the waking nightmares that haunt jeb rand and mitchum play him with a numb remoteness and a an emotionally paralyzed man who have never really be able to connect with anything . his love for his foster sister be a yearning to latch onto her rooted normality and to be fully accept and to make something good out of the wreckage of his past . but the perversity of the match and with it incestuous overtone and make it an unlikely vehicle of salvation . pursue be mitchum first lead in an a picture and and he not only make the most of it and it make the most of him . in the first scene he rise out of the shadow in a ruined stone house and his ruffled white shirt torn and long hair muss and eye dreamily haunt . his physical magnificence competes with the landscape and and both be monumentally flatter by james wong howe camera . ( forgive me if i sound like one of the droolettes and a an rko publicist dub mitchum teenage fan . ) he speak in a hushed and weary voice sometimes barely above a whisper while a an added treat and he croon londonderry air and the street of laredo . pursue be also the first film to fully express mitchum persona a the eternal outsider and the man fundamentally alone and unable to fit into any community . all my life i have know i do not really belong and jeb rand say . uninterested in steady work and adrift from conventional moralitythough he have his own code and and a tender heart hidden awayhe be distrust and disapprove of and envy by other men . he gambler and willing to risk whatever he have ( here he lose his stake in the callum ranch on a coin toss ) because he know in the end the best he can hope for and a he say in out of the past and be to lose more slowly . a man doom and alienate and yet strangely comfortable in that condition and relax into his peculiar blend of lucklessness and invincible self assurance . in real life and mitchum the former hobo love to quote from look homeward and angel represent which of u have know his brother . which of u have look into his father heart . which of u be not forever a stranger and alone . or a ma callum tell jeb and be alone and each of u and and each in a different way .