This is one of the marvelous flamboyant melodramas by Vincente Minnelli.
The screenwriters rewrote William Humphrey 's novel with taste ,adding some changes ,and providing the director with an absorbing story .
Much to their surprise,people who read the book after watching the movie , may be surprised by the absence of Raf : this character was made from start to finish by the screenwriters : he represents the captain's illegitimate children ,and in the film a manly counterpart to Theron .One should add ,this character helped sweeten Humphrey's desperate ending : the final scene in the graveyard leaves hope to the viewer ; on the contrary ,the book begins with a funeral (three gravestones and the same date of death)and ends with a search for a dead body (not to be recovered).Superbly portrayed by ideally cast George Peppard , Raf 's moral stature keeps on growing all along the movie : he could be a rebel ,he is the one who rebuilds the family .
Mrs Hannah has also undergone some changes :she remains an overpossessive mom, but she is still an attractive one (Eleanor Parker),not the cheated woman whose beauty has withered and who looks like an old maid.
The captain (who hunts two kinds of preys)(Mitchum ) and Theron (Hamilton) are roughly similar to their models in the novel ; the legitimate son is always torn between a father he admires (and hunting is a way to equal him) and a protective mom : both are responsible for his failure with Libby whose father does not want to hear of an union with a Hunnicut.Raf ,mature for his age ,provides a good contrast with frail Theron and acts as a deus ex machina .
Very well acted and directed.
The screenwriters rewrote William Humphrey 's novel with taste ,adding some changes ,and providing the director with an absorbing story .
Much to their surprise,people who read the book after watching the movie , may be surprised by the absence of Raf : this character was made from start to finish by the screenwriters : he represents the captain's illegitimate children ,and in the film a manly counterpart to Theron .One should add ,this character helped sweeten Humphrey's desperate ending : the final scene in the graveyard leaves hope to the viewer ; on the contrary ,the book begins with a funeral (three gravestones and the same date of death)and ends with a search for a dead body (not to be recovered).Superbly portrayed by ideally cast George Peppard , Raf 's moral stature keeps on growing all along the movie : he could be a rebel ,he is the one who rebuilds the family .
Mrs Hannah has also undergone some changes :she remains an overpossessive mom, but she is still an attractive one (Eleanor Parker),not the cheated woman whose beauty has withered and who looks like an old maid.
The captain (who hunts two kinds of preys)(Mitchum ) and Theron (Hamilton) are roughly similar to their models in the novel ; the legitimate son is always torn between a father he admires (and hunting is a way to equal him) and a protective mom : both are responsible for his failure with Libby whose father does not want to hear of an union with a Hunnicut.Raf ,mature for his age ,provides a good contrast with frail Theron and acts as a deus ex machina .
Very well acted and directed.