Jubal

Colour, 35 mm
USA, 1956, 100 min
Section: Treasures from the Film Archives

Synopsis

Loosely based on Shakespeare’s Othello, one of Delmer Daves’s lesser-known Westerns spins a tale of jealousy and power against the spectacular backdrop of Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park. In one of the most remarkable roles of his career, Glenn Ford portrays an itinerant hired hand taken on by a gruff but kindhearted rancher named Shep (Ernest Borgnine). The new arrival proves to be quite a thorn in foreman Pinky’s side. Pinky (Rod Steiger) happens to be the spurned lover of Shep’s attractive wife (Valerie French), and he spins a web of slander around the others that ineluctably leads to dramatic events. In one of the first strong roles of his career, Charles Bronson rounds out the all-star cast of this realistic psychological Western. A widescreen Technicolor spectacle praised by critics at the time of its release, Jubal has received deserved and much-needed restoration by a team of professionals at Sony/Columbia studios under the leadership of specialist Grover Crisp.

About the director

Delmer Daves (1904, San Francisco, California – 1977, La Jolla, California), American director, screenwriter, and actor, began working in film while studying law, assisting John Ford on the 1923 silent classic The Iron Horse. In the 1930s he became better known as a writer, penning the Bette Davis vehicle The Petrified Forest (1936) and Leo McCarey’s 1939 romantic comedy Love Affair. He debuted as a director in 1943 with the war drama Destination Tokyo, casting Humphrey Bogart four years later in his writer-director effort Dark Passage. Till today he is revered for writing notable Westerns, including Broken Arrow (1950), one of Hollywood’s first pictures to portray America’s original inhabitants in a positive light. He shot three Westerns starring Glenn Ford: Jubal, The Cowboy (1958), and 3:10 to Yuma (1957), the latter of which perhaps above all will go down in the history of the genre.