I would really only recommend "The Lusty Men" to Nicholas Ray completists. It doesn't transcend by much your standard 1950s melodrama, let alone come close to being as good as some of Ray's best movies. But I will give it credit for having more complexity, both in character and theme, than the typical romantic drama of the time.What I think makes this feel more like a Ray film than anything else is that, though the female protagonist at the film's center (played by a miscast Susan Hayward), or rather the males' feelings about her, are the catalyst for the plot, the principal relationship in the film is between Robert Mitchum, as a retired rodeo celebrity, and Arthur Kennedy, as the man who idolizes him. At certain times, the love triangle at the film's center shifts perspective, and Hayward is replaced at the apex by one or another of the men. It doesn't feel homoerotic to me; rather, the film does a pretty good job of realizing a complex male relationship, equal parts admiration and jealousy. This male relationship also feels distinctly like a product of and response to the post-WWII generation, full of men who had bonded with other men in life and death situations and then were asked to settle down into the boring tedium of family life. Hayward isn't remotely convincing as a simple country girl who wants nothing more than a ranch and a man, but both Kennedy and especially Mitchum give very good performances. There's also a lot of footage of rodeos for those who are interested, and the metaphorical role rodeos play in the film was not lost on me -- men taming and conquering the wild instincts of beasts.Grade: B

Two very different yet compatible stars of the early 1950s, Robert Mitchum and Susan Hayward sizzle on the screen together in a film focusing on the world of rodeo, which includes a significant amount of media frenzy, partying and drinking, as well as putting one's life on the line every time out.Director Nicholas Ray has a beautiful set-up here: once-famous rodeo star Jeff McCloud (Mitchum) gets involved with an ambitious cowboy and his beautiful wife who desire to buy their own ranch and settle down. In order to pay for this dream, they set out on the road to tour various competitions. Along the way, the husband gets carried away with success while Mitchum finds himself ever more attracted to the steel-eyed wife (Hayward). Ray maintains a competent degree of seriousness and professionalism within the personal scenes, not allowing them to become fodder for soapy action. This balances nicely with the rodeo footage, taken from live competitions but edited beautifully for a smooth addition to the story. It helps, of course, that the chemistry between Hayward and Mitchum is palpable, yet Mitchum still steals the entire show with his trademark disinterested, aloof personality. He remains ever so slightly out of our understanding yet remains the kind of mystery we feel needs to be solved. Just another reason why after all these years Robert Mitchum remains one of the most iconic and iconoclastic actors in Hollywood history.

Along with "With a Song in My Heart", "The Lusty Men" really pushed Susan Hayward toward international stardom. Her role as Louise mirrored her own real life attitude to love and marriage. She tried to stick to her marriage both in the movie and in real life and it could have been Susan saying about her own circumstances "Men!! - I'd like to fry them all in deep fat"!!! Even though the movie garnered excellent reviews and rated a movie review page in the prestigious "Look" magazine it wasn't as big a hit as her other releases.Rodeos are Jeff McLeod's (Robert Mitchum) reason for living and when he is gored by a Brahma bull he is emotionally and physically spent. He desperately wants to rebuild his life and returns to his childhood home. Remembering some "buried treasure" he had hidden under the floorboards as a kid, he retrieves it only to find an old rodeo program and a couple of coins. Wes and Louise Merritt (Arthur Kennedy and Susan Hayward) are keen to buy Jeff's home and Wes, who recognises him as a former Rodeo star, gets him a job as a ranch hand. Wes has won a few events himself and feels that with Jeff as his manager they would be a great team. Louise is unimpressed with Jeff's cool and lacksadasical attitude, she wants Wes in one piece and to save his money for a house deposit.Wes, with childhood memories of a father who was never his own boss, quits his job for a life on the rodeo circuit and what he thinks is easy money. What with busted legs and faces scarred from Brahma bull hooves, Wes is getting a taste of grim reality - and it's only their first day!!! The film creates an exciting atmosphere with wild horses, bucking broncos and leisure time spent carousing in the bars where a day's prize money could be lost in drinking and gambling. Louise sees Wes being sucked into the itinerant way of life and Jeff, after being taunted by Wes for sponging on his earnings, signs up the next day for all events, even though he is far from being in good shape. He hits trouble when his foot gets caught in a stirrup and his death sets up a pretty contrived ending where Wes, realising Jeff had only his best interests at heart, gives up the circuit for a little home in Texas.Susan gives an unusually restrained performance as Louise (except for one hilarious cat fight) in this movie that shows not only the downside but the excitement that drives cowboys to give their all in the ring. It goes without saying that both Kennedy and Mitchum give superlative performances but a couple of the women step up as well - Maria Hart and Lorna Thayer, actresses I have never heard of. Actual shots of rodeos were filmed in Tuscon, Arizona and Pendleton, Oregon with some of America's most famed rodeo stars including the appearance of Cy Taillon - "The World's Greatest Rodeo Announcer". In fact I can heartily recommend Cyra McFadden's wonderful memoir about life on the rodeo circuit as well as what it was like to be the unofficial mascot as well as Cy Taillon's daughter - "Rain or Shine".

Don't let the illfitted lurid title mislead you, this is a really good movie played serious, the kind of conventional in its arc but altogether engrossing drama old Hollywood used to make in its golden age. It may have little to offer in the way of lust but quite a lot of rodeo excitement. Robert Mitchum is worn-out bronco rider Jeff McCloud, once a rodeo legend and now a peniless drifter who drunk and gambled away the small fortune he made by falling out of horses' backs. He becomes attached to a man working as a cowhand in a nearby ranch and his lovely wife and soon convinces the man to make him as his rodeo mentor. What at first seems like quick easy money will soon prove to involve a whole lot more, from broken bones to broken marriages. This is a three-character drama that bounces off inside the triangle formed by washed-up, has-been bronco rider McCloud, the ambitious and reckless up-and-comer played by Arthur Kennedy and his wife (Susan Hayward) who desperately wants her husband off the rodeo business while he can still walk in one piece, all this seasoned for good measure with footage of bronco riding, bulldogging and what have you. Ray's direction is good, the rodeo setting provides an exotic backdrop of western Americana which should appeal to lovers of open vistas and wild landscapes and the performances are ace all around. Mitchum is at the top of his game playing the kind of character he could play with eyes closed. It was red-haired Susan Hayward who was the big revelation for me though. This was the first time I saw her in a movie but she enchants like few.