Review of Man of the West

There's a lot to like about this excellent Anthony Mann Western.

• Great "passing of the West" theme.

• Great tension and dramatic plot development

• Really good supporting acting. Lee J. Cobb gives a bravura performance. Jack Lord is tremendous as the henchman. Great work by John Dehner as Link's cousin. It's hard to take Dehner seriously, because he appeared so many "B" pictures and TV westerns. But here he comes across as a legit "A" list supporting actor. Julie London is surprisingly effective and Arthur O'Connell provides solid support as well.

However, there were a number of things that prevented this movie from being better:

• Gary Cooper's just way too old for this role. The logic of the its own plot says he should be 40 or so, while he looks like he's 60. That also hurts in the creepy romantic subplot with Julie London, a woman nearly 30 years his junior.

• As is typical in many Anthony Mann movies, there are gaping plot holes. Mainly the preposterous coincidence that Link gets left by the train within short walking distance of his old hideout - and his whole gang is sitting right there, even though he hasn't been anywhere near the place in over a decade.

• Another plot hole, how could Tobin possibly not have known that Lassoo was a ghost town. He seemed to know a ton about the gold kept there. Also, it also wasn't much of a town, what, 10 buildings in total. How much money was in that bank? Another case of Mann deciding he wanted a climactic shoot out in a small ghost town and not ensuring that the plot sets it up properly.

• I thought the rape scenes - graphic for their time - were gratuitous.

• I didn't see the point of killing the Mexican woman in Lassoo. Mann seems sadistic at times.

• At the end Link and Billie ride off into the sunset, but isn't the whole territory out looking for Link now? Claude said the telegraph wires were "burning" that the sheriff had identified him. What about his horse back in Crosscut? Also, he told everyone where he was from. Won't they hunt him down in his home town now?

• It may sound like I'm nitpicking, but all these things add up and most of them aren't necessary. Mann was just very sloppy with plot details. I like to give credit to directors who went to the trouble to preserve the integrity of their stories.