MAGNET contributing writer Jud Cost is sharing some of the wealth of classic films he’s been lucky enough to see over the past 40 years. Trolling the backwaters of cinema, he has worked up a list of more than 100 titles—from the ’20s through the ’80s—that you may have missed. A new selection, all currently available on DVD, appears every week.
When a mysterious drifter known only as Shane (Alan Ladd) rides up to the modest Wyoming homestead of Joe Starrett (Van Heflin), the novice cattle rancher offers him a dipperful of water. Shane stays for supper, cooked by Starrett’s wife Marian (Jean Arthur), and agrees to work as a ranch hand for the family, even though his lightning-quick reaction to a random sound behind him betrays a more hazardous, gun-slinging past.
Starrett’s 10-year-old son Joey (Brandon De Wilde) idolizes the stranger and begs for a quick-draw lesson. When Shane fans four shots, drilling a target across the yard, Joey’s mother interrupts the session: “We’d all be better off if there wasn’t a single gun left in this valley—including yours.”
It’s too late for the older generation, however, as the Rykers, a callous band of open-range cattlemen, are intent on running all the “squatters” off what they consider to be their land. They’ve already stampeded a herd of longhorns through the planted furrows of one of the homesteaders, and things are about to get much worse.
On a trip into town to pick up supplies at Grafton’s General Mercantile & Saloon, Ryker’s boys are easy to find, looking for trouble. When Shane walks into the saloon to buy a soft drink for Joey, one of the Rykers refers to him as “sody pop.” Ryker’s right-hand man, Chris Calloway (Ben Johnson) tosses a whiskey onto the shirt of the “sodbuster,” saying, “Now you smell like a man.” Outnumbered seven to one, and without his six-shooter, Shane departs with derisive laughter ringing in his ears.
When he returns to Grafton’s, Shane has Starrett and most of the homesteaders with him in a show of force. Shane strides into the saloon to refill Joey’s soda bottle, and Calloway is right in his face. “I guess you don’t hear too well, pig-farmer!” warns the bully. “Two whiskeys, bartender,” orders Shane coolly. “You bought me a drink last time I was in here. Now I want to buy you one.” “You ain’t gonna drink that in here!” warns Calloway. “You guessed it,” says Shane, tossing one whiskey onto Calloway’s shirt and the other into his eyes—then landing a haymaker square on his jaw.
Impressed by the cowboy’s nerve, Rufus Ryker, pokes his scruffy white beard into Shane’s face. “I could use a man like you,” he offers. “I’m workin’ for Starrett!” Shane snarls as he ducks a punch by another of Ryker’s boys. All hell breaks loose before the Rykers finally pin Shane down and begin to pummel him. “They’re killing Shane!” screams Joey to his dad next door. Starrett never hesitates as he and Shane combine to mop up the Rykers in a bone-rattling donnybrook. It’s just the first shot of open warfare between the settlers and the Rykers.
