A MAN ALONE

US, 1955, 85 minutes, Colour.
Ray Milland, Mary Murphy, Raymond Burr, Ward Bond.
Directed by Ray Milland.

A Man Alone is one of Ray Milland's early attempts at direction. He made The Thief in 1953 and Panic in Year Zero in 1961. In The Thief only the natural and artificial sounds were included, no dialogue. Milland repeats this quite effectively in the first half hour of this film. It is well done in itself, but is also interesting to note how much can be communicated by moving images without words. The story is conventional enough about big bosses, corruption, killing, greed and the test of loyalties (reminiscent in ways of High Noon), but the treatment is terse, dramatic and, on the whole, this is a good Western worth seeing.

1. What mood and angle for a Western does the title indicate?

2. Did the film live up to this title?

3. No words were spoken for the first half hour or so. Did you notice this? What effect did it have, the use of background noises, the importance of actions, especially facial gestures and the use of eyes? How does this illustrate how much can be communicated without words?

4. How did the environment contribute to the mood of the film, the desert, the town, the sand covering the houses etc.?

5. What did the sequences with the looted stagecoach show about the West, the murderers, the hero?

6. The hero emerged from the desert, did a work of mercy and then entered the town. What kind of man was he? Did you like him? Were you surprised to find that he had been a gunman?

7. Was the hero's discovery of the villains well done? what did this sequence tell you about the town and the men who ran it?

8. How was the hero's night in the cellar also a good example of visual, non-verbal communication?

9. What was the relationship between father and daughter? Why was he so strict? Why did she go down to the cellar to admire the dresses?

10. Were you surprised that the father was in league with the villains?

11. What did the film show about the towns and societies of the west, their fear of power, their readiness to take justice into their own hands. their readiness to lynch people. their failure to rally to a good man standing for justice?

12. What decisions did the father have to make?

13. What future was there for the hero and heroine, for the town?

14. How were the usual Western conventions, siege, shootout, lynching, strong hero who can shoot accurately, used in this film? Conventionally or with a difference? How? Was this an average Western or a better class Western? Why?