Cast a Long Shadow vs. other roles

[mrsl]

Reading cmvgor's final post on the Same Movie, Different Actors, thread just now causes me to make comment on Audie Murphy again, but specifically in this movie.

Although he played in many westerns, normally his role was pretty one-dimensional - he was either good or bad, usually good. In Cast a Long Shadow however, he had to do a little more acting to my way of thinking. He had to grow from a 'chip on the shoulder Western dead end kid ' to a mature grown up. The part called for him to suddenly, literally be able to 'tell people where to go', first as a punk playing big man to learning how to handle difficult situations with a little dignity and self assurance.

Actually Terry Moore was pretty lame in this movie. If she hadn't gotten the part in Peyton Place, I think she might have disappeared forever, even though she wasn't that much out of character from anything else she ever did.

John Dehner, a fine actor mostly from TV was a great back-up for Audie. He didn't try to overcome the 'star', but he let himself be known.

Did anyone else see this one? I watched it early this a.m. and was about 1/4 into it before I realized I had seen it years ago.

Anne

[cmvgor]

This one is totally unknown to me. I looked it up, and the issue date seems to have been when I was just getting used to a dorm environment.
Getting to the nearby town with the two movie theatres involved either
thumbing a ride, or waiting til the school sent a busload of us into town for
some free time. It came and went without coming to my attention, appearently. And I never spotted it in later years on TV, but I will be looking for it now.

Murphy biographer Don Graham mentions only that it was one of Murphy's
attempts to co-produce, that the source was a novel by a popular pulp Western writer, and that "There was nothing new about Cast A Long Shadow."

But thanks. I will attempt to find an opportunity to see it.