The Town Drunk

God enough guess. It's a minor weakness of an otherwise great western that such a question should arise, but I suspect that the Indian (who is very upset when Stewart handles the rifle and asks questions) is a liaison for the gun-buying Apaches, and is out to kill the nosy parker Jimmy. It might have been clarified.

They botched the entire Jack Elam (town drunk) character. I suppose they had a reason to have him in the story in the first place, but they forgot to film or edited out that reason.

The motivation for Lockhart (Stewart) is a stretch. Supposedly he knows there is one man out there who sold Apaches repeating rifles and he's going to hunt down that man down and off him because he figures the man is responsible for the Apaches killing his younger brother?

Vic being the killer of the town drunk didn't make any sense to me either. His role in the whole thing wasn't explained very well.

I didn't even see Vic as trying to kill Alec as trying to stop him from discovering what he and Dave were doing, and he did have reason to stop him from finding out; Alec had made Vic responsible for keeping an eye on Dave. Dave selling guns to the Apaches would mean that either Vic wasn't keeping an eye on Dave or that he was in on the scheme with him, either option probably leading to Alec being disappointed in Vic and not giving him control of the ranch.

The Man from Laramie, though, still ranks as my second favorite of the Mann/Stewart westerns, with the episodic Bend of the River being my least favorite of the five.

SPOILERS AHEAD


It took me a few viewings, but after rewatching the film last night, I no longer believe the film has plot holes. Alot of the confusion is that alot of information given to the viewer is very subtle and almost impossible to catch and decipher upon a first view. There is also a great amount of assumption to be made.


For the Chris Boldt/John War Eagle/Vic Hansbro connection, from what I understand Chris had a big mouth for a price. He'd be willing to sell any information to anyone for the right amount of money so he held no had no allegiance to anyone including Jimmy Stewart, which is why he does not trust him when he proposes to sell out the gunrunner. The reason for him trying to knife Stewart is because John War Eagle hired him to kill Stewart and protect the gunrunner whose supplying weapons to his people. It couldn't have been Vic who sent Chris to do the job because Chris tried to sell him out to Stewart, so hiring him would make no sense. As for Chris's death, he was either A) killed by John War Eagle because of the failed killing or by B) Vic Hansbro for trying to sell him out.


For the Gunrunners plot, It is obvious Dave and Vic are in the plot together. Because Dave refuses to conduct the beef tally claiming "I'm no good at paper work" we can assume that Dave was the muscle of the scheme (directly selling the rifles to the Apache) while Vic, who is more clear-headed and calculating, was the brains and managed to smuggle the rifles under Alec's nose. When Dave has been shot in the hand by Stewart, his sadistic revenge is not enough for the hot-head and believes that by generously giving away all the rifles at once to the Apache, he can convince them to attack the Half Moon and not the Barb. Vic knows that this isn't true, especially when the Barb takes up some of the Apache's original territory. Dave at this point isn't thinking clearly and has to be killed by Vic.


For Alec's attempted murder, Vic was not purposefully trying to hurt the old man. We understand throughout the movie that Vic thinks of him as a father even when he feels he's been treated unfairly by him. He shakes Alec violently hoping that it would anger him into not going further up to the cliff and discovering the rifles. If he does, Alec will assume that either Vic was not keeping a careful eye on Dave or that he and Dave were in it together, either way resulting in Vic losing possession of the ranch (being that Dave was dead Vic would inherit it all). Vic states that the ranch is everything to him so he tries to stop Alec from finding the rifles but he throws Alec's balance off causing him to fall from the horse and descend down the hill.




What's very interesting about this movie is that it throws away all of the conventions of the classic Hollywood western. The hero after searching for the man responsible for his brother's death, never exacts his revenge upon him, there is no clear cut morality where even the most despicable villains become tragic characters.

"There's never any indication that Barbara is upset or distraught by Vic's disgrace and, ultimately, his death. In the final scene, she says goodbye to Lockhart without any acknowledgement of losing her fiancé, the man she supposedly loved and was going to spend the rest of her life with."

Yes I thought that was very strange too MMM, considering that recent to those events you described, they'd even had some sort of practice wedding ceremony. In fact it does border on the bizarre! She doesn't even mention him, but leads Lockhart to think she may look him up in Laramie.