Shane (1952, released 1953 George Stevens)

A quadrangle. Stevens is particularly good with his blocking in this, best evidenced in a scene with all four - Van Heflin, Jean Arthur, Alan Ladd and Brandon de Wilde - at table. In a fixed, static camera, father leaves the room, leaving the three, then Arthur takes her son to bed. Only Ladd in shot. We hear the son say he loves Shane. Ladd walks out - for a moment there's no one in shot. Then Arthur comes back in the room, surprised Ladd has left. Then Van Heflin comes back in - husband and wife reunited. This kind of blocking occurs throughout - it's very clever, and it's an elegantly filmed film, by Loyal Griggs (winning Oscar). But according to John Douglas Eames in 'The Paramount Story', the photography 'lost much of its beautiful composition during an unusually long post-production period (16 months) when wide-screen became the rage and Shane was cut to fit the new format.' Our copy is as it should be in 4x3.

With Jack Palance, Ben Johnson, Elisha Cook Jr., Emile Meyer, Edgar Buchanan, Douglas Spencer.

Well edited by William Hornbeck and Tom McAdoo, noticeable not only in splendidly cut saloon bar fight but also in interchanges between adults watched by the young boy.

The dirty West

Lots of good day-for-night too in stunning Wyoming locations. Music by Victor Young. Paramount.

Here Woody Allen tells the New York Times why Shane is his favourite American film. He calls attention to that great night scene where the bad guys come to the farm and try to reason it out, but we (and the boy) have all eyes on Ladd and Palance. He also notices that there's a little dissolve on Palance's legs as we seem him for the first time, that can be for no other reason than to disguise a mistake - interesting.