If you think of great western stars the chances are John Wayne will spring to mind and probably Clint Eastwood, whilst James Stewart may not even register. The likeable actor best known for his roles in "Harvey", "The Glenn Miller Story" and "It's a Wonderful Life" was actually quite a major star when it came to westerns especially under the guidance of director Anthony Mann who in their eighth collaborations together gave us "The Man from Laramie".

In "The Man from Laramie" James Stewart (The Shootist) stars as Will Lockhart who rolls up in Coronado, deep in Apache country, with a wagon load of supplies for the local store run by the lovable Barbara (Cathy O'Donnell). But Lockhart soon finds himself under scrutiny when he ends up in a fight with Dave Waggoman (Alex Nicol), the son of rancher Alec (Donald Crisp - Lassie Come Home) who basically owns Conorado and the surrounding land. It soon emerges that Lockhart's arrival in town was not just to deliver supplies but to track down a man he doesn't even know who has been selling rifles to the Apaches and who was involved in the ambush of the Cavalry months earlier where his younger brother was murdered.

It has to be said that many westerns are quite shallow when it comes to the storyline with stereotypical storylines such as a stranger helping a bunch of helpless people to beat the bad guy being eternally popular. But "The Man from Laramie" is different and has layer upon layer of storyline with themes such as revenge, fatherly love, deceit and treachery all covered with equal aplomb. Many may consider it a bit Shakespearean with the storyline about treachery coming close to some of the Bards notable works and in doing so makes it far more interesting that your average cowboy movie.

Adding to the mix is a slight undertone of romance which adds another layer to the storyline without encroaching on the main themes. It really is quite a packed western and actually demands your concentration to follow it and not miss any of the big revealing moments when something important is disclosed.

But at the heart of "The Man from Laramie" it is also a traditional western and as such has all those action scenes you would expect, especially gun fights. It's by no means the biggest production when it comes to the action with that on offer feeling a little minimal but in many ways it adds to the movie in telling the story rather than detracting from it. But it is actually quite impressive in being minimal with a range of fist fights which put more modern movies to shame, especially the scene where the fight happens in amongst a pen of cattle.

As with many westerns from the 50's the acting is in comparison to today's movies a little bit weak. This is not the case when it comes to James Stewart who makes for a brilliant cowboy delivering a mixture of the charm and politeness he is famous for but also showing a darker side, one of despair and rage as he seeks revenge. It's by no means Stewart's finest performance but with the character depth makes a pleasant change to your stereotypical shallow heroes in westerns.

It's actually the rest of the cast where the performances cause issues with the likes of Cathy O'Donnell, Alex Nicol and to some extent Arthur Kennedy suffering from a case of over acting delivering the exaggerated performances more typical of amateur dramatics. But it's actually hard to really criticize them as for the time this was made their performances were very much in tune with what was expected, where as compared to today's performances they feel inferior.

What this all boils down to is that "The Man from Laramie" is quite a good western and shows what a great actor James Stewart was, capable of turning his hand to many different characters. It's not my favourite western and it has to be said the over acting does distract but with it's multi-layered storyline it has a lot more going for it than your general western from the 1950's.