This indisputably greatest of noir-Westerns sets its dark storyline under cinematographer James Wong Howe's oppressive clouds and menacing cliffs. Freudian psychodrama and fated family tragedy, Pursued revolves around the brooding performance of Robert Mitchum, haunted by a childhood nightmare of spurs and gunshots. The flashback structure finds Mitchum in turn-of-the-century New Mexico, beset by the return of a one-armed nemesis (Dean Jagger) and by his love-hate relations with his steely foster mother (Judith Anderson) and foster sister (Teresa Wright). The passion in Niven Busch's script for Pursued recalls the adaptation of his novel Duel in the Sun. But with Pursued, Busch had control over a production of which everyone had reason to be proud. Director Raoul Walsh, after a career of memorable Westerns, looked back on Pursued as his favorite: “I love that movie,” he said.