Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod - Hollywood Radio Theater "Shane" (2-22-55)

A buckskin knight, Shane (Alan Ladd) rides into the middle of a range war between farmers and cattlemen, quickly siding with the "sod-busters." The title character is a taciturn former gunslinger who wishes only to settle down and put the past behind him. But as ruthless ranchers bring a diamond-hard hired gunman to the frontier town to scare off his adopted family, Shane realizes that he's the only law available to protect the innocent farmers. To illustrate the visceral effect of the violence, director George Stevens had the sounds of gunshots magnified on the soundtrack: nothing like this had been previously attempted in mainstream Hollywood and the results were galvanizing. Here were gunfights and fisticuffs in which people were visibly hurt and even killed. The risks and inevitable emotional toll of the profession gives Shane's silence immense power and offers a side of the western movie hero seldom seen to that point.