Consummate Hollywood professional Michael Curtiz (CASABLANCA) directs Alan Ladd (SHANE) in THE PROUD REBEL. Ladd plays a Civil War veteran whose boy (Ladd's real-life son David, a Golden Globe nominee for the role) has been struck mute by a terrible event witnessed during the war. When he is unjustly jailed for a brawl with a villainous rancher's sons, a spinster (Olivia de Havilland) bails the veteran out on the condition he work for her to pay it off. While he continues seeking a cure for his son, Ladd battles the rancher and his sons, who covet the spinster's land for themselves. Great acting highlights this Western, which concentrates on familial relationships rather than gunplay.