A correspondent suggested that PURSUED might be the first western "film noir". Intrigued, I pulled it off my shelves and ran the tape through the VCR. It surely is a "film noir" right enough, first or not. Crime from out of the past haunts the present and messes up a lot of lives. Does that sound like a Ross MacDonald plot? The mystery of what sparks Jagger's unrelenting hatred of Bob continues to the last, and enhanced with fine acting and Wong Howe's inspired photo work, makes for a fine film. The ending is not the most satisfying for my taste, seeming to negate what has gone before, but logic is not of the essence here. Emotion is.