The Furies (1950)

The Furies (1950) is the first western directed by Anthony Mann (although it was released after Winchester ’73).

T.C. Jeffords (Walter Huston) owns an enormous ranch called the Furies, a cattle empire that he built up in a determined but unscrupulous manner. He has a vast empire in land and cattle but is chronically short of cash. That will be important later.

He has a son named Clay, for whom he has little respect. T.C.’s daughter Vance (Barbara Stanwyck) is another matter. She’s the apple of his eye and she’s as tough and strong-willed as her father. T.C. enjoyed building up his empire but he’s not so fond of the tedium of the day-to-day running of his business. He has promised Vance that she will take over the running of The Furies.

T.C. made a few enemies along the way. He has an uneasy relationship with Juan Herrera (Gilbert Roland). The Herreras are squatters on The Furies but they believe they have an ancestral claim on the land. To make things more awkward Juan is in love with Vance. She regards him as just a friend.

It would make life easier for T.C. if the Herreras could be driven off The Furies. That will also be important later.

Another of the old man’s enemies has just appeared on the scene. Rip Darrow (Wendell Corey) is a gambler who owns the Legal Tender Saloon. The Darrows believe that T.C. cheated them out of a parcel of land known as the Darrow Strip. And T.C. shot Rip’s father. As you might expect things are pretty tense between T.C. and Rip. Rip still believes that the Darrow Strip is his by right. Yet another factor that will prove to be important.

The situation is about to get a lot more tense. Vance has fallen for the smooth-talking gambler. It’s a courtship that will lead to unexpected results.

The spark that will eventually lead to an explosion is provided by the arrival of Flo Burnett (Judith Anderson). Flo is a middle-aged adventuress and she’s got her hooks into T.C. and that is a threat to Vance. Vance means to have The Furies and it’s obvious that Flo also intends to have everything that T.C. has including The Furies. There’s going to be an epic battle between these two women.

When it happens the explosion takes a surprising and shocking form and it has momentous consequences. Vance discovers that hate can be more satisfying than love, or at least that’s what she thinks.

This is not a conventional western. It’s a western melodrama, in the sense that movies like Duel in the Sun (1946) and Forty Guns (1957) and the bizarre Johnny Guitar (1954) are western melodramas. You could also describe these movies as women’s westerns. The plots are not driven by conventional western themes like revenge but by emotional dramas.

There’s one major gunfight scene but it doesn’t play out in a straightforward western way.

There’s a very strong emphasis on psychological and emotional drama. Revenge plays a role, but again not in typical western style. And the resolution does not come in the form of a showdown with six-guns. It’s a psychological and emotional showdown.

Anthony Mann’s westerns are often described as noir westerns. I’ve always been a bit sceptical about this. The Furies does have noirish qualities and a slightly noirish look. Unusually for a major studio western in 1950 it was shot in black-and-white and there are plenty of noir shadows and night scenes, with characters silhouetted against the night sky in a very moody brooding noir way. It’s closest in spirit to noirish female-centric melodramas like Mildred Pierce and Leave Her To Heaven. And there's a touch of Greek tragedy and even Shakespearian tragedy (both of which appealed to Mann).

Nobody but Barbara Stanwyck could have played Vance Jeffords. Nobody else could have made such a character so convincing and so fascinating. Vance is not a straightforward heroine. She adores her father but she intends to have The Furies no matter what she has to do to get it and even if it sets her against him. She’s not an entirely sympathetic character but we have to admire her tenaciousness. She’s a bit like Scarlett O’Hara. She’ll do what she has to do to get what she wants.

Walter Huston, in his final film rôle, is just as good. They’re a father and a daughter who are not so much people as forces of nature. T.C. starts out as a larger-than-life heroic figure but we soon begin to suspect that he’s a hero with feet of clay. He makes foolish financial decisions. His infatuation with the scheming Flo shows his poor judgment. He is indecisive and impulsive and he has a brutal streak (which his daughter has inherited). Vance and T.C. are complicated and conflicted.

Wendell Corey is a bit overshadowed by Stanwyck and Huston but he’s OK as well. Gilbert Roland and Judith Anderson round off a strong cast.

There are some slightly disturbing vaguely incestuous undertones to the relationship between Vance and her father. It’s subtle but remember that 1950 was the high tide of Freudianism.

The Criterion DVD release of The Furies includes an unusual and very welcome extra - the source novel by Niven Busch! Not in some silly ebook format but an actual physical book, a proper paperback. I think that this is a superb idea. And there are lots of other extras as well including an audio commentary (which unfortunately reveals spoilers for all of Mann’s other westerns and should therefore be avoided). There’s an excellent and enlightening 1967 interview with Anthony Mann and a whimsical 1930s interview with Walter Huston. The transfer is gorgeous.

The Furies isn’t a perfect movie. The ending is perhaps not entirely satisfactory. It is however an absorbing psycho-sexual-emotional melodrama and it’s nicely overheated and it’s highly recommended.

Raw Deal (1948)

Raw Deal is the most admired of Anthony Mann’s 1940s films noirs, and with good reason.

Joe Sullivan (Dennis O’Keefe) is doing time in the state penitentiary and he’s not enjoying it. He took the rap for Rick Coyle (Raymond Burr) and Rick owes him a major favour. Now Joe’s girlfriend Pat Regan (Claire Trevor) brings him the good news. Rick is going to pay his debt. Joe is going to be busted out of prison that night.

Joe has had another female visitor. Ann Martin (Marsha Hunt) has taken an interest in his case. She thinks there may be a way for to him get parole in a couple of years. She doesn’t understand that Joe isn’t prepared to wait. He wants out now.

What is Ann’s interest in Joe? Is she just a do-gooder or does she have a crush on him? We suspect the latter might be the case. Ann herself is probably not really being honest with herself about her motivations at this stage.

Throughout the movie we get a voiceover narration from Pat, a very film noir touch.

The prison break goes well at first but then little things start to go wrong. Joe and Pat need a place to hide out. They pick Ann’s apartment. Joe decides they should take Ann along - the cops will not be looking for a man accompanied by two women.

Pat is a jealous woman and she doesn’t like Ann one little bit. She also doesn’t trust her. Ann keeps trying to persuade Joe to give himself up.

The audience knows more than Joe. We know that the odds are stacked against him in ways he nows nothing about. There’s going to be a double-cross.

The fugitive trio manage to stay one step ahead of the law but they never seem able to get clear entirely. We don’t get to know a single cop by name. The police are just a sinister presence in the background, which is also very film noirish. Our sympathies are entirely with the fugitives.

There’s a powerful sense of impending doom. The odds really are heavily stacked against Joe and his two female companions (one willing and one unwilling).

There’s plenty of suspense which Mann handles with considerable skill.

Joe is a fairly classic noir hero. He’s a criminal and makes no apologies for that but he shows frequent flashes of decency. We feel that he is probably doomed but doesn’t really deserve to be doomed. Joe isn’t stupid but he has a streak of noir fatalism. Dennis O’Keefe really is excellent in this rôle. He doesn’t try to make Joe an idealised hero but he manages to make him sympathetic.

There’s no textbook femme fatale. Ann is emotionally and morally ambiguous and she makes things very complicated and she has the potential to get Joe into a lot of trouble but she’s not a consciously scheming femme fatale. She may however do a bit of unconscious scheming. It’s obvious that she is sexually and emotionally attracted to Joe even if she tries not to admit it to herself, and it’s obvious that even if she doesn’t set out to be Pat’s rival that is what she becomes in practice. Ann is a complex fascinating female character who can’t be slotted neatly into either the good girl or bad girl category. Marsha Hunt’s performance is subtle and effective.

Pat is the loyal girlfriend who knows she’s a fool for falling for a guy like Joe. For my money she is a bit overshadowed by Marsha Hunt (who has the advantage of the more interesting rôle) but I can’t fault Claire Trevor’s performance.

Raymond Burr is of course fun as the slippery Rick.

This is a film noir but it’s also a couple-on-the-run movie, an ever-popular genre, Hitchcock had already made a couple of these movies and in the same year that Raw Deal came out They Live By Night would also appear.

Raw Deal is one of those movies that challenges any assumption we might have about the auteur theory. Anthony Mann directed the movie and it’s very much an Anthony Mann movie. But it doesn’t have quite the flavour of most Anthony Mann movies. John Alton, the greatest of all noir cinematographers, was the director of photography. This movie has John Alton’s fingerprints all over it. It looks every inch like a John Alton movie.

Raw Deal is also very much film noir. Some attempts have been made to describe the classic westerns Anthony Mann made with Jimmy Stewart in the 50s as noir westerns. I don’t buy it. They’re serious grown-up westerns and they have some dark moments (especially Winchester ’73) but they’re not film noir. They belong wholeheartedly to the western genre.

Anthony Mann did make several noir films in the 40s. Thematically movies like the under-appreciated The Great Flamarion are very noir. But they don’t have that classic noir look that Raw Deal has. The only other Anthony Mann movie that really looks noir is the excellent T-Men, and John Alton did the cinematography for that one as well.

So is Raw Deal an Anthony Mann movie or a John Alton movie? The answer of course is that it’s both. Raw Deal is what you get when you have two very talented men collaborating.

You could also ask whether the noirness of Anthony Mann’s other 40s movies reflects Mann’s own vision or whether it reflects what was happening in Hollywood at the time. Darker themes and gloomier outcomes were fashionable and the Production Code had relaxed just enough to allow such movies to be made. Film noir was part of the zeitgeist of the 40s. As a young director trying to find his feet Mann would have been influenced by that zeitgeist. Mann’s 1950s westerns reflected the zeitgeist of the 50s. That’s not to say that directors like Mann did not have their own vision, it’s just to say that the individual visions of directors and the collective spirit of the film industry at a particular time interact on each other. Mann was always in touch with the zeitgeist of the time. His final movie in 1968 was a very very 1960s movie, a cynical morally ambiguous spy movie (the excellent A Dandy in Aspic).

Raw Deal ticks most of the noir boxes and there are very few movies that can match it when it comes to noir visual style. It’s also a gripping and entertaining movie. Very highly recommended.

The Great Flamarion (1945)

The Great Flamarion is an early (1945) film noir directed by Anthony Mann. It belongs to the fairly small sub-genre of noirs with a theatrical setting. The theatrical setting proves to be tailor-made for film noir.

Mann had directed a few movies before this and he was only a couple of years away from making his first really notable movies, T-Men and Raw Deal.

The Great Flamarion is certainly a genuine noir. The story is told in flashback. Flamarion is an authentic noir protagonist, a basically good if unhappy man with one major weakness, a weakness with the potential to lead him to ruin. And this movie most certainly has a full-fledged femme fatale, and a very memorable one too. It also has that characteristic noir sense of impending doom, and it has it in a big way.

It opens in Mexico City in 1936 with a shooting in a theatre, followed by some pretty impressive shots of a man seeking to escape in the scaffolding high above the stage.

We then get that flashback. It all began a few years earlier in Pittsburgh, with the Great Flamarion (Erich von Stroheim) as the headline act in a variety theatre. His act is an elaborate trick-shooting act done as a kind of mini-play. Flamarion is a marksman of uncanny skill. His two assistants, Connie Wallace (Mary Beth Hughes) and her husband Al (Dan Duryea), dice with death at every performance but they have absolute faith in Flamarion.

Al has a drinking problem and his marriage to Connie is not going well. There’s plenty of resentment on both sides. They’re trapped together.

Then Connie goes to Flamarion and confesses that she is in love with him. Flamarion is in general no fool but he is vulnerable when it comes to women. He has had nothing to do with the female sex for fifteen years. He is a lonely man. And Connie is young and beautiful. Flamarion allows himself to be convinced that she really is in love with him.

You can no doubt imagine where this story is leading, and the opening scene is a kind of prologue that gives us a fair idea of where the story is going to end up. Which doesn’t really matter. A film noir doesn’t need a dazzling plot. What it needs is atmosphere and mood, and a sense that the characters cannot escape their fate. It also needs us to care about the fate of the protagonist. It’s an advantage if we know where the plot is going. It reinforces the feeling of creeping doom. In all these areas this movie scores highly.

The three lead cast members are superb. Erich von Stroheim gives a restrained sensitive performance. Flamarion is a curmudgeon but we feel a considerable sympathy for him. Dan Duryea gives a typical Dan Duryea performance. In other words he’s excellent as Al, a man dangerously close to the edge. He also makes us feel that Connie is not being unreasonable in being somewhat afraid of him.

Mary Beth Hughes is a magnificent femme fatale. It’s difficult to imagine any man being able to avoid her snares. She really is the classic spider woman. One can’t help feeling that Mary Beth Hughes should have had a much more distinguished career. In the same year she made The Great Flamarion she had a starring role in The Lady Confesses (and she’s extremely good in that role) but that was a bottom-of-the-barrel PRC cheapie. On the evidence of The Great Flamarion she had a star potential that was never realised.

Mann pulls off a couple of nice set-pieces. The cinematography (by James S. Brown Jr) doesn’t offer full-blown noir night and shadows but that’s compensated to some extent by the seedy glamorous theatrical atmosphere.

It’s possible that The Great Flamarion has been largely ignored even by admirers of Anthony Mann’s work because it fell into the public domain years ago. This is a movie that probably needs a luxury Blu-Ray release in order to raise its profile. It’s more deserving of a Blu-Ray release than many of the movies that have received that treatment recently. This is a very fine Anthony Mann movie with some great acting and it’s highly recommended.

Bend of the River (1952)

Bend of the River, released by Universal-International in 1952, was the second of the Anthony Mann westerns starring James Stewart, following the success of the superb Winchester ’73.

This time Stewart plays Glyn McLyntock. He’s acting as guide to a party of about a hundred settlers setting off into the wilderness in Oregon to establish farms. McLyntock figures he might take up farming itself.

Then comes a chance encounter. A man accused of horse stealing is about to be hanged by a Lynch mob. McLyntock saves him. The man tells McLyntock that he didn’t steal the horse. McLyntock says he doesn’t care. He just doesn’t like to see a man get hanged.

The man is Emerson Cole (Arthur Kennedy). Cole decides to ride along with the settlers for a while. He might eventually decide to head for California. McLyntock and Cole strike up a friendship which is solidified after Cole saves McLyntock’s life in a clash with a Shoshone raiding party.

When these two men meet we get our first inkling that McLyntock may have a colourful past. Cole has heard of him, and is surprised that the legendary Glyn McLyntock would want to take up farming. When Cole tells McLyntock his name there’s an interesting flicker of recognition in Glyn McLyntock’s eyes.

The leader of the settlers is Jeremy Baile (Jay C. Flippen). He has two beautiful daughters, Laura (Julia Adams) and Marjie (Lori Nelson). Cole senses that there’s something between McLyntock and Laura and asks McLyntock outright if Laura is his girl. McLyntock says that no, she isn’t.

The settlers have bought food supplies and cattle from Tom Hendricks (Howard Petrie), a trader in Portland, and they’re rather worried when the supplies don’t arrive. McLyntock and Cole ride into Portland and discover why. Portland is in the grip of gold fever. Hendricks has resold the shipment of supplies to gold miners, for ten times its value. McLyntock and Cole take steps to get those supplies back, which leads to a series of wild action scenes. In Portland they pick up another mysterious stranger, the smooth gambler Trey Wilson (Rock Hudson).

They also pick up half a dozen men to help with the loading and unloading and with the wagons. These men seem like a bunch of cut-throats but there’s no alternative to hiring them.

McLyntock and co set off down the river in a steamer but they can only go as far as he rapids and they can be sure that Hendricks will be waiting for them with a bunch of gunmen. Setting off cross-country seems like a better option. But Hendricks in is hot pursuit.

There’s plenty of action in store, and plenty of opportunities for betrayal.

Mann handled spectacle particularly well and this is a visually very impressive movie. The action scenes (of which there are many) are expertly staged.

James Stewart gives the sort of performance he was starting to become known for - there’s an edge to it and there are hints of inner darkness. Arthur Kennedy is splendid. Rock Hudson’s rôle is strictly a supporting one but he’s fine. Julia Adams makes a spirited heroine. I like Chubby Johnson as the riverboat captain, Mello. He just knows he should never have left the Mississippi.

There are critics who like to see the Anthony Mann-James Stewart westerns as noir westerns. I see this as representing a kind of condescending attitude towards the western genre. It’s as if a western can only be treated seriously if you can see it as a film noir with six-guns and horses. By the late 40s westerns were starting to become more ambitious and more thematically complex but the thematic complexity came from exploring the potential of the western genre itself. The westerns of the 1950s can stand on their own merits. They’re best understood on their own terms. I don’t see any film noir elements in this movie. Approaching Anthony Mann’s westerns as noir westerns sets up misleading expectations.

Major themes which recur during the golden age of the western (from the late 40s to the early 60s) are revenge and redemption. There’s a bit of both in Bend of the River.

We have three central male characters in this film, and all three are nicely ambiguous. McLyntock is clearly a good and honourable man but we have reason to believe that maybe there are things in his past that he’d really like to forget. Possibly things that aren’t so good and honourable.

We have no idea for most of the movie what makes Emerson Cole tick. He obviously has a very shady past but he seems like he’s a reformed character. Jeremy Baile doesn’t believe that a man can change. He thinks Cole is still a wrong ’un. McLyntock wants to believe that Jeremy is wrong. He has to believe that Jeremy is wrong. He has to believe that a man can change.

This is clearly the core of the movie. Can a man really escape his past?

McLyntock needs to believe that Cole can achieve redemption because if he can’t then McLyntock might start doubting whether his own redemption is possible.

Trey Wilson seems like the kind of character who will turn out to be a ruthless crooked gambler and a generally bad type but his behaviour doesn’t seem consistent with superficial appearances.

The plot is fairly straightforward. The suspense in this movie lies not in wondering what will happen next but rather in wondering how the major characters will react. It’s suspense that is character-driven.

Bend of the River was shot in Technicolor in the Academy ratio and it looks terrific.

Bend of the River is not a noir western but it is a grown-up serious western and an intelligent one. It’s also very exciting. Highly recommended.

Umbrella Entertainment in Australia have released this movie on DVD in their remarkably good-value Six Shooter Classics range. The transfer is extremely good.

The Far Country (1954)

The Far Country was the fourth of the five westerns directed by Anthony Mann and starring James Stewart. These movies, starting with Winchester ’73, established Mann as a director of A-features and totally revitalised Stewart’s career. These movies gave Stewart the chance to demonstrate that he could play much darker roles and play them very well indeed.

Within the first few minutes it’s obvious that Stewart has by now well and truly shed his Aw, shucks persona. He might turn out to be the hero but if so he’s going to be a very dark sort of hero.

Jeff Webster (James Stewart) arrives in Seattle in 1896 with a herd of cattle. That’s what he does for a living. He drives cattle. There was trouble on this last drive and now Jeff has a possible murder charge hanging over his head. He is almost arrested but a woman on whom he has never set eyes hides him in her cabin. The woman is Ronda Castle (Ruth Roman) and they immediately recognise each other as kindred spirits. They’re both cynical and they both believe in looking after Number One.

Jeff, Ronda and those steers are off to Alaska on a steamship. They arrive in Skagway in Alaska and we quickly find out that Skagway is not exactly a civilised community.

Skagway is run by Gannon (John McIntire). He seems to be judge, sheriff, mayor and public hangman all at the same time, as well as being the town’s leading businessman.

Jeff escapes the hangman’s noose. Gannon takes a liking to him. He thinks Jeff is his kind of man - a cynic who understands that might makes right. He figures that Jeff might eventually cause him problems in which case he’ll have to hang him but in the meantime he likes Jeff. While Gannon does acquit Jeff of murder he seizes his cattle.

Jeff needs a job and Ronda provides one. Ronda is the other big wheel in Skagway. She runs the local saloon, a very prosperous establishment which provides the kinds of entertainment that frontier men crave. This clearly includes whores although this being Hollywood in 1954 that part of her business is glossed over.

The job Ronda has in mind for Jeff is taking a supply train to Dawson, over the border in Canada. Jeff’s pals Ben (Walter Brennan) and Rube (Jay C. Flippen) will go with him.

Gold fever has struck Dawson. It infects everybody. Including Jeff. Fortunes can be made quickly and easily.

The lawlessness of the frontier has never been a major problem in Dawson. THere’s never been enough crime to worry about. But the gold has changed all that. When you add greed to lawlessness you’re certain to get robbery and murder and that’s what Dawson gets.

There is no law and order in this movie. There’s just power. In theory Gannon represents the law. Gannon has no interest in the law. In Skagway he is the law. He is the law because he is willing and able to use naked force to enforce his will. As far as Gannon is concerned whatever makes Gannon richer is lawful.

Jeff understands this. He is a realist. He believes those steers rightfully belong to him but he understands that his ownership does not depend on a piece of paper but on his willingness to use his gun to assert his ownership. Jeff takes it for granted that this is the way the world works and there’s no use complaining about it. If you’re strong enough and ruthless enough you’ll do OK. If you’re not, that’s your problem. Jeff doesn’t worry about other people’s problem. Insofar as he has any loyalties or human ties at all he’s fond of Ben and Rube.

This is the purest distillation of the Wild West (although in this case it’s the Wild North). The law doesn’t matter. Power matters. Power rests on force. If you own something and want to keep it you’d better be prepared to use your gun to defend it. This is rugged individualism taken to its logical conclusion. You worry about yourself and you let other worry about themselves.

If you’re a woman then you have to be as ruthless as Ronda. If that means manipulating men then that’s what you do.

Lying and cheating don’t matter unless you get caught and you’re not quick enough with a gun.

Of course Jeff will eventually have to decide whether he can simply ignore other people’s problems or whether he’ll have to start being a responsible member of a society. So this is a movie about the transition from frontier barbarism to civilisation. It’s not a dazzling central idea but it works here because Mann keeps us waiting so long for Jeff to make his choice, and it works because of James Stewart’s brilliantly edgy performance. Ruth Roman and John McIntire are excellent as well, plus the cinematography is impressive.

A great western. Highly recommended.

I’ve reviewed three other Anthony Mann-James Stewart westerns - The Naked Spur (1953), Winchester ’73 (1950) and The Man from Laramie (1955).

Winchester ’73 (1950)

I used not to be a great fan of Hollywood westerns although I have been gradually developing a resect for the genre as I get older. Anthony Mann’s westerns have a certain reputation, a very high reputation, especially this one, and his entries in the film noir genre are pretty good, so Winchester ’73 sounded like it might be worth a watch. It was made at Universal in 1950.

Lin McAdam (James Stewart) and Dutch Henry Brown (Stephen McNally) both find themselves in Dodge City competing in a shooting competition. The prize is a Winchester Model 1873 rifle. But not just any Winchester rifle - this is a kind of Special Edition Winchester. President Ulysses S. Grant owns one of these very special Winchesters, and the Marshall of Dodge City (a guy by the name of Wyatt Earp) expresses the view that any man would give his right arm for this rifle.

Wyatt Earp has other problems on his hands - keeping Lin and Dutch Henry from killing each other. These two are obviously nursing grudges against each other of stupendous proportions. After the competition Dutch Henry steals the rifle and heads off out of Dodge City with Lin in hot pursuit.

There are a number of sub-plots involving some rather colourful characters. Lola Manners (Shelley Winters) is a saloon entertainer who is being run out of Dodge City at the time Lin arrives. Lin tries to do the gentlemanly thing and intervene to help a lady but to no avail.

Lola reappears slightly later, on her way to her new ranch with her new husband. Unfortunately the Sioux are on the warpath and having just wiped out Custer’s 7th Cavalry at the Little Big Horn they’re in an aggressive mood. Lola and her husband are pursued by a war band and husband Steve abandons Lola to her fate. Luckily Lin and his buddy and faithful companion turn up at this moment and Lola is rescued. Well sort of. The three take refuge with a small troop of US Cavalry but this troop is about to be wiped out by an even bigger Sioux war party. But all is not lost and the cavalry now have three extra fighters (including Lola who is a feisty kind of gal and knows how to handle a gun).

The destinies of Lola and Lin seem to be strangely entwined. Soon after Lola hooks up with notorious outlaw Waco Johnny Dean (Dan Duryea), who just happens to be planning a bank robbery with none other than Dutch Henry. In fact the fates of all the major characters will converge as events move towards the final showdown between Lin and Dutch Henry.

This was one of the earliest appearances of the dark and obsessed side to Jimmy Stewart, a side that would be used to brilliant effect by Hitchcock in Rear Window and Vertigo. Like the characters he played in those films Lin is neither a simple hero nor an actual villain, but he’s definitely dangerously obsessed. Stewart always shone in these darker roles and this is no exception. All the actors are good, with Dan Duryea being (as you’d expect) a chilling but highly entertaining bad guy.

As she so often did Shelley Winters goes very close to stealing the picture from Stewart. And like Stewart’s character Lola is rather ambiguous. She seems to be a woman of dubious moral reputation but she has considerable strength of character. She’s no shrinking violet but she’s no mere femme fatale either.

The Winchester rifle itself becomes a character in the movie, changing hands many times and somehow leading everyone who possesses it to their destiny, for good or ill.

Anthony Mann directs with the energy and flair that he brought to his best movies in the film noir genre.

Winchester ’73 is a classic revenge western with some twists, superbly acted and it’s worth a look even if you’re not a big western fan. Highly recommended.

The Naked Spur (1953)

The Naked Spur was the third of the much-admired westerns directed by Anthony Mann and starring James Stewart. Mann had made his initial reputation with film noir (including the excellent Raw Deal) and his westerns had a decidedly dark edge to them. They also provided James Stewart with the opportunity to show what he could do in rather unsympathetic roles.

Howard Kemp (James Stewart) meets up with grizzled old prospector Jesse Tate (Milard Mitchell). Kemp is tracking an outlaw and Jesse may have picked up his trail. Kemp offers Jesse $20 to help him find that trail. Jesse could use the $20 and he figures it’s not a bad thing to help a lawman catch a killer. At least Jesse assumes Kemp is a lawman - why else would be be hunting an outlaw?

Kemp is also soon joined by Roy Anderson (Ralph Meeker) although he’s not overly pleased about finding himself with such an assistant, Anderson having been dishonourably discharged from the army and being obviously (as his discharge papers state) a man of very dubious moral character.

Catching up with convicted killer Ben Vandergroat (Robert Ryan) proves to be easier than expected. Hanging on to him and getting him all the way back to Abilene may be considerably more difficult.

Kemp now has a party of five to get to Abilene, the fifth member being Ben’s girl Lina Patch (Janet Leigh). Except that she isn’t Ben’s girl. Well, not exactly. Roy Anderson clearly figures that if she’s not Ben’s girl she might as well be his girl. That idea doesn’t go over too well with Lina and it’s obvious that Howard Kemp is not oblivious to her charms either. There are no prizes for guessing this this is going to be a rather tense situation.

The situation is made even more tense by the revelation that Howard Kemp is not a lawman. He’s a bounty hunter. Not a professional bounty hunter but an amateur who has a very good reason for wanting the five thousand dollar reward for bringing in Ben Vandergroat. It’s a long sad story. Howard had been in love with this really swell girl and they had made plans to get married but then he marched off to the war and when he returned he was in for a very unpleasant surprise. Whether the five thousand dollars will overcome his pain and sense of betrayal might be debatable but it will allow him to buy back his ranch.

Howard Kemp is not exactly your classic hero from the golden age of the western although he is in some ways a precursor of the anti-heroes that would populate the genre so tediously from the late 1960s onwards. He is a man driven by a sense of having been wronged but mostly he is driven by greed. He thinks money will heal his wounds.

In fact the whole movie is about greed since Kemp is certainly not the only character motivated by the lust for money. A group of five people that includes a ruthless but resourceful killer with nothing to lose (he has only the hangman’s rope to look forward to in Abilene), an attractive young woman in whom three members of the party are taking a very close interest and a $5,000 reward that would be desirable if shared three ways but even more desirable if it didn’t have to be shared at all provides a perfect setup for some intense interactions.

It doesn’t quite pan out that way, largely because most of the characters are mere stereotypes. Robert Ryan is entertaining but Ben is your standard movie villain without a single redeeming characteristic and with zero depth. Jesse is a character who could have stepped straight out of a hundred other westerns. Lina is the feisty but fundamentally decent girl whose every action can be predicted. Janet Leigh’s performance is fine but Lina just isn’t very interesting. Roy Anderson is the cynical drifter who will do anything if there’s a profit in it for him although he’s made slightly more interesting by Ralph Meeker’s spirited performance.

That leaves it up to Jimmy Stewart to do most of the heavy lifting in the acting department. Fortunately he’s equal to the task and Howard Kemp really is a genuinely fascinating character. He’s rather unsympathetic but we admire his doggedness and Stewart gradually reveals some of the hidden depths of the man.

The script, by Sam Rolfe and Harold Jack Bloom, is very good at setting up interesting human dynamics but it’s a bit too obvious that this is a movie with a Moral Lesson to teach us. Which is a pity because mostly it’s a fine story.

Anthony Mann’s films are always stylish and visually impressive and this is no exception. The film was shot in Technicolor and looks terrific even if the TCM print has a few blemishes and looks just a tiny bit washed out.

The Naked Spur is an attempt to do a complex and intelligent western and it’s an attempt that succeeds reasonably well largely due to James Stewart’s powerful performance. Recommended.