Winchester '73 (1950)
Winchester '73 (1950), directed by Anthony Mann.
Two men ride into Dodge City hunting another. They find him pretty quickly and we know there will soon be blood.
First of eight films by the director with James Stewart. This has been called "Western noir" and there is crossover in tone and in cast and crew.
James Stewart mixes his folksy charm with steely obsession and sometimes becomes a crazed berserker when fighting. He gets sadistically beaten in several of these films.
Stephen McNally is always a reliable black-hat villain.
Shelley Winters is the beauty. Good thing she's tough because the West of the bad men can be harrowing for a woman.
Dan Duryea provides more sadism, a specialty.
Will Geer is an odd choice for folksy Wyatt Earp.
Rock Hudson, Indian chief on the warpath. He gets a good speech on how awful the Whites have been. The race war is strong in this one. It is set shortly after the Little Big Horn.
In a bit part, Tony Curtis is a calvary trooper.
Many more familiar, much loved faces.
We have a very long shooting tournament near the start of the film, the prize being the coveted rifle. According to the wikipedia the "One of One Thousand" grade Winchester rifle really existed and about 136 were sold at a premium.
We love sharpshooters: Natty Bumppo in Last of the Mohicans (1992), Daniel Boone, Sergeant York (1941), Quigley Down Under (1990). It goes back farther than the frontier: remember Robin Hood splitting the arrow in his tournament.
Mirroring the opening competition, we end with marksman-vs-marksman up on the mountain, plenty of ricochets and rock splinters.
Cinematographer William H. Daniels -- Harvey (1950), Keeper of the Flame (1942), Romeo and Juliet (1936), Strategic Air Command (1955), Thunder Bay (1953) -- takes a good picture but it does not match the stunning beauty of Joseph MacDonald's work on Yellow Sky (1948). Most of the good shots here are portraits of the characters. Maybe director Mann cared more for personal relations while William A. Wellman added in the landscape and environment to his film. (Later: film authorities disagree with me strenuously here. Mann is called the ultimate on-location director).
Filmed near Tucson, which is a ways from Dodge City.
Available on Blu-ray from Criterion. In the commentary track Paul Lindenschmidt interviews James Stewart as they watch the film. Really great listening, many stories and insights into his career and the craft of film making. The recording was made during the laserdisc era.
He points out that Mann (and Ford and Hitchcock) understood that the purpose of movies is to show the story, not talk it out, else you might as well be on stage. It was not possible to do a radio version of this film: not enough explaining the story in dialogue.
He says shooting the coins in the air was done by an actual sharpshooter standing nearby.
Rock splinters: made by real projectiles from a "rifle of sorts".
He was superstitious about his hat.
First used his favorite horse Pie here. The owner would never sell Pie but Stewart rode him for 20 years.
This film was a combination package with Harvey (1950).
Stewart received a percentage, a novelty at the time. It was a wise financial choice.
The disk includes an extra: Forces of Nature: Anthony Mann at Universal, lots of good clips and commentary.
