Winchester '73 (1950)

Strong and Moving!

Memorable, crazy movie

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Here's what happens: you get a Jimmy Stewar bio on Kindle- next thing you know, you are on Amazon, hunting down the DVD titles they discuss extensively in the book, movies you haven't seen since the 25 cent cinemas decades ago.This was wonderfully filmed in black & white (still popular in 1950) with style & 'framing' by Director, Anthony Mann, who collaborated with Stewart on several post-war flicks that helped Jimmy get his film career back on track after 4 years (WWII) in the Armed Services. The entry is enhanced by a superb voiceover track of Stewart being interviewed about the scenes (and his career) for the later Laserdisc release. Make sure the copy you order has this feature. Stewart was a fine raconteur, giving lots of background on this film (his horse, Pie & his training at handling the rifle) and others (he relates how Hitchcock shot a scene in a later movie, scrapping 2 pages of dialogue Jimmy had struggled to memorize, doing it in pantomine instead).Great contributions from some fine character actors (Dan Duryea is a loonie criminal) are rendered, with a young Rock Hudson kicking in as a warring Indian chief. A young, (thin) Shelley Winters adds the brief romantic aspect quite capably (unrecognizable from Poseidon Adventure). Above all, Jimmy stretches a bit in his role as a wronged brother who also starts a quest to re-acquire the prized rifle stolen abruptly from him at the outset of the story.

Good western, with a few tweaks to the classical western formula. We have character development, a mysterious backstory between the lead hero and lead villain, and a less than conventional damsel-in-distress.The story of the how the gun changes hands, the hands it goes through and how many people it kills is also interesting. A sort-of circle of life, for a weapon.Good action scenes. Plot is decent, though it has some moments and scenes where not everything gels, and it feels contrived.Good performance by James Stewart in the lead role. Shelly Winters, as the wisecracking damsel-in-distress, is interesting. Certainly not your conventional female character in a western, who are normally seen rather than heard (not saying I agree with that convention, by the way). Initially her one-liners are at odds with the drama of the movie, and jar a little, but her character grows on you and eventually her jokes are a pleasant distraction.Good supporting cast which includes Rock Hudson, in one of his earliest roles, as a young Indian leader (!). Tony Curtis, also early in his career, has a very minor part.

It is said that when this film first came out there was some criticism of the casting of James Stewart in the leading role. Stewart was widely regarded as the "Mr Nice Guy" hero of romantic comedies like "The Philadelphia Story" or feelgood films like "It's a Wonderful Life". He might be acceptable in comedy Westerns like "Destry Rides Again", but not in serious ones. Such criticism, of course, seems ridiculous today. "Winchester '73" was the first of five Westerns which Stewart was to make with director Anthony Mann between 1950 and 1955. Their partnership was to come to an acrimonious end when in 1957 Mann walked away from what should have been the sixth Mann/Stewart Western, "Night Passage", but by then Stewart was an established Western star, and he was to make several more films in the genre, including "Cheyenne Autumn", "Firecreek" and "The Shootist". The Winchester '73 was a make of rifle; the number refers to the year (1873) in which it was first produced. (Unlike, say, the Colt .45 which was not invented in 1845 but derived its name from the calibre of bullet fired). The movie opens in Dodge City on the Fourth of July 1876, the centennial of American independence, where a shooting competition is taking place, with such a rifle as the prize. The two main contenders are Lin McAdam and 'Dutch Henry' Brown, both crack shots. It is clear from what occurs between them that they already know, and loathe, one another, although the precise reason for their enmity is not made clear at this stage. Lin wins the contest, and the prize, but it is later stolen from him by Dutch Henry. There then follow a series of developments in which the rifle (essentially the main character in the film) changes hands several times, with all those through whose hands it passes, except its rightful owner Lin, coming to a bad end.There is insufficient space in this review to detail all these twists and turns of fate. Indeed, the number of twists struck me as one the film's weaknesses. The main plot line, involving Lin's pursuit of Dutch Henry, is well developed. (Lin is not just trying to recover the stolen rifle but has a much more serious reason for seeking revenge). The film's structure, however, necessitates several subplots, involving a war between Indians and settlers, the adventures of a dance-hall girl (the normal euphemism for "prostitute" in Westerns of this period) named Lola and her fiancé Steve, and an armed robbery, any of which could easily have formed the subject-matter for a whole film in its own right, and there is insufficient time to deal with them all fully. The one acting performance I did not like came from Dan Duryea, who I felt was weak as Waco Johnnie Dean, an outlaw associate of Dutch Henry. Will Geer also seems miscast as Wyatt Earp, who would still have been in his twenties in 1876. (Geer was 48). The rest of the cast, however, are good. If Duryea was insufficiently menacing the same could certainly not be said of Stephen McNally as the murderous Dutch Henry, and Stewart confounded his critics by showing that he could play Mr Tough Guy as well as Mr Nice Guy. That said, Lin still remains Mr Good Guy; he is less morally ambiguous than the characters Stewart was to play in some of his subsequent collaborations with Mann, such as "The Naked Spur". This was the only Mann/Stewart Western to be filmed in black and white; before turning to the Western Mann had been known as a director of films noirs, and the influence of that style can be seen in the dramatic photography here. The character of Lin, a man struggling for integrity and justice in a largely lawless world is another feature reminiscent of film noir; Earp may have established some sort of order in Dodge, but outside the city the only law is the law of the gun. Many earlier Westerns had been shot in a studio, but this one was largely filmed on location, although not in the area in which the action is supposed to take place. I doubt if I was the only viewer to wonder why the Kansas prairies look so much like the deserts of Arizona. Mann directs the film very well, creating plenty of tension. Three sequences particularly stand out in this respect. Two of these are absolutely crucial to the plot, namely the shooting contest at the very beginning of the film and the final shootout at the end. The third, about halfway through, is a battle between marauding Indians and a cavalry detachment who have been joined by Lin, his friend 'High-Spade', Lola and Steve. I would not rate "Winchester '73" quite as highly as some of the later Mann/Stewart Westerns such as "The Naked Spur" and "The Man from Laramie", but it remains a well-directed, well-acted and very watchable adventure. 7/10

This being my first classic western I have little in the way of frame of reference for talking about it. This said by my reckoning its great stuff. A tale of a gun, masterpiece of craft, but more about men and the toil of obsession. Lin McAdam (James Stewart) encounters one Dutch Henry (Stephen McNally) in the town of Dodge City, they have prior quarrel but things really heat up when Lin wins a prized Winchester '73 in a shooting contest and Butch subsequently steals it from him. So the pursuit begins, meanwhile the gun changes several hands. But as things progress we see the film isn't really about a gun. More about Lin and Dutch and their ways, and the places they find comfort. In Dodge City Dutch is at his element, later at a bar we see him about business, schemer playing his options. But in neither place is Lin at home, just the stark desert, just when in pursuit. The obsessed, at disadvantage to the object of obsession and facing uncertainty of what lies beyond. Perhaps the crucial scene of the film has Lin's friend High Spade (Millard Mitchell) querying this uncertainty as they bed down for the night, around them nothing but cold dark, cacti and hills. When obsession is fulfilled what then, can the obsessed yet find comfort? Its a serious question that adds a layer of pathos to our hero, handled very well by Stewart. He's a good man, but a hardened and darkened one, he can charm and appeal to the films notable female Lola (Shelley Winters) who ultimately sees though the facades of all, but there's steel within. Dutch Henry is a potent foil, there's that same steel but more calculation, more mind for ease, looser and more malign. And a good contrast to his fellow evil-doer Waco Johnie Dean (Dan Duryea), smiling and vicious, not being bound by any particular circle of obsession of vengeance entirely assured in his actions. There are other lines to the plot of course, but ultimately its about the leads as slowly they draw together, there are different confrontations but it all comes down to a classic style one on one showdown. The various action scenes are all quality stuff, a thrilling horse chase and a few shootouts, all tensely handled. A fine punctuation to the psychological side of the piece, and in one important scene illustration of the way these men of the old west relate to their environment and to burgeoning civilisation. Of course the film wouldn't work as a psychological piece without astute dialogue, of which there is plenty. Short, straight and timber tough, not a word is wasted, its a great work of characterful writing. I think the final moments could have been slightly better developed, with more of a nod to the ambivalent tone of earlier, but its a fairly minor gripe given the general tone. Quality stuff say I, 8/10