Winchester 73 - James Stewart, Shelley Winters | Region B Import

I have this film on DVD and it’s pretty good quality with a 4:3 aspect ratio good sound and audio, black and white cinematography. The film was released in 1950 and was quite a big hit for James Stewart. The story open in a town where we’re introduced to some of the main players. The production design, costumes and locations are also nicely presented in this film. The story sort of follows a rifle which comes into the possession of various people over the course of the film but brings few of them any luck. The film has the usual dangers of bandits and Indians for our characters as they roam the wild. There’s one particular scene I thought was well done in which a small unit of soldiers and some passing stragglers become trapped in a valley and surrounded before some really great action ensues. There’s also some chases on horseback that are really well filmed. Throughout a lot of westerns you have this order v chaos, good v bad element and here it plays out in the rivalry between two brothers. The main female character in the film is also well played as an icy blonde with a troubled past. The desert landscapes when we see them in the film are nicely captured and the music is all pretty good. If I had a criticism of the film then it’s the plot is very thin and it can feel more like a series of short films than one single whole film. The plot is a bit messy with too many characters that we lose interest in. Overall though I thought the performances were very good.

*** This review may contain spoilers ***This is a story of the Winchester Rifle Model 1873 "The Gun That Won The West" To cowman, outlaw, peace officer or soldier, the Winchester 73 was a treasured possession. An Indian would sell his soul to own one...Winchester 73 is the first collaboration between director Anthony Mann and actor James Stewart, a duo that would go on to create a run of superior Westerns that added a new, psychological depth to the genre. The story sees Stewart as Lin McAdam pursuing the man who killed his father. Riding into Dodge City with his trusty friend, Johnny Williams {Millard Mitchell}, Lin runs into Dutch Henry Brown {Stephen McNally}, the man he wants. But with Wyatt Earp {Will Geer} having taken all the guns from those entering the town, both men are unable to have the shoot-out that they are ready for. The men instead square up in a competition to win a Winchester 73 rifle, a competition that Lin eventually wins. But before he can leave town with the magnificent prize, Dutch ambushes him, steals the rifle and skips town fast. As Lin sets off in hate filled pursuit of both man and rifle, the rifle will changed hands a number of times, with each time adding another dimension as the day of reckoning for all approaches.Very much a benchmark for what became known as the so-called "psychological Western", Winchester 73 is basically a story of a decent man driven to borderline insanity by an event in his past. Tho shot in black and white {the only one of the duos Westerns that was} the landscapes are still breathtaking feasts for the eyes. The tone is set with the opening scene as Lin and Johnny on horseback, and in silhouette, amble over a hillside as they make their way to Dodge City. It's just the starting point that would see Mann use his vistas as a way of running concurrent with his characters emotional states.Stewart gives one of his finest and most intense performances as McAdam, proving once and for all that he was one of Americas finest and most versatile actors. The support cast isn't too bad either. Shelley Winters is excellent as the sole female in amongst the machismo, while Mitchell, McNally, Geer and the always great Dan Duryea add further class to proceedings. There's even bit parts for Tony Curtis and Rock Hudson in here, tho the latter playing an Indian brave is a stretch too far.Originally the film was a project for Fritz Lang, who even had the script ready to run. But Lang walked away from it, something that proved to be a blessing for Western fans. For as great as a director that Lang was, with Mann directing {and with a new script from Borden Chase & Robert Richards in hands} it set the wheels in motion to alter the course of the genre. Not only with the further efforts that Mann & Stewart produced, but also in who they influenced. The likes of Budd Boetticher, Nicholas Ray and Sam Fuller were all taking notes, and gleefully for the Western purists, they followed suit and carried the psychological torch still further.A big hit at the box office back on release, Winchester 73 is a magnificent film that still packs a punch in the modern age. 9.5/10

This was, as many have mentioned here, the first pairing of director Anthony Mann and actor James Stewart in what would become their `psychological Western' sequence. This first collaboration is a fine film, but better was to come.Stewart had built up an on screen persona of affability, likeableness and general do gooding. It must have been a bit of a surprise to the film goers of the time to see him here, playing much the same character but with the added dimension of being hell bent on a mission of vengeance. Lin McAdam is a generally nice guy, but he has a mission to complete, he must find and kill the man who shot his father. He is almost blind to all else. It's a step away from Stewart's usual character, and even bigger steps into the dark side of the human soul would follow in later films.As well as the story of McAdam's mission of vengeance this film also follows a gun, the Wnchester 73 of the title. One in a thousand, this is a special gun and everyone covets it. By rights it belongs to McAdam after he won it in a shooting contest, but it gets stolen and passes through many hands until it is used against him in the final shootout. This allows the director to give us a series of vignettes built around the people that have the gun, giving us some fascinating characterisations.There is a generally fine supporting cast to lift this another notch (the weak link is Rock Hudson's Apache warrior). Millard Mitchell puts in another great turn as the solid and dependable companion of McAdam (why he never became a leading man I'll never know, he provided many memorable supporting performances), Dan Duryea is a charming unhinged wildman and Shelley Winters is perfect as the lady of the piece. The scene where she explains she knows what the last bullet is for is very memorable.A great study of human nature, a thrilling story as the heroes deal with various Indian attacks and gunslingers, topped with an unexpected twist right at the end and one of the bust shoot-outs ever filmed, this is an out and out classic. But because better films followed it I am only going to give 4 stars.