260. The Naked Spur (1953)

Directed by Anthony Mann

Synopsis

A man goes after a bounty, on the way he meets two other guys. The capture the bounty and decide to split the prize into three shares. Well, there's a girl with the bounty, and the original hunter, Jimmy Stewart, falls in love with her. Eventually the bounty and the girl run away with the help of one of the three hunters, the gold prospector. The bounty kills the prospector and the girl realises what type of guy he is. The two remaining hunters come after him, and in the ensuing fight kill him and one of the hunters dies. Jimmy gets the corpse of the bounty and the girl, but the girl demands that if he wants to have her he has to bury the bounty instead of getting the reward. Jimmy does so.

Review

I do like Westerns but this one didn't really do it particularly for me. It does have it's plus points, Jimmy Stewart is always a good thing, the use of landscape in the beautiful Colorado Rockies together with the great Technicolor is another plus point.

The actors are all quite good, a special nod goes to the bounty played by Robert Ryan as the constantly scowling, smart, bad guy. But then, it doesn't quite work completely. The problem might be with the plot, which isn't the most original, the pacing is also somewhat too slow, too much lying about doing nothing without actually building up any kind of tension.

It is a perfectly serviceable Western, it is a good watch, but nothing amazing, I've seen plenty of better Westerns and plenty of better Jimmy Stewart films on this list already. But then, they can't all be High Noons.

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The film was a box office hit when first released, ensuring three more Stewart-Mann collaborations, including two more westerns. Screenwriters Sam Rolfe and Harold Jack Bloom were nominated for the 1953 Best Screenplay Academy Award. In the years since its release, the film has achieved continued success, gaining more critical acclaim now than upon first release. In 1997, The Naked Spur was added to the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Although the film generally receives credit for teaming James Stewart with Anthony Mann for several films, Robert Ryan also teamed with Mann in The Naked Spur, Men In War, and God's Little Acre. Leonard Maltin has lauded The Naked Spur as "one of the best westerns ever made."

No videos of this on-line, but here's Jimmy reading a poem about his dog Beau: