jeremiahwasabullfrog-26674 This is a classic western. James Stewart is one of the greatest, most talented and most likable movie stars of all time and also by what everyone who knew him said he was a great person and to top it all off a war hero in real life. It is not his best film and pretty straightforward of a western movie plot but he's fantastic, the story is still much better than most other westers of this time, and the acting is top notch (not just James Stewart). Well worth watching, you will like it unless you really hate older western genre movies in general.

Robert W. I didn't really grow up with Westerns, but an early fascination with Clint Eastwood had me discovering them in a big way. I have always compared the genre of Westerns to Chocolate Chip Cookies (bare with me now on this analogy.) It doesn't matter who makes them, as long as they have the right ingredients they are near perfect. It takes an awful lot to make a "bad" Western and I can't even think of one at the moment. It always helps when you find a particular Western star that you love (Lee Marvin, Eastwood, John Wayne...Jimmy Stewart.) Winchester '73 isn't just any chocolate chip cookie, its one of the greats. Personally I wouldn't put it in league with Sergio Leon's Dollars trilogy or some of Eastwood's better ones but only because it doesn't necessarily bring anything new to the table. What it does bring is every single aspect of a great Western to the table all around the legend of a perfect gun that is being passed from person to person while one man searches for it and his nemesis. The shoot outs are fantastic, dark and even gory in a few spots. The performances range from good to great and there is no shortage of action. The film opens in the legendary Dodge City and Wyatt Earp and his crew are there too. It just feels right as a Western! The legendary James Stewart is our hero and the a great Western cowboy. Lin McAdam is tough as nails, a perfect shot and the ultimate cowboy. Perhaps the only issue is that Stewart doesn't get enough scenes in the movie. Yes he is the star but he's probably only in 2/3 of the film and that isn't enough for my taste and McAdam could have gotten a lot more great scenes. Still he is amazing as he almost always is. This character is a terrific turn for him as a tough guy and he pulls it off well. As Stewart said in his own words about McAdam, the character is emotional and vulnerable. Shelley Winters is decent as wild west gal Lola Manners. She is spirited and fiery and fun to watch. Its not a great performance but its certainly a good one. Her chemistry with Stewart is okay but nothing amazing. She plays a much bigger part in the latter part of the film and does well at it. Stephen McNally is Stewart's sworn enemy that he is chasing through the dusty wild west. McNally is terrific as a villain and the chemistry between him and Stewart is perfect. Their adversarial relationship is legendary and you know its going to come to a huge battle in the end. Dan Duryea also deserves mention as McNally's right hand man and number one goon. He makes for a great villain as well and is particularly good opposite Winters in their scenes.I would love to see this on the big screen someday because it is just insanely fun. It has everything you would expect from a classic Western from its opening scenes at the shooting competition to the closing and epic finale shootout between the two enemies. The twist to the story isn't exactly a huge shock, I sort of saw it coming but it still made a terrible finale. Early Hollywood directors always seem to direct a hundred pictures before their death but you still have to give credit where its due and Anthony Mann crafts a terrific story. The only reason it isn't a perfect score is perhaps because it really doesn't try to be anything out of the box of a cookie-cutter Western. But there is also NOTHING wrong with that. Don't even take that as a criticism because if you're a Western fan or even looking to introduce classic Westerns to a new generation, this is one for the ages. A terrific non-stop wagon ride. 8.5/10

James Hitchcock 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

Scarecrow-88 A much desired Winchester rifle is won by Jimmy Stewart in a shooting tournament, stolen by a dirty, no-good thief named Dutch (who shoots people in the back and can never be trusted), and the movie follows the weapon as it exchanges hands, death meeting anyone who comes to claim possession of it. Meanwhile Stewart and trusty pal Millard Mitchell go a hunting for the Winchester, a dogged pursuit that offers plenty of danger. This western, a rightfully heralded classic, is set during the time when Custard lost at Little Big Horn, the news traveling about from town to town. The Winchester rifle symbolizes death because it seems to carry bad luck to anyone who carries it on them. Anthony Mann and Jimmy Stewart. Two names that gave us some damn good westerns. "Winchester '73" was the start of quite a collaboration. I think the intensity Stewart could summon in his lead roles in those great Mann westerns proved that these two were a match made in horse opera heaven. What I loved about this western is that mystery behind everything taking place throughout the movie: why does Lin McAdam (Stewart) want to kill Dutch Henry Brown (Stephen McNally)? The rifle is just a prop really that moves from each situation that involves the characters in the movie. McAdam wins the rifle, has it taken from him by sore-loser Brown, and the hunt for the Winchester is on. Those who "take" the rifle seem to die eventually; it is almost unlucky to acquire the gun. I think that is a cool concept for a western, the gun goes and so does the western, from place to place, person to person, ending as it should between two men, one with a score to settle, over a shot in the back of a father. There's a glass of goat milk that makes little sense at the time it is handed by a bartender to McAdam, at the request of Brown, but it is a little detail with far more significance than you realize, only equating the beauty of the western, how even the most minute moments add to the reasons behind the ill will that exists between two men who hate each other.Other characters enter their world in different ways. Shelley Winters is "dance hall girl" Lola attached to a yellowbelly named Steve (Charles Drake) who almost leaves her to the mercy of Sioux while wagon-training it to a new town…yeah, he was "going to get help". After seeing a Calvary troop up ahead, Steve goes back to get her, and they think there's safety, only to learn this bunch (the soldiers quite young, their leader old and tired but charming and congenial)is undermanned and surrounded. Thank goodness McAdams and long-time friend High Spade (Millard Mitchell) find them, with experience in the Civil War and knowledge of the Sioux. Of course this provides Mann with an opportunity to show how a small group who should have no chance against a large tribe of Sioux warriors do because of smarts and organization. For my money Dan Duryea walks away with the film as Waco Johnnie Dean; he's cocky, smug, confident, and assured, very comfortable with his criminal status. Watch that left hand because Waco is a quick trigger. Steve finds this out all too well. Dean also takes Steve's lady although Lola doesn't seem happy about it. Before you know it, the rifle moves from Dutch to a lowly trader (when you trade rifles to "Indians", there's no lower lifeform in those days according to cowboys and gunslingers) who learns the hard way that trading with Sioux comes with a heavy price, to Steve (because the Calvary troop "doesn't deserve such a fancy rifle"), to Waco, to Dutch, with the fate of its ownership determined in a final showdown with McAdams. Most of my favorite moments have Stewart and Mitchell discussing the journey, their friendship, the reasons to continue to Tascosa, where the mission to retrieve the Winchester and the revenge so important to McAdams supposedly come to a head. Their chemistry and use of cowpoke slang, the camaraderie that exists; you just feel like these two would go to the ends of the earth for each other. It takes loyalty and care to follow a man with one goal that is to kill a man. Both know why and we only learn the whole truth at the very end; it's quite a revelation. Mann doesn't fail to stage quite a shootout between McAdams and Dutch, either, the two (Dutch perched higher on a mountainous cliff, due to the head start, bearing down on McAdams, stuck in the more uncomfortable position yet smarter than his adversary who wastes bullets) engaged in quite a firing session. The compositions (large spaces used to supreme effect to follow action in front of us and far away at a distance) within the setting are impeccably shot and richly presented. Mann knew how to tell a good story and present it in style and grandeur most rewarding on an aesthetic and cerebral level...a master craftsman. To have the quality of an actor like Stewart only enhanced Mann's legend.