The powerhouse combination of star James Stewart and director Anthony Mann score another cinematic bullseye in The Naked Spur. Stewart plays a taciturn frontiersman who loses his home while he's off fighting the Civil War. To raise enough money for a new grubstake, Stewart becomes a bounty hunter in Colorado territory. His first quarry is fugitive, killer Robert Ryan. Stewart's efforts to bring in Ryan and collect the reward are compromised by the presence of Ryan's loyal girl friend Janet Leigh
and Stewart's two disreputable sidekicks, wily prospector Millard Mitchell and disgraced Union-officer Ralph Meeker. There's plenty of "cat and mouse" byplay between Stewart and Ryan before the brutal climax; the drama is intensified by the fact that both men are on the outer rim of total insanity. The Oscar-nominated screenplay for The Naked Spur was cowritten by Sam Rolfe, who was later one of the creative forces responsible for the similarly no-nonsense TV western series Have Gun, Will Travel. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
This 1953 film has Janet Leigh in jeans, beautiful location shooting (and Technicolor cinematography) in the Rockies, and some of the most intense psychological warfare to be found in [director Anthony] Mann's angular and anguished oeuvre.
This rock-solid Western is brisk, terse, and full of excellent performances..and for once, a Jimmy Stewart film doesn't find its leading man stealing the show!
In this taut revenge Western, from Oscar-nominated script by Sam Rolfe and Harold Jack Bloom, Jimmy Stewart gives one of his best performances, revealing a darker facet to his screen persona that only a superb director like Anthony Mann could bring out
Part of Jimmy Stewart's Signature Collection, the new DVD version has many worthy featurettes: a short, "Things We Can Do Without"; classic cartoon, "Little Johnny Jet"; and the theatrical trailer.
One-dimensional characters and corny situations stand between The Naked Spur and broad appeal. Still, Jimmy Stewart can make ANY script seem interesting and plausible.
January 2, 2009
Randy Tippy
Super Reviewer
Another boring confusing stupid western that I did not like. Of course there are good actors in this movie, so maybe you'd like it if you like westerns.
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