Naked Spur [DVD] [1953] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

The Naked Spur was one of the very first spec scripts to get picked up by a major studio, and it's easy to see why. With a strong story, a small but vividly drawn cast and a lot of post-war cynicism, Sam Rolfe and Harold Jack Bloom's Oscar-nominated screenplay has the feel of one of the film noirs MGM chief Dore Schary was so fond of to it, albeit set in Anthony Mann's beloved high country. James Stewart's the rancher turned ruthless bounty hunter haunted by his Civil War experiences who finds himself saddled with two unwanted partners in the form of Millard Mitchell's '49er prospector and Ralph Meeker's disgraced cavalryman, the kind of man who'll ask you to trust him while drawing a map on the back of his dishonourable discharge. The reward's not big enough to be split three ways, and their wily captive makes sure they know it, sowing the seeds of doubt and betrayal at every opportunity in the hope that they'll be too busy trying to kill each other to stop him escaping. Rounding out the ensemble is Janet Leigh as his travelling companion who finds herself increasingly caught in the middle and, like Stewart, has to make a choice between salvation and damnation before the journey to the gallows is done.

They're all deeply flawed characters, every one of them lying as much to themselves as to each other, and even the hero looks more likely to take the road to Hell than the one to redemption: their captive may or may not once have been a friend, but now he's just a sack of money that's worth just as much dead as alive. As with many of their Westerns, Stewart carries his own physical stigmata with him - in The Man From Laramie a shot through the hand, in Bend of the River the scar of a hangman's noose and in this a bullet in the leg - as he travels his own mental Calvary, kicking and screaming against his own redemption every tormented step of the way as only an Anthony Mann Western hero can. He's more than a match for the elements as the weather and landscape reflects the growing intensity of the drama, until he takes on a raging torrent and wrestles a river for a corpse with more pure hatred and desperation in his eyes than any sane man should ever have. And when redemption comes, it's quiet, almost begrudging and unsensationalized, and all the more effective for that.

If that sounds too perfect, there's a catch, and in this case, unexpectedly it's Robert Ryan, whose performance as the jovial puppeteering wanted man just doesn't work. For once he lacks real menace and it's hard to see anyone being taken in by him he's so laughably insincere. Along with the hokey use of Beautiful Dreamer on the soundtrack it's the film's only misjudgement. More than half a century on, this is still gripping and intense stuff.

Sadly, Warners' DVD is problematic. The color may be better than the TV prints, but the definition is often variable, with pin-sharp shots sometimes alternating with ones that are far softer now than they were in 1953. Extras are the original theatrical trailer, Tex Avery cartoon Little Johnny Jet and Pete Smith Speciality short Things We Can Do Without.

Superfluous though it is to post a review where Trevor Willsmer, the Jimmy Ringo of Amazon reviewers, has already delivered his magisterial verdict, there's still just a chink of daylight to sneak through.

This is an improvement on Winchester '73 and The Bend of the River, the first two of the Anthony Mann/James Stewart 1950s western series. The tone is tougher, the theme of troubled redemption that Trevor succinctly outlines more worthwhile, and Stewart at long last seems to be getting the hang of playing a nasty piece of work with hidden depths and surprisingly susceptible to change. Mann's idea of filming what's really a chamber piece comprising just 5 players and all against the blue skies and big mountains of Colorado (as beautifully filmed as the landscapes of the other entries of the series) is quite a bold one, though I'm not sure it really works. As in the two above-mentioned movies, the goal the characters set themselves is not especially interesting (here it's bringing in Robert Ryan's grinning murderer and nabbing the bounty), nor is their progress particularly enthralling as Ryan tries to set the five against each other with his moll Janet Leigh holding the ring. Trouble is, all five are motivated by greed (until Stewart's 11th hour conversion on the road to if not Damascus then Abilene at the end of the Chisholm Trail) and I wasn't really too bothered whether our self-appointed bounty hunters made it or not.

Stewart and Ryan make a strong pair of leads; unlike Trevor I thought Ryan was plenty nasty enough under the giggling, while agreeing his attempts to conceal his wiles were pretty transparent. Janet Leigh is very easy indeed on the eye, though her tousled short hair (did women wear their hair short in the West in those days?) and uncannily spotless outfit make her look as if she's just stepped off the inside pages of Vogue magazine, and judging from her close-ups she's stocked up big time on the mascara and rouge at the Denver branch of Supadrug.

But the real glory of this picture is the last five minutes as the shoot-out unfolds on rocks above the foaming Colorado River. This and its aftermath is a little masterpiece. The adversaries look like ants in a landscape as the advantage sways to and fro above and in the water. Then at the resolution as James Stewart comes to understand a man is more than the price of his skin and he has to stare into his own grasping heart, he croaks out:

"Why? Why?"

before almost in spite of himself choosing good from evil, right from wrong, civilised values from savagery. This crucial moment is filmed from over Janet Leigh's shoulder, and beautifully done with the two principals successively in close-up against an azure sky, and the last shot is one of optimism as the great theme music changes, I think, from A major to C minor and seems to sweep the man and the woman ahead of it en route to California. A terrific ending and a great cinematic moment as important theme, visuals and music combine; for that alone this is a western that fans of the genre need to see.

Before setting off to fight in the Civil War, Howard Kemp {James Stewart} had signed his ranch off to his fiancée. Upon returning from the war he found that she had sold the ranch and split the scene. Bitter and twisted, Kemp takes up life as a bounty hunter to hopefully earn the cash to buy back his ranch. Trailing outlaw Ben Vandergroat {Robert Ryan} up in the Rocky Mountains, Kemp falls in with elderly prospector, Jesse {Millard Mitchell}, and renegade army officer, Anderson {Ralph Meeker}. Capturing Vandergroat, who also has his girlfriend, Lina Patch {Janet Leigh}, in tow, this small posse must undertake the arduous journey thru the wilderness-with Vandergroat trying to turn the other travellers against Kemp.

The third film of five remarkable Westerns that director Anthony Mann made with James Stewart as his leading protagonist. The Naked Spur is a taut and tightly scripted picture exploring fractured characters dovetailing towards their respective day of reckoning, with Mann's mountain scenery and rugged terrain acting as physical counterpoint to the mental state of the characters. As is normally the way in the best of Anthony Mann, the troubled "hero" is tormented both mentally and physically as he heads towards his destiny. Stewart as Kemp is magnificent, not only in his portraying of Kemp's borderline hysteria, but also as he deals with the physical battering that Kemp undertakes. Not only spending most the journey in agony from a leg wound, but he's also beaten, falls down a cliff, pushed off his horse, has to dodge rocks and perhaps worst of all, suffers humiliation because Vandergroat {Ryan like a smiling assassin} knows about his past. Compelling stuff as Mann directs it with a claustrophobic tightness belying the magnificent scenery enveloping the characters.

With the exception of some anonymous Indians putting some flesh on Anderson's story bones, the film is just a five character piece. With that, it's also a very simple story-one that could very easily be taken for granted. But this is a near masterpiece, with its emotional kickers and exciting action sequences {the raging river finale is sublime} being attention holding from the get go. But ultimately it's the thematics that make The Naked Spur the great movie it is, as Vandergroat bitingly points out, "Choosing a way to die? What's the difference? Choosing a way to live. That's the hard part," well no more needs to be said really. 9/10