'THE NAKED SPUR'......JAMES STEWART AND ANTHONY MANN TOUGHEN UP THE WESTERN

The Naked Spur (1953) 

     For lovers of 1950's westerns, the series of films made by director Anthony Mann and his star James Stewart became the gold standard for the genre.

     Together, they took all the tropes of cowboys 'n Indians 'n outlaw gunslingers into dangerous darker psychological drama. 

       This one, their second collaboration stands among the best of them. It's a slim but muscular brutal tale of five disparate souls whose paths cross amid the stunning, colorful landscapes of the Colorado Rockies.

       Stewart's performances, as many film pundits have noted, took on a deeper, angrier edge coming out of his harrowing combat missions as an Army Air Force bomber captain in World War 2.  So he was more than able to tap into a well of barely suppressed rage to play Civil War veteran and bounty hunter Howard Kemp. 

        After surviving the carnage of the war, Kemp discovered the woman he planned to marry had fled after selling the ranch he'd hope to build his life upon and start a family. Now, he's reduced to hunting down vicious killer Ben Vandergroat (Robert Ryan), who's on the run with his adoring young girlfriend Lina (Janet Leigh), who thinks Ben is just falsely accused and misunderstood. 

       Kemp catches up with Ben, but only with the unlikely aid of grizzled old gold prospector Jesse (Millard Mitchell) and hot headed, trigger happy ex cavalryman Roy (Ralph Meeker), newly (and dishonorably) discharged from the Army. 

       With Ben and Lina captured, the irascible, unhappy Howard is forced to split the bounty reward with Jesse and Roy, money he'd planned to use to buy back his ranch.

        But it's a long trek through the wilderness to the nearest town, filled with pitfalls, detours, and a rampaging tribe seeking vengeance on Roy. Not to mention the always grinning, reptilian Ben, never missing an opportunity to play off his three captors against each other. 

         The scenery is eye popping and the dramatic fireworks rocketing between the five characters blasts off from the first minute to the last of this film's ultra swift 91 minute running time. 

         Stewart has never been better at playing a man who's been physically and emotionally destroyed........ and now driven only by the internal pain he carries like a protective shield while on this quest to put his life right again. 

         For all film buffs cinema curators, 'The Naked Spur', still shines as a 5 star essential. (*****).