Winchester '73

The collaboration started with a bang with 1950's "Winchester '73", which makes most lists, including mine, of the best of the genre. [09 May 2003, p.11E]

The first of Mann's great Jimmy Stewart cycle -- and one of his best. [30 Apr 2010, p.C3]

Winchester '73 has a little bit of everything, including a central conflict straight out of the Old Testament, and Mann's highly visual direction -- dialogue is sparse, and the movie looks gorgeous, filmed largely on location in Arizona -- shows that John Ford and Howard Hawks weren't the only directors able to translate their love of the Old West and its mythical figures to film. [05 Jun 2003]

Of the six "adult Westerns" James Stewart and director Anthony Mann made together in the '50s, this 1950 film was the first and one of the best. [24 Jun 1986]

Played out against breathtaking landscapes that reflect the emotional turmoil of the main characters, Mann's film gives us one of Stewart's greatest performances, his manic intensity evoking both terror and pathos.

The final shoot-out remains a classic study in mise-en-scene, as Mann transforms a jagged landscape into a highly charged psychological battleground.

It is far from the mature outdoor drama that might be brilliantly filmed around a gun. It's just a frisky, fast-moving, funny Western in which a rifle is the apple of a cowboy's eye.