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Winchester '73 [1950]
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RRP: £9.99
Our Price: £4.28 (subject to change)
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
Winchester '73 is the first in a remarkable string of five classic westerns that James Stewart made with Anthony Mann in the 1950s (followed by Bend of the River, The Man from Laramie, The Naked Spur, and The Far Country). It is also distinguished for having helped revive the Western at the box office, and for being the first film in which the star forsook a huge up-front salary in favor of a share of the profits--a strategy that made Stewart rich and forever changed the way that Hollywood does business. The movie itself is pretty darned impressive, too. Stewart traces a stolen Winchester rifle through several owners until he finds the man he's looking for. The final spectacular shootout in craggy, mountainous terrain is justly famous. --Jim Emerson
The first of the great Anthony Mann-James Stewart Westerns
Review date: 2007-11-10 Rating: 10 out of 10
Winchester `73 was the film that moved director Anthony Mann from the b-movies to the big league, rescuing James Stewart's floundering post-war career in the process by casting him as a conflicted hero (although since he inherited the project from Fritz Lang, maybe Lang deserves the credit for that). Both men would go to much darker places - Mann already had with the remarkably bleak Devil's Doorway, which remained shelved by MGM until the success of Broken Arrow convinced them to release it - but a movie about a man hunting down his own brother as the rifle of the title is handed from person to person along the trail before it ends up in one of the director's beloved mountainside shootouts is still stronger meat than you'd expect from the studio system. Great dialog, an impressive supporting cast - Dan Duryea, Will Geer, Millard Mitchell, Stephen McNally, Shelley Winters, Charles Drake, Tim McIntire, Jay C. Flippen, Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson among them - and Mann's outstanding visual sense raise the bar with this one.
Sadly, the print used for the DVD could stand some restoration, although there is an interesting audio interview with Stewart on the disc.
Similar Products
- The Far Country [1955]
- The Man From Laramie [1955]
- Bend Of The River [1952]
- Broken Arrow [1950]
- Tin Star [1957]
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Rock Hudson
Dan Duryea
Jay C. Flippen
James Stewart
Shelley Winters
Creators:
James Stewart (Primary Contributor)
Rock Hudson (Primary Contributor)
Director(s):
Recording label: Universal Pictures UK
Manufacturer: Universal Pictures UK
EAN: 5050582490671
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Black & White, PAL,
Release date: 2007-06-04
Audience rating: Universal, suitable for all
Region code: 2
Running time: 89 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1950
Language: English (Original Language)