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Very well executed

Must See Movie...

Don't listen to the negative reviews

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

No need to repeat the plot or echo consensus points after the many other reviews. I must have been eleven or twelve when I first saw this classic in a theatre. The marksmanship contest fascinated me, so being a kid I badgered my dad to buy me a 22-rifle. Too young, he said, but I did get a BB-gun, single-shot. Not exactly what I wanted, but at least I could hit tin cans. Now I'm glad I didn't get it. Lord knows what I would have done with a bullet gun. The movie's pass-around battle over a premier repeating rifle is still fascinating after all these years. The narrative's really shrewdly done. The prize rifle amounts to a plot gimmick passing us along with the Winchester to a succession of interesting characters. It's unusual for any movie of the time which preferred to dwell on a central star. Catch also that we don't know why the bad blood between Lin (Stewart) and Dutch Henry (McNally) until the end, but we do know there'll be a big showdown eventually. Meanwhile we meet an interesting array of characters, including slimy Waco Johnny Dean (the great Dan Duryea), laid-back sheriff Wyatt Earp (Will Geer), and sneaky card fumbler Joe Lamont (McIntyre) who somehow always wins the big poker pots. I like the way the script makes us infer Lamont's skullduggery instead of showing us. Then too, there's the humorous bits of dialog, as when dance hall girl Lola (Winters) kisses the impossibly homely Sgt' Wilkes (Flippen) saying he's too pretty to pass up.In fact, it's this succession of colorful characters that distinguishes the film, even though Stewart remains the anchor. Kudos to movie star Stewart for sharing as much time as he does. Also distinguishing the drama are the great settings. The many Arizona landscapes appear to stretch to infinity and are impressively utilized by director Mann. And what an inspiration that final shootout among the barren rocky spires. It's since become a classic showdown sequence and deservedly so. Then there's that authentic mud-hut town squatting on the desert like an ugly pimple. No Hollywood there. In fact, I couldn't spot a single studio exterior anywhere. Cheap-jack Universal thus deserves credit for popping for all the location filming, even if up-and-coming Rock Hudson makes a dubious Indian, to say the least.Off hand, I don't recall any other oater where the hero has to battle two premier baddies (Duryea & MacNally), one after the other. Now I'll watch anything with the deliciously sneering Duryea and here he doesn't disappoint. Facing off with Duryea's Waco Johnny does, however, distract from the blood feud showdown with Dutch Henry. Maybe that's why the high rock shootout was so carefully staged and filmed. Also, I wonder if there's a backstory to this departure from the conventional western.On the somewhat downside is Winters' squishy Lola, the only woman in the cast. As a whiny character she doesn't really add much to the drama which is already spread across many characters. The actress does well enough in the role, though once again Hollywood of the time can't bear to dirty up a leading lady, no matter how much dust she eats. Thus, the dance hall girl remains squeaky clean despite a grueling trip through the desert. On the same quibbling note—I wish Hollywood would give Indians some credit for good battle tactics. That is, why not have Young Bull's warriors attack from all sides instead of as a mass from in front where the soldiers can concentrate their fire power and mow them down. But then, a massed attack does make for a more spectacular screening. Anyway, I think the movie stands up pretty well, with its number of human interest themes. I especially like that closing shot of the Winchester rifle which has now been passed around full circle. All in all, this amounts to a kind of poetic end note unusual for any western, and a fitting one for this classic.

. . . during this strange story, and the McAdam brothers each have two turns handling it. If the star of WINCHESTER '73 actually was a "perfect" or "one-in-a-thousand" or "1-in-10,000" or "1-in-20,000" rifle when it rolled off Winchester's assembly line (all of which claims are made here), it certainly was NOT by the time it got bent in a wrestling match, used for a ski pole by a losing contestant falling off a horse in a rifle joust, left in a burning house, and flung off Lover's Leap by a fratricide victim. About all this shooting iron would be good for by the time Jimmy Stewart reclaims it would be to keep the stuffed animals dangling from a Crooked Carnie's shooting gallery booth. As if Rock Hudson sporting war paint isn't bizarre enough, how about Mr. Stewart's "a-boy-named-Lynne" character allowing Dutch's gang to ride off with BOTH the hijacked gold shipment AND the Tascosa Wells Fargo Bank depositors' life savings just so that he could engage in brotherly (tough) love? I'd re-watch HIGH NOON or even STAGECOACH (John Wayne's Dagwood Bumstead buttons and all) rather than view WINCHESTER '73 again.

I didn't really grow up with Westerns, but an early fascination with Clint Eastwood had me discovering them in a big way. I have always compared the genre of Westerns to Chocolate Chip Cookies (bare with me now on this analogy.) It doesn't matter who makes them, as long as they have the right ingredients they are near perfect. It takes an awful lot to make a "bad" Western and I can't even think of one at the moment. It always helps when you find a particular Western star that you love (Lee Marvin, Eastwood, John Wayne...Jimmy Stewart.) Winchester '73 isn't just any chocolate chip cookie, its one of the greats. Personally I wouldn't put it in league with Sergio Leon's Dollars trilogy or some of Eastwood's better ones but only because it doesn't necessarily bring anything new to the table. What it does bring is every single aspect of a great Western to the table all around the legend of a perfect gun that is being passed from person to person while one man searches for it and his nemesis. The shoot outs are fantastic, dark and even gory in a few spots. The performances range from good to great and there is no shortage of action. The film opens in the legendary Dodge City and Wyatt Earp and his crew are there too. It just feels right as a Western! The legendary James Stewart is our hero and the a great Western cowboy. Lin McAdam is tough as nails, a perfect shot and the ultimate cowboy. Perhaps the only issue is that Stewart doesn't get enough scenes in the movie. Yes he is the star but he's probably only in 2/3 of the film and that isn't enough for my taste and McAdam could have gotten a lot more great scenes. Still he is amazing as he almost always is. This character is a terrific turn for him as a tough guy and he pulls it off well. As Stewart said in his own words about McAdam, the character is emotional and vulnerable. Shelley Winters is decent as wild west gal Lola Manners. She is spirited and fiery and fun to watch. Its not a great performance but its certainly a good one. Her chemistry with Stewart is okay but nothing amazing. She plays a much bigger part in the latter part of the film and does well at it. Stephen McNally is Stewart's sworn enemy that he is chasing through the dusty wild west. McNally is terrific as a villain and the chemistry between him and Stewart is perfect. Their adversarial relationship is legendary and you know its going to come to a huge battle in the end. Dan Duryea also deserves mention as McNally's right hand man and number one goon. He makes for a great villain as well and is particularly good opposite Winters in their scenes.I would love to see this on the big screen someday because it is just insanely fun. It has everything you would expect from a classic Western from its opening scenes at the shooting competition to the closing and epic finale shootout between the two enemies. The twist to the story isn't exactly a huge shock, I sort of saw it coming but it still made a terrible finale. Early Hollywood directors always seem to direct a hundred pictures before their death but you still have to give credit where its due and Anthony Mann crafts a terrific story. The only reason it isn't a perfect score is perhaps because it really doesn't try to be anything out of the box of a cookie-cutter Western. But there is also NOTHING wrong with that. Don't even take that as a criticism because if you're a Western fan or even looking to introduce classic Westerns to a new generation, this is one for the ages. A terrific non-stop wagon ride. 8.5/10

It is said that when this film first came out there was some criticism of the casting of James Stewart in the leading role. Stewart was widely regarded as the "Mr Nice Guy" hero of romantic comedies like "The Philadelphia Story" or feelgood films like "It's a Wonderful Life". He might be acceptable in comedy Westerns like "Destry Rides Again", but not in serious ones. Such criticism, of course, seems ridiculous today. "Winchester '73" was the first of five Westerns which Stewart was to make with director Anthony Mann between 1950 and 1955. Their partnership was to come to an acrimonious end when in 1957 Mann walked away from what should have been the sixth Mann/Stewart Western, "Night Passage", but by then Stewart was an established Western star, and he was to make several more films in the genre, including "Cheyenne Autumn", "Firecreek" and "The Shootist". The Winchester '73 was a make of rifle; the number refers to the year (1873) in which it was first produced. (Unlike, say, the Colt .45 which was not invented in 1845 but derived its name from the calibre of bullet fired). The movie opens in Dodge City on the Fourth of July 1876, the centennial of American independence, where a shooting competition is taking place, with such a rifle as the prize. The two main contenders are Lin McAdam and 'Dutch Henry' Brown, both crack shots. It is clear from what occurs between them that they already know, and loathe, one another, although the precise reason for their enmity is not made clear at this stage. Lin wins the contest, and the prize, but it is later stolen from him by Dutch Henry. There then follow a series of developments in which the rifle (essentially the main character in the film) changes hands several times, with all those through whose hands it passes, except its rightful owner Lin, coming to a bad end.There is insufficient space in this review to detail all these twists and turns of fate. Indeed, the number of twists struck me as one the film's weaknesses. The main plot line, involving Lin's pursuit of Dutch Henry, is well developed. (Lin is not just trying to recover the stolen rifle but has a much more serious reason for seeking revenge). The film's structure, however, necessitates several subplots, involving a war between Indians and settlers, the adventures of a dance-hall girl (the normal euphemism for "prostitute" in Westerns of this period) named Lola and her fiancé Steve, and an armed robbery, any of which could easily have formed the subject-matter for a whole film in its own right, and there is insufficient time to deal with them all fully. The one acting performance I did not like came from Dan Duryea, who I felt was weak as Waco Johnnie Dean, an outlaw associate of Dutch Henry. Will Geer also seems miscast as Wyatt Earp, who would still have been in his twenties in 1876. (Geer was 48). The rest of the cast, however, are good. If Duryea was insufficiently menacing the same could certainly not be said of Stephen McNally as the murderous Dutch Henry, and Stewart confounded his critics by showing that he could play Mr Tough Guy as well as Mr Nice Guy. That said, Lin still remains Mr Good Guy; he is less morally ambiguous than the characters Stewart was to play in some of his subsequent collaborations with Mann, such as "The Naked Spur". This was the only Mann/Stewart Western to be filmed in black and white; before turning to the Western Mann had been known as a director of films noirs, and the influence of that style can be seen in the dramatic photography here. The character of Lin, a man struggling for integrity and justice in a largely lawless world is another feature reminiscent of film noir; Earp may have established some sort of order in Dodge, but outside the city the only law is the law of the gun. Many earlier Westerns had been shot in a studio, but this one was largely filmed on location, although not in the area in which the action is supposed to take place. I doubt if I was the only viewer to wonder why the Kansas prairies look so much like the deserts of Arizona. Mann directs the film very well, creating plenty of tension. Three sequences particularly stand out in this respect. Two of these are absolutely crucial to the plot, namely the shooting contest at the very beginning of the film and the final shootout at the end. The third, about halfway through, is a battle between marauding Indians and a cavalry detachment who have been joined by Lin, his friend 'High-Spade', Lola and Steve. I would not rate "Winchester '73" quite as highly as some of the later Mann/Stewart Westerns such as "The Naked Spur" and "The Man from Laramie", but it remains a well-directed, well-acted and very watchable adventure. 7/10