Rating of
3/4
"Winchester '73" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 05/10/12
James Stewart and Anthony Mann made a few quality westerns together, and this is probably the best of them. This film has everything a western could want and more; Stewart is in full bad-ass mode as he hunts down the man who killed his father. It starts off with a sharp-shooting tournament overseen by an unusually machismo free and jovial Wyatt Earp (nicely played by Will Geer) and goes onto an encounter with a cardsharp, an Indian war party, a sassy music hall girl, a Stagecoach-style cavalry siege, a gunslinger heading a ruthless gang AND a bank robbery; all cleverly linked by the ownership of the eponymous rifle. The plot is by it's very nature rather episodic, but the performances are all first rate (including cameos by Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis in early roles) and the high contrast black & white photography very effective. A minor classic of the genre.
