TCM will broadcast Winchester '73 at 8:00 p.m. tonight.

If you like the classic westerns, or if you haven't seen it, this one is a must-see.

Winchester '73 is the first of five groundbreaking westerns James Stewart did with director Anthony Mann in the fifties.

In the film, Stewart steps away from his usual laconic good guy image. He plays a man totally obsessed with hunting a man down and taking his revenge on him.

The film is pretty much a film noir western...the only thing keeping it from being true noir is the lack of dark shadows and dimly lighted scenes, and the absence of bad guys whose faces are half hidden. There are strong psychological themes running throughout the film, and they affect just about everyone in the plot.

An interesting thing to me about Mann's westerns is that he didn't make a habit of casting Hollywood pretty boys in major roles. James Stewart's friend/sidekick in the film is wonderfully underplayed by an actor named Willard Mitchell...who looks like the guy who might have come to your house to install a new commode or something...but in the film you get the idea he's just as mean and good with a gun as Stewart's character. If you saw him on the street, though, you wouldn't give him a second glance.

And a side note: There are some interesting little cameo roles in the film, one of which is an almost impossibly young Will Geer as Wyatt Earp and a young Rock Hudson as an Indian.

Anyway...Winchester '73...8:00 tonight. I'll be watching.

Beats watching "It`s a wonderful Life" again and again and......
Jim

All of his trick shots were done by one of the very best, Herb Parsons, from right down the road in Somerville, Tennessee.

Herb Parsons

Attached Images

herb parsons and jimmy stewart.jpg (48.1 KB, 65 views)

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LIVE FROM THE DAWGHOUSE

Thanks for the heads up! IMO, Stewart’s westerns rank right up their with John Wayne’s and Clint Eastwood’s.


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I think "Willard" Mitchell is actually "Millard Mitchell". He played a very strong role in a movie with Gregory Peck called "Gunfighter", and many other side-kick roles.

And you're right W D he looked as though he may have installed plumbing fixtures before he got into movies.
A "greasy" Dan Duryea does a convincing job as a low-down.

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wanna do right-- not right now

Millard Mitchell had lots of good roles.

As for a comparison of John Wayne, Clint Eastwood and James Stewart westerns, I think Stewart was probably a bit better than John Wayne overall as Stewart played a character; John Wayne usually played John Wayne. His role in "Shootist" may have been the exception. I'm not sure.

Clint Eastwood westerns, from an overall perspective, were a very distant third to those of Stewart and Wayne. Eastwood's non-westerns were much better.

Jimmy Stewart was great in anything he played in!
I loved ,,,,The Cheyenne Social Club But he has way to many movies that I liked!
But my all time favorite western is High Noon

You're right. My afternoon inattentiveness caught up with me.

Unfortunately, conflicts with "The Vikings" in my time zone/ satellite.

It is MUCH better than the re-make(s).

...one of my favorites...

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A Country Boy Can Survive

It was on here the other night but it was the remake without Stewart and I couldnt get into it. 1967. I hope tonight is the good one!!!1950.

A couple of other good films Millard Mitchell was in ... everyone's seen "Twelve O'clock High". Mitchell plays a high-ranking American officer, maybe Gregory Peck's boss.

"Thieves' Highway"; a much lesser seen movie, but a fine film worth watching. One of Richard Conte's best films and Mitchell has a good role in it. Don't remember for sure, but late '40s I think, same era as "Twelve O'clock High".

Millard Mitchell was also with Stewart in Naked Spur,
another fine Anthony Mann Western.

A side note on "The Gunfighter" with Mitchell and
Gregory Peck: They decided to grow mustaches for
the film despite the studio boss telling them not to.
Then the boss went on vacation and the movie was
made with mustaches.

Agreed on Winchester 73 as being one of the best.

Millard Mitchell was a wonderful character actor. As mentioned above he played in Twelve O'Clock High, one of the greatest war films ever made. He played in the role of USAAF "General Pritchard", a role that was very similar to the real-life General Ira Eaker of the 8th Air Force, a staunch advocate for daylight precision bombing.

Mitchell is seen below in the trench coat at right.

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SWCA 729 HF 215

It is one of the best, isn't it? It's also one of the most underappreciated ever made. It hardly ever shows up on TCM or even AMC. It's a film not to miss, though.

Stewart, Wayne, & Eastwood were all good, but one more worth mentioning, and my personal favorite, Gary Cooper. You want to see
a good western and get a few laughs along the way, pick up The Westerner. Walter Brennan won the Academy Award for his role as
Judge Roy Bean. It's a hoot. Cooper also won an Academy Award for
his performance in High Noon. He was a real authentic cowboy from
Montana.

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In Omnia Paratus

I love the first exchange between Brennan and Cooper in The Westerner.
Brennan, "Where d'ya hail from?"
Cooper, "No place special."
Brennan, "Where ya headed fer?"
Cooper, "No place in particular."

IIRC (?) The Winchester 73 "One Of A Thousands" was no different from other 1873s. This was a "Sales Gimmick" by Winchester Company for advertisement purposes

Thanks for the tip!

Bend of the River is up next and it's another good one.

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God spelled backwards is dog.

I always got a kick out of Stewart's and McNally's shooting style with the rifle, when they snatch it up to their cheek.

Young Shelly Winters "fleshened-up" a tad by the time she got to "The Poseidon Adventure" .....So have we all.
She said two things about being "hefty". Said she wasn't fat, she was just 9 inches too short,... and, "where do you go to find this anorexia I hear about" ?

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wanna do right-- not right now

A couple other interesting facts about W-73 - it was the first movie where an actor (Stewart) took NO base pay but instead a % of the box office gross - and it paid off. Also it was Herb Parsons (The Showman Shooter) who was standing next to Stewart and shot the stamps out of the washers that were thrown in the air.

Not as good as "The Legend of Evil Roy Slade", but it will do.

Yep! - And I traveled through the area it was filmed in just today.

Vikings was a bust, so I turned back to "Winchester '73". then watched Bend of the River === Recognized Cielo Falls, Rooster Rock and Crown Point as well as the Sandy River and, possibly, The Dalles.

Them posters, a few threads up. That bottom one musta been for a re-release. Maybe even a re-re-release.

Starring Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis? Both were bit parts, Hudson's didn't even have lines. And Curtis is listed as "Anthony", not "Tony". That poster has to be fro, several years later, after they both became famous.

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I always take precautions

Good movie. Thanks for the heads up.

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Mike
S&WCA #3065

You are correct about one of the posters (shown below). It's actually advertising the Italian release of the film, which was no doubt dubbed into Italian as well. Note the printed language at the botton of the poster. Distribuzione is Italian for "Distribution", for example. Note also that on the poster, the printer left the "d" off Millard Mitchell's name.

Rock Hudson did have lines in the film, though. Next time you watch it, he speaks in the scene with the Indian trader played by John McIntire.

You're much older than you look from your avatar!

Winchester '73 is one of my favorites. In addition to being on TCM tonight, it's available On Demand, at least on Comcast.

Millard Mitchell was a very talented actor. He also had a role in "Singing in the Rain." He died much too young.

"Twelve O'Clock High" shows up on TCM a few times a year, and I also have the DVD. I read that it was used for some years to train officer candidates in the principles of command.

Also on TCM soon will be "Bend of the River", "The FBI Story" and several other James Stewart movies. Again some of them are available On Demand, if you have that in your cable package.

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Can open, worms everywhere.

No "hoping" about it. It IS the good one.

One of my faves-Peck was great as the B.gen. Ive got one great Peck Publicity shot:
This one to be exact:

Another little cameo role that sometimes gets glossed over...James Best plays a cavalryman who gets shot to death during the Indian attack. He's shown in the photo below next to Tony Curtis (who was billed as Anthony Curtis in the credits).

And we all know James Best as one of the best character actors in a long time...and as Sheriff Coltrane in The Dukes of Hazzard.

He was a very talented guy who also wrote and directed films and television shows.

Just a side note here: What I wouldn't give for one of those Springfields!

Distant Drums is another unappreciated Cooper effort. ive got one great still from that movie: Cant find my image but this one'll have to do:


Neat early Coop image-unrelated: