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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.
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


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

