A Rocky Road To Travel..
Added 8/6/2009
THE NAKED SPUR,1953,an entertaining "western adventure" filmed with bold scenery,rolling hills, and rocky river streams. The cinematography alone is worth the price of admission,plus the fine acting of James Stewart as a amateur bounty hunter searching for an old acquaintance wanted for murder. Along the way the bounty hunter meets up with a dishonorably discharged soldier(Ralph Meeker) and an old prospector(Millard Mitchell)both are wanting a piece of the action to share the profits. The outlaw(Robert Ryan) after being captured has different ideas,to escape the hanging rope waiting at the end of the line,and head to California with the beautiful blonde(Janet Leigh) he has forcefully taken under his wing. Will the three captors bring the outlaw to justice? The answer lies within the "the naked spur" . Another classic western from Anthony Mann and Jimmy Stewart,would also recommend,WINCHESTER'73,THE MAN FROM LARAMIE. THE NAKED SPUR was filmed in glorious colour,excellent transfer,full screen,Warner Brothers DVD.
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Excellent DVD
Added 5/28/2009
Excellent DVD with James Stewart - highly recommended.
Sheila Box
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Complex adult Western that ranks among the very best of the genre.
Added 5/25/2009
The third film in the collaborations of director Anthony Mann and star James Stewart may also be the best of the bunch.
This dark morality tale is about how conflicted loner Stewart is after killer Robert Ryan for a cash reward to restart his life. Along the way he is given unwanted assistance by two strangers(Ralph Meeker and Millard Mitchell) and Ryan's girl, beautiful Janet Leigh.
What ensues is a tale of betrayal and greed, lust and disaster and alot of soul searching for Stewart, who's world weary man must discover a method to the madness, a point to existence.
Stewart is superb in the lead role, conveying a sense of darkness and emotion that Mann was best to bring out. His tortured role is highly relateable and tragic. The conclusion of this film features one of Stewart's most heartbreaking and believable cinematic moments as his character transforms his belief that drove him for the previous ninety minutes in about ninety seconds.
Ryan serves as the anchor to the picture, a devil's advocate that turns the other men against each other bringing about there worst feelings of greed and disception. His character's usually cheerful attitude makes his violence and language that much more disturbing. It's a brilliant performance.
The rest of the cast are entirely believable with Mitchell as a likeable enough old Indian trader with a dream of hitting it big with a gold strike. Meeker is a former Army officer who proves a back stabbing, licentious creep. Leigh is typically warm and likeable, as well as being strong and independent. It's one of her best roles from thais early part of her career.
Mann's use of cinematography is most effective creating a true sense of clausterphobia even among the mighty peaks and valleys of the Rocky Mountains. It may be my fvaorite shot of the Mann westerns for the locatiosn themselves become there own character, imposing and foreboding.
The DVD features typical Warner Bros extras including two short subjects and a Theatrical Trailer. The extras are pleasant, but am I surprised that no one did commentary on this classic. A mini-documentary would have been welcome as well.
If your a Western film buff, consider this one a must own. It's one of the top twenty five of the genre's history and essential cinema.
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The naked spur
Added 1/12/2009
Excellent service from this seller. Fast shipment. No problems. Fun movie to watch . Excellent James Stewart movie!
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One Movie too Many
Added 10/5/2008
In all fairness to "The Naked Spur" I watched this movie because it was listed in the book "501 Must-See Movies". OK, that must make it a really good film. Well, I kept waiting for it to get to that level and it never did. I can see some reasons why the movie has its' admirers; it delves into greed with a fair amount of depth, Jimmie Stewart gives a pretty good preformance, the setting/cinematography is outstanding, there is a continuing level of suspense, etc. However, I thought the movie moved along in a rather erratic pace. There were aspects that I had trouble accepting (a rather peculiar fault of mine that I realize most people don't suffer from). One particular aspect was how one of the characters was wounded to near the point of death. As the movie progressed, it was necessary to overlook his injuries although he would occassionally remember to affect a minor limp. The morality tale ended with a proper impact; one that I had trouble accepting but no trouble respecting. Heck, if I wasn't expecting so much, I might have given it "4 Stars" but my primary reaction to this film was disappointment.
I won't come down too hard on "501 Must-See Movies". After all, it prompted me to watch the original "3:10 to Yuma" with which I was very impressed. However, if the authors of that book ever want any advice on how to come up with a nice round number for their title, I have a suggestion for them.
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good movie it was well worth the price we paid for it, movie was in good condition
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Anthony Mann and Jimmy Stewart deliver the goods
Added 5/10/2009
In 1950, film noir director Anthony Mann and acting legend Jimmy Stewart teamed up to form one of the most creative, legendary and lucrative collaborations of all time, rivaling the classic duo of Ford and Wayne. Winchester 73 was the first in five movies the two legends would make together. The last of the five was...
The Man From Laramie (1955)
Stewart plays an ex army captain seeking revenge for the death of his brother. His search leads him to Coronado, a town owned by iron fisted rancher Alec Waggoman played by the always enjoyable Donald Crisp.
Stewart ends up in the middle of Waggoman family politics while he deals with his own feelings of loss, anger and pain. Mann movies always seem to have hints of King Lear in them and this movie is no exception. There is Waggomans spoiled and psychotic son Dave played by Alex Nicol and the seemingly more level headed ranch foreman Vic played by Arthur Kennedy, both of whom are vying to be Crisps successor.
The movie also features an enjoyable performance by Aline MacMahon as the last rancher who's land Crisp hasn't gobbled up yet and who seeks Stewarts aid in dealing with an escalating ranch war. She is wonderfully sassy and her and Stewart play well off each other.
There is an amazing scene where an angry Nicol, stinging from a humiliating defeat by Stewart, shoots Stewart in the hand point blank. It is an intense, violent, almost violating act and Stewart plays it brilliantly. The act is so violent that even Nicols men seem shocked. They, rather gently, help Stewart put his gun belt back on, and help him on his horse.
A slumped and beaten Stewart slowly rides off.
It is probably one of the most memorable scenes in movie western history. The finale is pure Mann.
Seeing this restored technicolor gem in its original aspect was a real treat. I don't think that Stewart would have been as convincing as "Ransom Stoddard" in MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (1962) if it had not been for his tenure with Mann.
Stewarts work in the films of Anthony Mann informs his performance in "Liberty Valance". Sergio Leone commented that "Valance" was his favorite Ford film because he felt Ford seemed to have discovered "pessimism". Perhaps Ford was influenced by Mann as much as Mann was by Ford. At any rate, a truly great film.
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"This is the most unfriendly country I've ever been in."
Added 5/7/2009
The last of the collaborations between James Stewart and director Anthony Mann, The Man From Laramie is the most ambitious even if it isn't always completely successful. On one level it's a standard revenge Western, with Stewart looking for the gunrunners who caused his brother's death, but his hunt takes in rancher Donald Crisp's powerful but dysfunctional dynasty and its divisions as well, and its through them that the film moves into almost mythically tragic territory. With foreman and almost adopted son Arthur Kennedy devotedly but thanklessly running the ranch for him and constantly trying to protect the old man from the feckless stupidity and sadism of his natural son Alex Nicol it soon becomes clear that not all the bad guys are that bad. Indeed, everything Kennedy does wrong is done out of the best motives that are constantly thwarted, turning what could easily have been a stereotypical villain into a genuinely tragic figure as he realises the man he regards as a second father sees him only as a mere employee (interestingly, James Gray used this same character arc for Joaquin Phoenix's character in The Yards). Even Crisp's autocrat is tormented by recurring dreams of a stranger riding in to destroy his family as he slowly goes blind, believing Stewart to be a virtual horseman of the apocalypse.
Along with the tormented and frustrated characters it's also surprisingly violent for its day. While it wasn't unusual for Stewart's characters to carry their own stigmata in Mann's Westerns (in Bend of the River he even hides a scar on his neck from a botched lynching), here he really suffers as he's beaten up, dragged across salt flats and through a fire and then shot in the hand in one scene alone, all of which only serves to fuel his hatred more until the affable character we met at the film's beginning has become a distant memory. In many ways it reverses the usual journey Mann put Stewart through in their Westerns: rather than going from bitterness to reluctant hero, here he starts out `nice to everybody' (as the very out-of-keeping title song puts it) to end the film all but consumed by rage.
As usual, there's admirable economy in the writing - there's a lot of plot and several key characters but it manages bring them all over and incorporate an almost mystical sense of tragic destiny without seeming rushed or contrived, offering a satisfying Western with some substance. . It's also the closest Mann ever got to his long cherished Western version of King Lear that he was finally preparing when he died during the shooting of A Dandy in Aspic. The only one of the Mann-Stewart films together to be shot in Scope, Mann uses it superbly, and not just in the mountain location shots. Check out the beautiful establishing shot of the town on Sunday evening, the Mexicans and Indians heading for church on one side of the frame while on the other the white townsfolk drink and gamble. Thankfully that's preserved in Columbia's widescreen DVD, though the only extra is a clumsily cropped trailer introduced by Stewart on the film's set.
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