Winchester ‘73 (1950)

Dodge City is holding a shooting competition and the winner gets a Winchester rifle. But not just any Winchester. One in a thousand Winchesters comes out so perfect that it would be a shame to sell it. Instead they give it away. Makes perfect sense.

Lin McAdams (James Stewart) enters the competition because he knows it will attract Dutch Henry Brown, a man he needs to kill. He can’t kill him in town, so … there’s a plan someplace. Anyhow Lin wins the rifle, Dutch steals it, and off they go again.

Lin wants the MacGuffin but really needs to kill Dutch. But along the way is a hot dance hall girl (Shelley Winters) engaged to a coward with a heart of gold, Dutch’s criminal gang, and those terrible injuns! I felt the Indians were actually depicted somewhat respectfully, by 1950 standards anyhow. They were murderous warriors and the leader was played by Rock Hudson, but still. It could have been a lot worse.

Wyatt Earp was played by Grandpa Walton. A young Tony Curtis played a cavalryman. Shelley Winters didn’t think much of her role as all the men were desperate to get their hands on some gun instead of her bod. This is not entirely true, but as she is almost the only female ever on screen, she isn’t entirely wrong either.

A strength of the movie is it’s background characters. Dan Duryea is a compelling secondary villain, maybe a bit too charismatic to be the principle. He is despicable but almost likable. The cavalry sergeant, the indian trader, Marshal Earp, and many others are fully fleshed out minor characters that fit perfectly in the story’s world. Also, the details of Lin/Dutch grudge are slowly revealed changing the context of earlier conversations. Early on they both aim their rifles in the same quirky way implying a shared history.

Stewart credits Winchester ‘73 with reviving his career. He built his career in romantic comedies but that role fit him less and less. Westerns did not seem a natural fit for his erudite city-boy persona but it worked and he was reinvented. His best work was to follow.

Winchester ‘73 is essentially a revenge/man hunt film with all the Western trimmings. There is a certain awkward directness to the dialog but that’s not to say it’s poorly written. While parts are cringeworthy cliched, most is quite good. It is quite odd how everyone immediately recognizes the gun as something rare and priceless. Way sexier than Shelley. AMRU 4.

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

While in the county lockup a dubious preacher (Robert Mitchum) with a troubled past learns that a man slated to be executed (Peter Graves) hid ten thousand stolen dollars. Once freed, he decides to pay the grieving widow a visit. The son is wise.

The Shelley Winters I remember was a fat, obnoxious, busybody who gossipped endlessly on talk shows about better actors she had worked with. I remember her badmouthing Marilyn Monroe and found that distasteful. Maybe I was too harsh. I later learned what a train-wreck Monroe really was. And Winters’ personal story was one of a hard working actress being type-casted out of more challenging and coveted roles. Until roles like the one here came along. I will, as I have done before, put aside what I know. While her character wasn’t terribly deep or complicated, her performance was. And nothing like what I expected her to be.

Mitchum’s Harry Powell was seldom unhinged but frequently on the cusp. He is single minded, almost Terminator like, in finding the money and capturing the kids. I haven’t seen too much of his work but he’s usually the protagonist. He lobbied hard for this role that director Charles Laughton wanted for himself. That would have been a disaster!

Silent film giant Lillian Gish was delightful as a stern but kindly woman who took in troubled street children. She sets the tone with an opening monologue despite not showing up in the story until the third act. I haven’t seen her silent work yet but she was in the snoozer Follow Me, Boys. Billy Chapin was absolutely fantastic as the suspicious boy and parlayed this success into a life of substance abuse. He wouldn’t appear on screen after the 1950’s.

The Night of the Hunter is a beautifully shot, wonderfully acted, perfectly paced film. Shot like a silent film, it defies categorization. Is it Horror? Maybe. Film-Noir? I suppose. Genius? Absolutely. But apparently it was a critical and commercial failure and Laughton would never direct again. This is a real shame because Hollywood seemed to have lost its way during the 1950s. So many of the big films were shallow, two dimensional vanity projects. Much like today. Hunter, however, was inspired, innovative, and refreshing. And it kept you on the edge of your seat. AMRU 4.5.

“Don’t he ever sleep?”