{"id":3015,"date":"2017-05-18T19:29:51","date_gmt":"2017-05-18T18:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/?p=3015"},"modified":"2023-06-17T09:46:28","modified_gmt":"2023-06-17T08:46:28","slug":"james-stewart-anthony-mann-westerns-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/james-stewart-anthony-mann-westerns-2\/","title":{"rendered":"James Stewart & Anthony Mann \u2013 The Westerns PII"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the 1950s James Stewart appeared in a series of films directed by Anthony Mann and\u00a0five of them were westerns. This is part 2 of a\u00a0look at this collaboration. You can find Part 1 here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"The<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The Naked Spur (1953)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When you hear the theme music to films such as Shane, The Big Country and The Magnificent 7, even if you weren\u2019t familiar with the notion that these are Westerns you know the moment you hear the music that it couldn\u2019t be anything but the soundtrack for a cowboy film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bronislau Kaper\u2019s theme to The Naked Spur is definitely not in that tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, if anything, it conjures up the suggestion that you\u2019re about to watch a gangster movie instead. This is a very dark film, even though most of the action takes place in broad daylight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The credit sequence suggests we\u2019re going to be in the same kind of territory and landscape as Bend in the River, with high snow-capped mountains in the background and stark wilderness to the fore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stewart plays Howard Kemp, who appears at the beginning of the film to be on the trail of a killer who is doing his best to evade him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time we get to the third of the Stewart \/ Mann Western collaborations it\u2019s obvious Mann has adopted John Ford\u2019s stock company approach to filmmaking. Millard Mitchell, Stewart\u2019s sidekick in Winchester \u201873 here plays a grizzled old-timer called Jesse Tate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other actors who appear across the run of Stewart \/ Mann Westerns include Royal Dano, Harry Morgan, Rock Hudson, Jay C. Flippen, Arthur Kennedy, John McIntire, Jack Elam, Steve Brodie and Chubby Johnson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watching the same character actors appearing more than once in a series of films engenders a feeling of familiarity which means the audience find their way into the story almost from the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s almost as if there\u2019s a sense of continuity running through all of the films in question, in this case also exacerbated by Stewart wearing the same hat and riding the same horse, Pie, in all five of the Westerns he did with Mann.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In quick succession, Kemp is joined in his pursuit by Tate and a dishonourably discharged cavalry soldier, Roy Anderson, played by Ralph Meeker. Working as a team the three of them apprehend the outlaw Ben Vandergroat, here played by Robert Ryan in laughing psycho-killer mode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Out of the undergrowth bursts a young Janet Leigh, seven years before Norman carved her up in the shower, playing a character by the name of Lina Patch, whose father has been shot in a failed bank robbery with Ben.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It soon becomes apparent that Kemp isn\u2019t a lawman, as he has led Tate and Anderson to think at the beginning. He is in fact a bounty hunter, out to capture Ben dead or alive for a reward of $5000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben has shot a marshal in the back and Kemp intends taking him back to be hanged and use the reward money to buy back his ranch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the film progresses we see Stewart ratchet up the hysteria level to 11, the actor playing the closest he ever got in a major starring role as a villain – he lies about the reward for Ben, he\u2019s a bounty hunter and, to top it all, he tells the outlaw, it\u2019s \u2018a bullet here on the trail or a rope in Abilene\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Stewart is just not a very nice man in this one. Even old-timer Tate tells him he thinks he\u2019s crazy, and at times Kemp gives him no reason to think otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with Bend in the River, not everyone appears to be who you might think they are. Apart from Kemp, Anderson is also lying about his past. He is being hunted down by a band of Blackfoot warriors who are looking to send him off with a one-way ticket to the happy hunting grounds for sexually abusing one of their women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The upshot is that the group ends up having to literally massacre the Blackfeet, Kemp taking a bullet in the leg during the skirmish. A feverish Kemp wakes screaming from a nightmare, hallucinating that Lina is his wife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently, he had signed over the deeds to his ranch before going off to war and his wife sold it before running away with another man, and the reward money for capturing Ben is to be used to repurchase it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben starts to drive a wedge between whatever tenuous loyalty there is between Kemp, Tate and Anderson, pointing out to the latter two that that Kemp won\u2019t be able to buy back his ranch if he has to split the reward three ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scene is now set for a showdown between all of the participants, which takes place next to a raging river. Anderson forces Kemp to realise that he sees Ben as just a sack of money rather than a man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stewart \/ Kemploses the plot \u2013 again \u2013 and goes for Meeker \/ Anderson, Ryan \/ Ben looking on in amusement as the two men fight each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben then lures Tate away from the fold with tales of buried gold which he\u2019ll give to Tate if he helps him. The old man buys it and pays for his stupidity when Ben shoots him in cold blood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The naked spur of the title comes into it\u2019s own when Kemp uses it to cut handholds in a rock to try and climb and creep up on Ben from behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He throws the spur into Ben\u2019s neck, giving Anderson the opportunity to shoot him. Ben\u2019s body ends up trapped under a ledge in the river. Anderson gets a rope around the body but is then himself killed by a large tree caught in the current.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A by now even more hysterical Kemp retrieves Ben\u2019s body from the river and throws it over his saddle to take back for the reward. It\u2019s the love of a good woman that finally defeats Kemp\u2019s mental instability, Lina promising she\u2019ll marry him but only if he stops dealing in dead bodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kemp breaks down in tears, then gives Ben a decent burial instead of selling the body for money before he and Lina ride off to California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The screenplay, by Sam Rolfe and Harold Bloom, was deemed to be so good that it was nominated for an Academy Award, a very rare honour for a Western.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One troubling thing at the end, though. I hope Kemp and Lina checked on old-timer Tate before they set off into the sunset. He was definitely still breathing the last time I saw him.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"The<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The Far Country (1954)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Probably the cheeriest of the Stewart \/ Mann Westerns and certainly the most spectacular in terms of location, shot in the mountain regions of Alberta, Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The screenplay is by Borden Chase, making his third contribution in this series of cowboy films. Stewart plays Jeff Dexter who, along with his faithful side-kick, Ben Tatum, played by everyone\u2019s favourite go-to old-timer, Walter Brennan, plans on selling a herd of cattle across the Canadian border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a standoff between Dexter and the men who helped him get his herd to the steamboat as it becomes apparent he shot two of their friends when they tried to relieve him of his cattle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, almost from the start, Stewart appears to still be in Naked Spur mode, pushing the two remaining cattle drivers to go for their guns, which they wisely decide is not such a good idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s an interesting challenge to the Hayes Code edict that one or other of a male\/female couple should have at least one foot on the floor if they\u2019re seen sharing a bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the steamboat operators try to arrest Dexter for murder he is invited into the boudoir of Ronda Castle, played by Ruth Roman.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"\/<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Before he can say help me, Ronda, she tells him to climb into her bed then gets in herself in order to hide him from his pursuers. One wonders how this scene might have ended up if the film were made 20 years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arriving in the town of Skagway, Dexter and Ben run into a corrupt judge, Gannon, played by John McIntire, who impounds their cattle for himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is very similar in theme to Bend in the River, in which Stewart wanders into almost the same situation when he tries to retrieve his property from a town gone bad with corruption and gold fever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The difference here is that Stewart\u2019s character seems to take all of this in his stride without too much objection. It would suggest a slight dilution of the persona we\u2019ve been used to seeing in the previous films, almost as if Stewart \/ Dexter expects to be cheated and double-crossed and threatened no matter where he ends up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It soon becomes clear however that Dexter is nearly always one step ahead of the opposition, proving this by liberating his cattle at night and then taking the herd across the Canadian border where Gannon has no jurisdiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The female situation is somewhat complicated by the appearance of French actress Corinne Calvert as Renee Vallon, a young woman who vies with Ronda for Dexter\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s supposed to be a running gag but something always seems to happen to deny her the opportunity to sing. I think I\u2019m right in saying that this is the only Stewart \/ Mann Western that features a saloon musical number, but Calvert doesn\u2019t feature in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe the director was trying to steer clear of a cowboy film clich\u00e9, undermining it by keeping Calvert from doing a typical Western musical number herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The indifference of nature to those who inhabit the wild landscape, a theme that features in all of the Stewart \/ Mann Westerns, is highlighted once more in the avalanche sequence that nearly wipes out Ronda and the men helping her move to a new town across the border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dexter has wisely decided not to follow the same trail and can only watch helplessly as the snow and rocks rain down on the people caught in the avalanche.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This scene also displays Dexter\u2019s callous nature to his fellow man, as he initially refuses to help those who didn\u2019t take notice of his warning regarding the instability of the landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact the only person Dexter appears to have a liking for is Brennan\u2019s character, which means inevitably that Ben will die before the final reel, which of course he dutifully does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite declaiming that \u2018I don\u2019t need other people. I can take care of me\u2019, Dexter eventually finds his humanity, just as Stewart\u2019s character does at the end of The Naked Spur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goaded \u2013 finally \u2013 into action after the death of Ben and having been dry-gulched and plugged full of holes by a bunch of ruthless land-grabbers led by Gannon, Dexter takes out the judge in a climactic shoot-out, although not before Gannon kills Ronda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just as in Bend of the River, our hero finds acceptance and peace of mind by embracing community and domesticity – as well as embracing Corinne Calvert at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Far Country is a worthy entry in this series of films but there\u2019s definitely a bit of soft-peddling of Stewart\u2019s onscreen persona that on occasion makes this one of the more lightweight efforts so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, onwards and upwards as they say.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"The<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The Man from Laramie (1955)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Anthony Mann definitely saved the best for last in his Western film collaborations with James Stewart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Man from Laramie is truly a classic cowboy movie that rubs shoulders with such great Westerns as Shane, The Searchers and The Wild Bunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019ve never seen this film but you intend to \u2013 and you should \u2013 then I envy you more than words can say because you are in for a genuine treat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not sure if it\u2019s in the 1001 Movies You Should See Before You Die list, but if not, then shame on the authors, who should be taken to a place of execution and strung up by the neck like the varmints they surely are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor’s note – The Man From Laramie isn’t in the list of 1001 films although The Naked Spur is – go figure.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right. Gushing praise now over \u2013 for the moment. Let\u2019s talk about the actual film itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The theme tune, which was a big hit in America for Al Martino, and over here in the UK for Jimmy Young, tells of a \u2018man with a peaceful turn of mind, he was kind of sociable and friendly\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talk about disparity between character in film and the song. I certainly don\u2019t feel the man from Laramie, as portrayed by Stewart, is anywhere near having a peaceful turn of mind, and when he\u2019s riled \u2013 and he gets riled a lot in this one \u2013 he\u2019s not what I would call the epitome of sociable and friendly either, not by a long shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The song itself is okay but not as good as the theme for either The Searchers or High Noon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scriptwriting honours go to Frank Burt and Philip Yordan, Anthony Mann working with another Yordan script later on for El Cid. What makes this film stand out from the other Stewart \/ Mann Westerns is that it was shot in Cinemascope, which really accentuates the vast wilderness in which the action takes place, this time the flat desert country of New Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also serves to introduce an element of tension when Stewart\u2019s character is being followed by a mystery rider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As film scholar Sam Roggen points out in an essay on the use of Cinemascope, Mann shows the audience what Stewart sees: an unknown figure in the distance whose identity – it turns out to be town drunk Jack Elam \u2013 is only revealed once Stewart gets the drop on him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stewart plays Will Lockhart, who is ostensibly delivering goods and materials to the town of Coronado, but who is actually on an undercover mission to find out who has been selling weapons to the local Apache tribe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has a personal interest in all of this as his younger brother, a cavalry officer, has been massacred along with his troop by the self-same Apache renegades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It all really starts to go wrong for Lockhart when he loads up a cargo of salt to take back with his wagons and encounters the resident psycho, Dave Waggoman, played with evil relish by Alex Nicol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dave goes all Norman Bates on Lockhart and his companions by burning the wagons and shooting all of their mules. Lockhart is roped and literally subjected to an ordeal by fire when he is dragged through the flames.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luckily Dave\u2019s carer, Vic, another villainous turn from Arthur Kennedy, turns up and orders Dave, the son of Vic\u2019s boss, to lay off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later on, back in town, Lockhart spies Dave herding cattle into a corral. Stewart marches defiantly towards his nemesis, the camera tracking back with him as he yanks Dave from his horse and proceeds to beat the living daylights out of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lockhart is so wired that when Vic pulls him away from Dave, Lockhart is still so full of anger \u2013 you really do want him to rip Dave\u2019s guts out (I did anyway) \u2013 that he lays into Vic as well, the rage etched on his face. It\u2019s the second-best sequence in the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best sequence comes later on when Mad Dave accuses Lockhart of stealing cattle, whereas he\u2019s only separating his own stock from some strays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A gunfight ensues and Lockhart hits Dave in the hand with a lucky shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dave exacts revenge by ordering two of his men to hold Lockhart by the arms before shooting him point-blank in the hand. It\u2019s an act of such outrageous brutality that you\u2019re left open-jawed for a moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s at this juncture that Mann once more utilises the scope format to particular effect, the shot in which Stewart walks away, holding his wounded hand flanked by two of Dave\u2019s men on either side of the frame, is surely one of the loneliest scenes ever put on film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It should be obvious by now that the brutality is more pronounced than in the other Stewart \/ Mann efforts. Vic goes on to kill Dave, who was responsible for helping Vic sell the guns to the Apaches and also attempts to kill the father, Alec, played by Donald Crisp, by pushing him off a mountain slope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A number of film writers have suggested that the Alec \/ Dave \/ Vic trio has echoes of Shakespeare\u2019s King Lear which may or may not ring true but there are definitely elements of tragedy, whether Greek or Shakespearean, underscoring the storyline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the film, Lockhart can\u2019t kill Vic any more than Stewart\u2019s character could sell Robert Ryan\u2019s body for the bounty in The Naked Spur or leave the townsfolk to fend for themselves against Judge Gannon in The Far Country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vic eventually gets his from the Apache\u2019s who shoot him and then put an amen to it with an arrow in his back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The weakest aspect of the film, to me anyway, is the nominal love interest played by Cathy O\u2019Donnell. She is nowhere near as effective as Janet Leigh or Shelley Winters but I have to say Alex Nicol as Dave is definitely the best villain of all of the Stewart \/ Mann Westerns, and quite possibly one of the best cowboy psychos ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Stewart and Anthony Mann worked on one more film together, Strategic Air Command<\/a>, before their partnership came somewhat acrimoniously to an end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently, they were due to make another Western together, Night Passage, but it seems there was a difference of opinion \u2013 something to do with Stewart insisting his character play the accordion, which he duly did in the finished product, but this time without Mann at the helm (directing honours went to James Neilson).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe Stewart wanted to call time on the psychologically complicated angst-ridden cowboy he\u2019d played for Mann up to that point and get back to the more likeable homely sweet mannered persona Stewart had been known for before he went off to war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a shame they didn\u2019t work with each other again but then we still have five classic Westerns that gave the Ford \/ Wayne and Budd Boetticher \/ Randolph Scott series of Western a good run for their money, so all of us cowboy film fans win in the end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the 1950s James Stewart appeared in a series of films directed by Anthony Mann and\u00a0five of them were westerns. This is part 2 of a\u00a0look at this collaboration. You can find Part 1 here. The Naked Spur (1953) When … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[51,53,49,106],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3015"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3015"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6977,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3015\/revisions\/6977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}