The Naked Spur-1953-Another superb Western from director Anthony Mann and James Stewart

James Stewart is a hard-bitten man determined to buy back his lost land with the bounty he’ll receive by capturing a killer (a quintessential Robert Ryan villain), who’s on the run with his girlfriend (Janet Leigh). When Stewart catches up with the pair, he finds that it’s actually his new bounty-hunting partners (Ralph Meeker and Millard Mitchell) who are the ones not to be trusted. As the gorgeous Rocky Mountains backdrop becomes more turbulent, director Mann ratchets up the tension between the characters, climaxing with some of the most exciting gunplay ever captured on film.



"The Naked Spur," in short, has hewed to the old-fashioned concept that motion pictures should move. It does so in a thoroughly adult, convincing and entertaining style.