Cinema
Winchester '73
Anthony Mann · 1950
Synopsis
Dodge City, 4 July 1876. Lin McAdam arrives with his friend High-Spade, on the trail of Dutch Henry Brown over an old personal matter. The two men face each other in the Centennial shooting contest, presided over by Marshal Wyatt Earp, the prize of which is a “one of a thousand” Winchester 1873. Lin wins; Dutch and his accomplices surprise him in his room and flee with the carbine. The weapon then passes from hand to hand, lost at poker, taken by an Indian chief, snatched by a bandit, while Lin pursues Dutch towards Texas.
Context
James Stewart accepted, through an agreement negotiated by Lew Wasserman, a percentage of the receipts instead of a fee, the first arrangement of its kind in sound cinema; he earned between five hundred thousand and six hundred thousand dollars from it, and the practice later spread in Hollywood. It was the first of the five westerns he made with Mann, and in them he found hard roles that broke with the light-hearted young lead of his early career. He was returning from the war, which he had served as a bomber pilot.
Who it is for
A black-and-white western of one hour thirty-two minutes, built around a rifle and its successive owners.
Prizes and reception
Released in France in April 1951 and re-released in cinemas in 2019, it opened the series of five Mann and Stewart westerns.
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