OVP: The Naked Spur (1953)

Film: The Naked Spur (1953)

Stars: James Stewart, Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan, Ralph Meeker, Millard Mitchell

Director: Anthony Mann

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Original Screenplay)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 5/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2023 Saturdays with the Stars series, we are looking at the Golden Age western, and the stars who made it one of the most enduring legacies of Classical Hollywood.  This month, our focus is on Jimmy Stewart: click here to learn more about Mr. Stewart (and why I picked him), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

His work with Anthony Mann opened up a new chapter in Jimmy Stewart's career, and one that led to far more interesting films being made by the actor in the 1950's than he had made in the 1940's.  This included Anatomy of a Murder in 1959, which dealt with the subject of rape (groundbreaking for its time), and won Stewart his fifth & final Oscar nomination.  But more importantly in film history, this is the decade when he worked repeatedly with Alfred Hitchcock.  Stewart's relationship with Hitchcock actually preceded the 1950's, when he appeared in 1948's Rope for the director, but critics at the time were divided on the film, and on Stewart in the lead role (I tend to agree with them that he is poorly chosen, and perhaps a star with more natural sexuality onscreen like John Garfield would've been a more suitable choice).  However, his work in the 1950's is harder to dismiss.  Between 1954 and 1958, he made Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo, an enviable list from the standpoint of 2022 even if it wasn't quite as glowing in 1959.  It's hard to believe now, but Vertigo, which is considered by many to be the greatest film ever made (and features Stewart in what is likely his best acting performance), was disliked by critics at the time.  While there were hiccups critically & commercially for Stewart in the decade, it's hard not to look at what he did in the 1950's and think of it as the best qualitative chapter of his career, and that includes our movie today, the chilling The Naked Spur.

(Spoilers Ahead) In the wake of the Civil War, Howard Kemp (Stewart) chances upon Jesse Tate (Mitchell), a grizzled prospector, and he makes a deal with him.  If he can help him find the man he's looking for, Ben Vandergroat (Ryan), he will give him $20.  As they move, they come across first Roy Anderson (Meeker, brilliantly sexy in this role & threatening to steal the entire movie in all of his scenes), a morally questionable former cavalryman, and then they come across both Vandergroat & his female companion Lina Patch (Leigh).  It is revealed at this point that Howard tricked Jesse, as Ben is worth far more than $20...there's a $5000 reward for his capture, and so, after some debate, Jesse, Howard, & Roy decide to split the money by bringing Ben into town, getting their reward and letting him hang in the process.  Along the way, though, they face the difficulty of Ben pitting them against one another, and Lina, who believes in Ben's innocence, trying to convince them to stop the endeavor entirely.

The Naked Spur feels like a setup for a western, and indeed what I just profiled is only about 30 minutes into a 90-minute movie.  But it's worth noting that the film doesn't take the easy way out here.  While there are technically other actors who show up after this in very small, extra work, but instead remains these five performers, as we never actually get to town & see them collecting the reward.  Instead what we get is a chamber play of sorts, filled with psychological drama, betrayal, and trauma, as we learn that Howard was once betrayed by the woman he loved & lost his ranch, which is what he's trying to get back with this arrest.  It works really well playing this as a bottle episode of a western, us never leaving the shifting dynamics of these five as they learn more about each other and shift alliances, frequently to their doom.  Westerns almost never got nominated for writing Oscars in the 1940's & 50's...it's a testament to how perfectly this is structured that this one did.

I had planned on introducing Stewart this week with Hitchcock because you can't discuss Stewart without discussing Hitchcock, but I was surprised by how clear the parallels are between his Howard Kemp and Scottie Ferguson, his character in Vertigo.  Both are obsessed with women who betray them, both are given the opportunity to be with a more conventional woman who genuinely loves him, and both want something that they know is impossible.  Plus our love interest is Janet Leigh, star of Hitchcock's most famous film Psycho!  Unlike Scottie, Howard ends up with the woman who loves him in this movie, and it works, but it's a question mark if that will be how this ends, and that tension is brought on by the way that Stewart plays Howard, loose, angry, & miserable...it's hard to see much of George Bailey behind an actor who was clearly stretching his public persona, and doing it beautifully.