WINCHESTER '73 (1950) **1/2 I think that a lot of the idea was to make little kids want to own Winchester rifles, and my recollection is that worked pretty good. It was still back in the days, though, where if there was a decent Indian role they dressed up a notable white actor or actress in it. Color might have dramatized Rock Hudson in an Indian suit even further, but he's pretty damn funny anyway. Funny, yeah, but you also can't deny the charisma--I mean, he looks about as much like an African king or an Asian magus as an Indian chief sitting high astride that horse, but there's no denying he looks like somebody. The film funnels along nicely, pursuing the alleged rifle in a willfully disingenuous and somewhat hokey manner, piloted by Jimmy Stewart leaning towards his tough side. Can he possibly be as tough as Dan Duryea? I don't know, but Duryea's early scenes with his gang border on slapstick at an admirable level, so a sense of frustration sets in when Anthony Mann remembers to remind you that they're all bad, and deal with them summarily. It's less clear what Shelley Winters' deepest feelings on the subject are--she's certainly in no hurry to put distance between them, or maybe she just likes the piano, and there used to be a concrete rule about the hero getting the girl in the end. Will Geer turns in my favourite depiction ever of Wyatt Earp--now that guy has to have a tough side, there's no other way to be so silly and survive.
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