NAKED SPUR (DVD/P&S-1.33/ENG-FR-SP SUB) DVD

The Naked Spur
The powerhouse combination of star James Stewart and director Anthony Mann score another cinematic bullseye in The Naked Spur. Stewart plays a taciturn frontiersman who loses his home while he's off fighting the Civil War. To raise enough money for a new grubstake, Stewart becomes a bounty hunter in Colorado territory. His first quarry is fugitive, killer Robert Ryan. Stewart's efforts to bring in Ryan and collect the reward are compromised by the presence of Ryan's loyal girl friend Janet Leigh and Stewart's two disreputable sidekicks, wily prospector Millard Mitchell and disgraced Union-officer Ralph Meeker. There's plenty of "cat and mouse" byplay between Stewart and Ryan before the brutal climax; the drama is intensified by the fact that both men are on the outer rim of total insanity. The Oscar-nominated screenplay for The Naked Spur was cowritten by Sam Rolfe, who was later one of the creative forces responsible for the similarly no-nonsense TV western series Have Gun, Will Travel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cast James Stewart as Howard Kemp Janet Leigh as Lena Patch Robert Ryan as Ben Vandergroat Ralph Meeker as Roy Anderson Millard Mitchell as Jesse Tate

Crew Cedric Gibbons - Art Director Malcolm Brown - Art Director Anthony Mann - Director George White - Editor Bronislau Kaper - Composer (Music Score) William C. Mellor - Cinematographer William H. Wright - Producer Sam Rolfe - Screenwriter Harold Jack Bloom - Screenwriter

The Naked Spur
One of the most intense psychological Westerns of the 1950s is as much an edgily melodramatic character study as a Western. Anchored by James Stewart's anguished performance, in his third Mann Western, the five characters struggle between instinct and morality, a conflict heightened by their isolation in a Colorado landscape free of the trappings of civilization. Robert Ryan's smoothly manipulative villain may be the bounty target, but Millard Mitchell's prospector and Ralph Meeker's soldier aren't solid citizens either; Janet Leigh's Lina is the only voice of propriety. Stewart's Howard, emasculated by a treacherous wife, teeters on the brink of hysteria and excessive violence, even after he manages to reclaim the strength to kill his quarry. In a dramatic departure from the traditionally taciturn, resilient Western hero, Howard can only collapse sobbing into Lina's arms as he acquiesces to her moral imperative at the conclusion. Shot on location in the Rockies with Mann's customary pictorial beauty and violence, The Naked Spur was a vital sign of the Western's postwar turn toward revisionism and neurosis, and one of the best of Mann's five westerns with Stewart. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
 

Harold Jack Bloom: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Story and Screenplay (nominated) Sam Rolfe: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Story and Screenplay (nominated)

Library of Congress, U.S. National Film Registry (winner)

General Specifications: Language Options: English, French Subtitle Options: English, French, Spanish Sound Processing: DD1: Dolby Digital Mono Additional Features: cc Vintage Pete Smith Specially short Things We Can Do Without Classic cartoon Little Johnny Jet Theatrical trailer Languages: English & Français Subtitles: English, Français & Español (feature film only) DVD Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1: Pre-1954 Standard MPAA Rating: NR DVD Discs Included: 1 DVD Sides: 1 DVD DVD Region Code: 1 Content Length: 91 min   DVD Chapters: Disc #1 -- The Naked Spur 1. Credits [1:22] 2. Fresh Trail Partners [4:26] 3. Rocky Encounter [2:33] 4. Lt. Roy Anderson [2:21] 5. Treacherous Climb [3:22] 6. One Surprise After Another [3:11] 7. Unjust Rewards [4:37] 8. Any More Like Her? [4:11] 9. Choosing a Way to Live [3:06] 10. Jealous Type [2:55] 11. Indian Sighting [2:56] 12. Hostile Encounter [4:15] 13. Fallen Rider [2:37] 14. Nothing to Laugh At [3:02] 15. Who Are You to Talk? [4:40] 16. Saddle Sabotage [4:49] 17. Refuge From the Rain [3:32] 18. Rock and a Hard Place [2:15] 19. Bid for Escape [5:31] 20. Just Happened That Way [2:35] 21. Head to Head [3:25] 22. Look After Your Partners [4:12] 23. Bullet for Jesse [3:13] 24. Each Other's Gunsights [3:45] 25. Over the Edge [2:34] 26. The River Claims Roy [2:49] 27. Changing His Mind [2:42] 28. Cast List [:24]