Western Movie Review of The Naked Spur

by John B.
(Minnesota)

Anthony Mann's Sheer Classic

Simply put, The Naked Spur is Anthony Mann’s masterpiece. Believe me, that is a pretty bold statement since Mann helmed a string of unique and now classic Westerns during the 1950s before turning to a few big-scale epics in the 1960s. He made a total of ten Westerns between 1950-1958 and half of them with James Stewart in the lead, often as a man on a personal mission and living with a dark past.


In this film, Stewart is Howard Kemp, a bounty hunter tracking a killer he knew back in Kansas named Ben (Robert Ryan). Finally catching up with Ben somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, Kemp reluctantly is assisted by Jesse (Millard Mitchell), a down on his luck prospector, and Lt. Roy Anderson (Ralph Meeker), who just received a dishonorable discharge from the army. Also captured by the trio is Ben’s girlfriend Lina (Janet Leigh). Ben convinces Lina that their chance of an escape relies on turning their captors against each other. Right off the bat, he reveals to Jesse and Anderson how much the reward is. This was something that Kemp kept to himself since the reward offer is not present on the poster he carries. Ben shows the other half of the poster to Jesse and Anderson.


On the journey, the group must deal with the landscape, an Indian, Kemp’s troubled past and a final shootout set against a raging river and rocky terrain. All of this is shown very beautifully in a somewhat short time of 91 minutes!


The first time I watched this film was on a double bill with Sam Peckinpah’s masterpiece The Wild Bunch at the Fargo Theatre three years ago as part of their annual summer classic film series. The theme that year was, of course, the Western. This was my introduction to Anthony Mann and I couldn’t have asked for a better way to be introduced to a wonderful body of work. Everything that is a standard in a Mann Western is in this film and has never been better or, for that matter, darker. His collaboration with Stewart rivals with the works of John Ford/John Wayne, Budd Boetticher/Randolph Scott and Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwoodas the best director/star partnerships in the Western genre.


There was always something unsettling about Stewart in these films. This was the maturing period of Stewart where he tackled roles that washed off his good guy charm and brought something out that one would never expect to see from someone who had charming roles in the 30s and 40s. In The Naked Spur, one hardly has a sense of sympathy for Stewart’s Kemp. He’s a man determined to bring his man in dead-or-alive no matter what the cost. Kemp even confesses that all he cares about is the money. Hardly a smile comes across Kemp’s face throughout the entire film, until a fire side chat in a cave with Lina. Ben, knowing that women are Kemp’s weakness, sets this up as part of an escape.


Robert Ryan nearly steals the film from Stewart as the ever grinning Ben. He even delivers some of the film’s best lines. Not to mention makes one question whether we should fell sympathetic towards anyone in the story line since each of his captors’ weakness in money and women become more evident on the trail. Janet Leigh does just fine as the sole female in the film who even questions where her royalty stands. Millard Mitchell and Ralph Meeker, both somewhat underrated actors, are also great in their performances. Meeker’s officer even seems a big threat due to his background.


If you’re still not familiar with the work of Anthony Mann, now’s the time more than ever to start. A slew of his films have finally been released onto DVD for the first time, including one of his very first Westerns, The Furies, and his great farewell to the genre, Man of the West*. Many of the Western films still hold up well due to the storylines, the troubled characters, and Mann’s well known use of landscape. Hopefully a few of you will start the same way I did with The Naked Spur.




*-Technically the 1960 remake of Cimarron was Mann’s final Western, but he was fired halfway through production.