James Stewart

  • Anthony Mann – Bend of the River (1952)

    USA1951-1960Anthony MannWestern

    American Cinematheque wrties:
    James Stewart stars as a former border raider who narrowly escapes the hangman’s noose (he still smarts from the rope) and is trying to start over again in the wide-open Oregon country. Instead, he winds up involved with the wily and charming Arthur Kennedy in a wagon train that includes the eligible Laurie Baile (Julie Adams) and a load of supplies worth their weight in gold. One of director Anthony Mann’s finest films, combining action, character and landscape in a seamless and wildly satisfying package.Read More »

  • John Ford – Two Rode Together (1961)

    1961-1970DramaJohn FordUSAWestern

    Recycling elements of My Darling Clementine and The Searchers in a bitter, latter-day light, this late Western by John Ford initiates the last, dark phase of the master’s vision of the corrupting influences of the progress of civilization in the wilderness. James Stewart is introduced to the Ford stock company as a thoroughly venal town marshal, Guthrie McCabe, who’s pressed into service by the cavalry to oversee the ransoming of several whites long held captive by the Indians. McCabe is concerned with nothing but making a buck on the enterprise and coming back with his scalp intact, yet against his better judgment he becomes an arbiter of social and personal justice, and a de facto one-man protest against bigotry and hypocrisy. The cinematography is bleaker than anything seen in Ford’s more heroic Westerns, and the stylistic high point is a hilarious one-take conversation between Stewart and cavalryman Richard Widmark at the river’s edge. –Richard T. JamesonRead More »

  • Anthony Mann – The Naked Spur (1953)

    USA1951-1960Anthony MannWestern

    Synopsis:
    Howard Kemp is a bounty hunter who’s been after killer Ben Vandergroat for a long time. Along the way, Kemp is forced to take on a couple of partners, an old prospector named Jesse Tate and a dishonorably discharged Union soldier, Roy Anderson. When they learn that Vandergroat has a $5000 reward on his head, greed starts to take the better of them. Vandergroat takes every advantage of the situation sowing doubt between the two men at every opportunity finally convincing one of them to help him escape.Read More »

  • Andrew V. McLaglen – Shenandoah (1965)

    1961-1970Andrew V. McLaglenUSAWarWestern

    Synopsis:
    In Shenandoah, Virginia, widower farmer Charlie Anderson lives a peaceful life with his six sons – Jacob, James, Nathan, John, Henry and Boy, his daughter Jennie, and his daughter-in-law and James’ wife Ann Anderson. Charlie does not let his sons join the army to fight in the Civil War that he does not consider their war. Jennie marries her beloved Lieutenant Sam, but they do not have a honeymoon since Sam has to return to the front. Charlie’s youngest son Boy is mistakenly taken prisoner by soldiers from the North so Charlie rides with his sons to rescue Boy, while James and Ann stay on the farm. It is time of violence and war, and tragedy reaches the Anderson family.Read More »

  • Anthony Mann – The Far Country [Widescreen] (1954)

    1951-1960Anthony MannUSAWestern

    Plot:
    In 1896, Jeff Webster sees the start of the Klondike gold rush as a golden opportunity to make a fortune in beef…and woe betide anyone standing in his way! He drives a cattle herd from Wyoming to Seattle, by ship to Skagway, and (after a delay caused by larcenous town boss Gannon) through the mountains to Dawson. There, he and his partner Ben Tatum get into the gold business themselves. Two lovely women fall for misanthropic Jeff, but he believes in every-man-for-himself, turning his back on growing lawlessness…until it finally strikes home.
    Written by Rod CrawfordRead More »

  • Various – How the West Was Won (1962)

    1961-1970ClassicsUSAVariousWestern

    Sprawling epic which follows the Prescotts, an emigrant family through four generations, from the Erie Canal in the 1830’s to their settled home in the West a half a century later. On the way they encounter river pirates, and escape with the help of fur trapper Linus Rawlings, who subsequently marries one of their daughters, Eve. The parents are drowned on a foundering raft, and the other daughter Lilith becomes a riverboat singer and catches the eye of a genteel adventurer Cleve Van Valen. Read More »

  • Alfred Hitchcock – Rope (1948)

    1941-1950Alfred HitchcockCrimeDramaUSA

    Quote:
    Two men attempt to prove they committed the perfect crime by hosting a dinner party after strangling their former classmate to death.Read More »

  • Henry Hathaway – Call Northside 777 (1948)

    1941-1950250 Quintessential Film NoirsClassicsFilm NoirHenry HathawayUSA

    Synopsis:
    When a woman places an ad in the Chicago Times offering a $5,000 reward for information that will exonerate her son, the newspaper assigns reporter P.J. McNeal to look into the case. He learns that eleven years earlier, Frank Wiecek was convicted of killing an on duty police officer in a speakeasy and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. McNeal is quite skeptical as to his innocence and only slowly comes to realize that there was a miscarriage of justice. The real question is whether he can find evidence that would convince the pardon board and obtain Wiecek’s release.Read More »

  • H.C. Potter – You Gotta Stay Happy (1948)

    1941-1950ComedyH.C. PotterRomanceScrewball ComedyUSA

    In this romantic comedy, a wealthy heiress marries hastily and realizes her mistake on her honeymoon in New York. Though it is her wedding night, she decides not to consummate the union and so ends up hiding in the room of a fellow whose airplane cargo company is facing financial ruin. He assumes that the frightened girl is poor and homeless and so takes her in. She then overdoses on sleeping pills and cannot wake up. The fellow is forced to take her back to California. The flight back is tumultuous as she, a fugitive criminal, two enamored newlyweds, a cigar smoking chimp, a corpse, and a shipment of lobsters are aboard the plane. Mayhem really ensues when the plane crashes in a farmer’s field. By this time, the woman and the fellow have fallen in love.Read More »

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