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Director Anthony Mann and star James Stewart teamed on five Westerns, including the wonderful THE MAN FROM LARAMIE. This earlier film, which had its screenplay nominated for an Oscar (a rare feat for a Western), is actually a grittier and more emotionally complex film. It came out the same year as the sappy and overrated SHANE, but holds up a lot better than that dated “classic.”

Stewart plays Howard Kemp, a Civil War veteran who is forced to become a bounty hunter out of necessity. In his effort to capture killer Ben Vandergroat (Robert Ryan, THE WILD BUNCH), he receives help from old miner Jesse Tate (Millard Mitchell, WINCHESTER ‘73) and dishonorably discharged soldier Roy Anderson (Ralph Meeker, THE DIRTY DOZEN). Traveling with Ben is Lina Patch (Janet Leigh, PSYCHO), the daughter of a dead bank robber.

Kemp doesn’t want partners and the partnership between him and the other two men is strained from the start. Ben doesn’t help the situation any by fueling the dissent between the men. Stewart again displays why he is one of the greats. He portrays Kemp as an angry, bitter man who has given up on being decent and sets out to even the score on a life that’s done him wrong. Ryan is equally good as the deviously smiling outlaw. Likewise, Mitchell, Meeker and Leigh all provide solid supporting work.

Mann really plays on the strange paradox of the Western genre in this film with beautiful Colorado scenery in brilliant Technicolor filled with bloody action, morally questionable characters and shady deals. Mann even handles the violence with a gritty reality that sometimes is lacking from modern over-choreographed fight sequences. When men get to a fightin’ in this film they mean to hurt each other and they actually get hurt. The film also has great pacing. It knows how to build tension with wonderfully composed shots. Nowadays, the Western has virtually become a genre of the past. But at it’s best the genre was able to tell darker, more adult tales that would and could have never been told in other genres. This film is a shining example of this and rightfully deserves to be called a classic.