The Naked Spur (1953)

James Stewart plays Howard Kemp, an embittered man who returned home from the Civil War to discover that “his girl” had sold his ranch and used the money to run off with another man.

So he turns bounty hunter to make the money needed to buy back that ranch. Ben Vandergroat (Robert Ryan) is the man he’s after. He shot a sheriff back in Kansas and he’s worth $5,000.

Of course, Kemp just might have to split the reward with an old prospector named Jesse Tate, who helps him track down the outlaw, and a former cavalryman named Roy Anderson, who helps capture Vandergroat.

The other complication is a pretty young girl named Lina Patch (Janet Leigh), who’s been traveling with the outlaw since her father was left dead in the dirt following a bank robbery.

She dreams of a new life with Ben in California and is convinced he didn’t commit the murder he’s been accused of.

From the minute he’s captured, Ben begins conniving, looking for a way to escape.

And Lina is willing to do almost anything to help him in that endeavor.

Review:

Using a cast of five and the Rocky Mountains as a backdrop, Anthony Mann and company produce a minor classic, a film far better than many Westerns with much larger casts and big action scenes.

Stewart is absolutely desperate to get his man and so earn a fresh start on his beloved farm back home. Tate has been mining — and failing to strike it rich — for years. Anderson has been dishonorably discharged and has Indians on his trail for his dalliance with a chief’s daughter.

And Ryan is marvelous as the conniving outlaw determined to get at each man’s weakness. He starts by making sure the miner and the solider know about the $5,000 on his head. He encourages Lina to play up to both of the younger men.

His strategy is simple, he tells her. Buy time. Because the longer the journey back to civilization takes, the more that can happen along the way.

This marked one of only two Westerns for Janet Leigh, who would get famously slashed to death seven years later in Alfred Hitchock’s “Psycho.” She also starred in the 1966 Spaghetti “Kid Rodelo.”

Directed by:
Anthony Mann

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

Runtime: 91 min.

Memorable lines:

Roy Anderson, as Kemp reads his dishonorable discharge papers: “The Army never did understand me.”

Ben Vandergoat, upon his capture by Howard Kemp: “Now, ain’t that the way? Man gets set for trouble head-on and it sneaks up behind him. Every time.”

Lina Patch, arguing on behalf of Ben Vandergoat: “It wasn’t Ben who killed that man.”
Howard Kemp: “It’s him they’re paying the reward on.”

Ben Vandergoat: “Choosin’ the way to die? What’s the difference? Choosin’ the way to live, that’s the hard part.”

Lina, when Ben Vandergoat insists on another back massage: “I wonder if you really need this or if you just like to be rubbed.”
Ben: “Same thing. A man needs what he likes.”

Ben Vandergoat to Lina, about a man he’s gunned down: “He ain’t ever gonna be hungry again. Never want anything he can’t have. That’s more than we can say.”

Howard Kemp to Ben Vandergoat, who keeps calling his Howie: “Stop talkin’ like we were friends. Maybe we sat down at the same card game once or twice, but that don’t mean dirt to me now.”

Lina when Howard asks her to visit his ranch after he turns in Ben and buys it back with the reward money: “It’d be like steppin’ on a grave.”

Ben Vandergoat, under Kemp’s gun after an escape attempt fails: “If you’re going to murder me, Howie, don’t try to make it look like something else.”

Jesse: “Do business with the devil and you’ll get it. Every time.”

Roy Anderson, as Howard pulls a rope from around Ben’s neck before an attempted river crossing: “Why? It’s no different from the rope in Abilene. You knew you were going to bring him back to die when you started after him. You know that now. That hasn’t changed. He’s not a man; he’s a sack of money. That’s why we’re all here, especially you. Why don’t you face up to it?”