The Naked Spur

Directed by Anthony Mann, The Naked Spur follows Jimmy Stewart’s Howard Kemp as his efforts at collecting the bounty on a murderer (Robert Ryan’s Ben Vandergroat) are complicated by the presence of three individuals (Janet Leigh’s Lina, Ralph Meeker’s Roy, and Millard Mitchell’s Jesse). Filmmaker Mann, armed with Sam Rolfe and Harold Jack Bloom’s screenplay, delivers a sporadically striking yet disappointingly erratic endeavor that gets off to a thoroughly promising start, as the movie kicks off with a terrific opening stretch that benefits from the inclusion of several electrifying sequences – with the latter certainly true of a gripping scene detailing the initial encounter between Howard and Ben. And while the picture is continually elevated by the top-notch efforts of its uniformly impressive cast, with Stewart and Ryan’s first-class work often overshadowed by Meeker’s scene-stealing turn as the sleazy, smarmy Roy, The Naked Spur‘s overall impact is dulled by a hit-and-miss, episodic midsection that isn’t nearly as propulsive as one might’ve expected (and hoped) – which, when coupled with a weird and somewhat unsatisfying ending, ultimately does cement the picture’s place as a good but not great piece of work.

**1/2 out of ****