The Naked Spur is a 1953 Jimmy Stewart Western. It's directed by Anthony Mann and the screenplay is by Sam Rolfe and Harold Jack Bloom. Anthony directed 42 films in a career that started in 1939 and ended in 1968. His first movie was The Streets Of New York and it was a TV movie. It's was his only one. A lot of his movies were Westerns. Sam Rolfe on the other hand wrote mostly for TV, he developed The Man From Uncle and wrote an episode. Harold wrote a lot of TV also, some of which I've probably seen.
Jimmy is a bounty hunter looking for dirty criminal Robert Ryan. Ralph Meeker is a dishonorably discharged Union soldier he meets on the trail. Millard Mitchell is an old prospector that gets dragged into the story and Janet Leigh is hanging with Robert for some reason. Ralph helps capture Robert and invites himself in for a third of the $5000 reward. He offers another third to Millard, who helped. Jimmy wants the whole reward to buy his ranch back and Ralph wants the whole reward for himself 'cause he's a snake in the grass. Millard is just stupid and he pays for that later. I enjoyed the ride as the group tries to get to Abilene. The $5K causes a lot of problems and it hardly ends well for anyone. Good movie and one I went and ordered now that I've seen it. You can often find a few good bargains on eBay.
The Scalphunters is a 1968 Western comedy with Burt Lancaster, Ossie Davis, Shelley Winters, Telly Savalas and Dabney Coleman. It's written by William W Norton and directed by Sydney Pollack. Burt is a trapper who gets his furs traded for Ossie by some Kiowas. He follows and see the Indians killed by Telly and his gang of scalphunters. They kill any Indians they see for the $25 bounty on their scalps. Telly is the leader and Shelley is his gal. They take Ossie and plan to sell him in Houston for $1500. They have the furs and Burt is right on their trail, worrying them, picking them off one or two at a time. Eventually it all sorts itself out and the movie ends with Burt and Ossie just one step behind the Kiowas and those furs. Not a bad bit of fun, but not one I would bother buying.
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