Trailer
Plot summary
In 1868, in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, Howard Kemp offers the prospector Jesse Tate twenty dollars to help him track Ben Vandergroat, a fugitive wanted in Abilene, Kansas, for a marshal's murder. Roy Anderson, recently discharged from the 6th Cavalry, joins them after hearing shots. The three men capture Vandergroat and his companion, Lina Patch. Vandergroat reveals that Kemp is not a lawman and that the wanted poster promises five thousand dollars for him, dead or alive. Tate and Anderson demand their shares. Lina believes Vandergroat is innocent. As they travel, Vandergroat works to set his captors against one another, while Kemp needs the reward money.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Naked Spur (1953)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film is notable for having only five speaking parts, and it was the third of five Western collaborations between James Stewart and Anthony Mann, after Winchester '73 in 1950 and Bend of the River in 1952.
- The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, a rare honor for a Western, and in 1997 it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.
- According to writer and historian Frederic B. Wildfang, Stewart dedicated a monument in town during filming, marking the area as the “Hollywood of the Rockies”.
