Winchester '73 is a 1950 American Western film noir directed by Anthony Mann and starring James Stewart, Shelley Winters, Dan Duryea and Stephen McNally.

Written by Borden Chase and Robert L. Richards, the film is set in 1876 in a variety of famed Western locations and follows the journey of a prized rifle from one ill-fated owner to another, as well as a cowboy's search for a murderous fugitive.

Among the film's cast of supporting actors, Rock Hudson portrays a Native American, and Tony Curtis plays a besieged cavalry trooper, both in minor roles at the beginning of their careers.

They find him in a saloon in Dodge City, Kansas, but cannot fight due to the presence of Sheriff Wyatt Earp.

Arriving at Riker's Bar, they find Native American trader Joe Lamont, who sees the prized Winchester and becomes determined to own it.

Lamont takes his guns to meet Native American buyers, but their leader Young Bull prefers the prized Winchester.

Lin gives their sergeant tactical advice for fighting Native Americans, and they prepare for an attack expected early the next morning.

After a fierce battle in which Young Bull is killed, the Native Americans leave, and Lin and High-Spade depart to continue searching for Dutch.

[5] With Lang out of the picture, Universal produced the film with up-and-coming Anthony Mann, Stewart's choice (he had admired The Furies), directing.

Mann had Borden Chase rewrite the script [6] to instead make the rifle a bone of contention, showing it passing contentiously through the hands of a variety of people.

[9][10] Stewart's agent Lew Wasserman was able to get his client 50 percent of the profits, eventually amounting to $600,000 from the film's unexpected success.

[13] It is acknowledged as the first confirmed time in the sound era that a film actor received some of the movie's receipts as compensation, a practice now called "points".

[14] Stewart was already cast in the part of Lin McAdam and spent a lot of time practicing with the rifle so that he would look like an authentic Westerner.

An expert marksman from the Winchester company, Herb Parsons, did the trick shooting required for the film and assisted Stewart with his training.

Winters did not understand the film, nor think much of her part in it, saying, "Here you've got all these men... running around to get their hands on this goddamn rifle instead of going after a beautiful blonde like me.

[18] This resulted in many previously unknown original rifles being brought into the spotlight, and drew public interest to the field of antique gun collecting.

It has since gained a reputation as a classic of the Western genre, and durably helped to redefine the public perception of James Stewart.