Winchester '73
Movie | |
---|---|
German title | Winchester '73 |
Original title | Winchester '73 |
Country of production | United States |
original language | English |
Publishing year | 1950 |
length | 92 minutes |
Age rating | FSK 12 |
Rod | |
Director | Anthony Mann |
script |
Borden Chase Robert L. Richards |
production |
Aaron Rosenberg for Universal Pictures |
music | Walter Scharf |
camera | William H. Daniels |
cut | Edward Curtiss |
occupation | |
| |
Winchester '73 is an American western film by Anthony Mann from 1950. It is considered to be the starting point of the economically and artistically successful era of American western cinema, which lasted until the 1960s. In addition, the film marks the beginning of a successful long collaboration between the director Mann and the actor James Stewart .
action
1876 in the southwest of the United States : Lin McAdam and his companion "High-Spade" Frankie Wilson pursue a criminal with whom Lin seems to have an old account open (for reasons that are initially unclear for the cinema-goer). As hoped, the friends find the wanted man and two of his cronies in Dodge City , where he stopped under the nickname Dutch Henry Brown to take part in a shooting competition for the "Centennial" (centenary) of the American Declaration of Independence . A bloody confrontation between the men is prevented as the charismatic Sheriff Wyatt Earp enforces a ban on private weapons in the city . The winning prize of the competition is a legendary precision rifle - a " Winchester '73 " in the custom-made "One of One Thousand" (Engl. "One of One Thousand"). Lin McAdam wins the spectacular jump-off against Dutch Henry Brown. The loser fakes a hasty departure and Lin therefore has to forego the usual day-long engraving of his victory on the rifle, because he does not want to give his opponent a head start. A duel outside the city seems inevitable. But Dutch Henry Brown knocks Lin down from behind in his hotel room, takes the Winchester he has just won and flees with his gang after the sheriff has intervened. The departure of Lin McAdam and his friend "High-Spade" Frankie Wilson, apparently ready to fight again immediately, has been delayed for somewhat inexplicable reasons.
In a dive bar on the edge of the desert, Dutch loses the Winchester while playing cards to a dubious arms dealer, from whom Chief Young Bull takes it from a deal with the Indians . Meanwhile, Lin and High-Spade follow Dutch's trail through the desert to Tascosa. An Indian attack forcing them to flee into a corral of US Cavalry , where the young couple Lola Manners and Steve Miller has sought protection. With the help of the newcomers and their fast-firing bolt-action rifles, another Indian attack can be repelled the next morning. The leader, none other than Young Bull, is killed, but the weapon is only found after Lin and High-Spade have ridden on. The cavalrymen unsuspectingly give them to Steve to protect Lola.
Arriving on their farm, Steve and Lola encounter bandits who are on the run from the sheriff and his posse . Gang leader Waco Johnnie Dean turns out to be an old "friend" of Steve, but unscrupulously kills him to get to the special Winchester. Lola saves herself from the threatening situation by being extremely cold-blooded and walking with Waco when the latter flees the sheriff's siege, sending his gang to their deaths. Both meet with Dutch and his gang in a lonely mountain hut, whereupon Dutch recognizes "his" Winchester and forces Waco to hand them back to him. Without paying attention to Lola, they arrange a bank robbery in Tascosa and ride there separately.
By chance, Lin and Lola also meet in Tascosa. Lola reveals to Lin the gang's plans and that Waco is in league with Dutch. In the shooting that ensues, Waco and Dutch's bandits die. Dutch escapes alone and flees to his old hiding place, followed closely by Lin.
Meanwhile, High-Spade Lola explains the hitherto hidden background of the bitter hostility: Lin and Dutch are brothers, with Dutch alias Matthew McAdam once shooting their father and provoking Lin's revenge.
In fact, Lin Dutch poses for the final duel in a rocky landscape. Although armed with the unerring special Winchester, Dutch dies in a gun battle. With the gun, Lin returns to Tascosa - and to Lola - and signals to High Spade by showing the Winchester that Dutch is finally dead.
Historical background
The end of the Wild West
The plot of Winchester '73 begins on July 4, 1876 - the centenary of the independence of the United States . The colonization of the Wild West by European immigrants is almost complete. The cities on the former frontier already have a political system in which the sheriff defends citizens' rights. This order is threatened by bandits embodied in Winchester '73 by the gangs of Dutch Henry Brown and Waco Johnnie Dean. At the same time, however, the film depicts the threat to the American settlers posed by Indians , which had just become acute in the year of the Battle of Little Bighorn due to the Indian resettlement programs that had already started .
In addition to these events in the history of the United States , Mann's Western also refers to specific known places and people. The two cities of Dodge City and Tascosa, which represent the starting point and end of the plot of the film, are historical cities of settlement in the American West. Dodge City, in particular, is a town that is often used as the setting for westerns , as it was the home of famous gunslingers such as Doc Holliday . In Winchester '73 the historical figures Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson appear as town marshals .
Tascosa suffered the fate of many cities during the settlement period: it became a ghost town .
The Winchester rifle
The Winchester rifle was developed at the time of the Civil War . The first series came on the market in 1866 as the successor to the Henry rifle . It became famous primarily for its spread during the colonization of the western United States from the mid-19th century. In particular the model Winchester '73 of the repeating rifles of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company , which gave the film its name, became synonymous with the settlement of the west as the gun that won the west (German: "the rifle that has conquered the west") West. In the film this is shown by the special admiration and greed for possession of the weapon.
The series "One in a Thousand", which is emphasized in the film, was launched by Winchester in 1875. Of all the rifle barrels that were test-fired after production from a production lot of 1000 pieces each, the most precise firing was selected. The rifles with these barrels were manufactured to the highest quality and labeled “One of One Thousand” or “One of 1000” on the top of the barrel. Of this series, 136 rifles were made and sold for $ 100 each. A commercial Winchester was $ 40. The average monthly wage for a cowboy back then was about $ 30. One of the approx. 60 examples of the 1873 "One of One Thousand" model still preserved today has a collector's value of up to 125,000 US dollars.
The film stresses the competition with the Henry rifle, which is characterized as less lethal and reliable. However, the Henry rifle was not, as the viewer might suspect, a competing product of the Winchester models, but their direct technical precursor, which even came from the same manufacturer (renamed in 1866).
Production history
Script, contributors and production
Fritz Lang selected Winchester '73, a story by Stuart N. Lake , as one of the fabrics for his newly founded production company Diana Production Company , and worked on the development of the film. According to Lang, the main plot of the film at this point was as follows: “ A Westerner loses his rifle, a Winchester '73, which for him was the only reason for his existence and the symbol of his strength. He has to find that weapon or find a new reason to live. He has to find his lost strength again. “Under Hollywood producer Walter Wanger , who u. a. was already responsible for Westerns with Ringo ( John Ford , 1939) and had previously produced three films with Fritz Lang, Winchester '73 was to be realized in Technicolor after Lang's conception . Stuart N. Lake had already written a draft script for Winchester '73 by April 1946 . The 200-page draft was discarded and Howard Dimsdale began work on an entirely new script in October of that year. Meanwhile fell Fritz Lang's Secret Beyond the Door (1948) at the box office by, and Lang's falling out with his producer Walter Wanger and problems with distribution through Universal Pictures and the censorship meant that Lang extension option on the idea Winchester '73 fell because he could not produce a finished script in time by June 1948. The rights went back to the original owner Universal and the management of the project was taken over by producer Aaron Rosenberg , who initially brought James Stewart together with the project.
Anthony Mann has now been commissioned to direct . Stewart recalls in an interview Anthony Mann's association with Winchester '73 when asked if Stewart had suggested Mann as a director: “None of us had ever heard the name Anthony Mann. But to the movie he made - a western - and they all had the same reaction. They said, 'This is a beautifully staged movie. If you have a good western then this would be the right man for it. '” Stewart had already met Mann in the theater in the 1930s.
Mann worked with Borden Chase - his "preferred screenwriter" - on the final script. The cast was composed of contract actors from Universal Pictures, with James Stewart in the lead role. After three years of preproduction, filming finally began in 1949 under the overall artistic direction of Anthony Mann and as a black and white film in Tucson , Arizona .
Since the production could not afford the $ 200,000 fee demanded by the well-known star actor James Stewart, they resorted to a practice that was unusual at the time: Stewart was given a percentage of the film's box office profits. The film's surprising success eventually earned Stewart an income of $ 600,000 for his work. In the years that followed, this payment for star actors continued to gain acceptance and is still common in Hollywood today.
Two actors who would later become very successful Hollywood stars had their first film appearances in small roles: Tony Curtis plays a young soldier and Rock Hudson can be seen with make-up and wig as the Indian Young Bull.
The film received a remake of the same name in 1967 . The American television movie added scenes that tell the past of the main characters. Dan Duryea , who played the criminal Waco Johnnie Dean in the original, appears here as the father of the two warring brothers.
Anthony Mann and James Stewart
For director Mann and his lead actor Stewart, Winchester '73 was a crucial turning point in their careers. For Mann it was the rise to director of A-films ; for Stewart it was an important step in changing his image. Roger Ebert wrote in an article on Stewart's death that "it was a man - more than anyone else - who steered Mr. Stewart in the direction of his later career."
Man came to film from the theater. In the 1950s he directed mostly inexpensive genre films, initially films of film noir and until the end of the 1950s police films influenced by film noir . With the 1950 published The Farm of the Taken , he shot his first western, which earned him directing for Winchester '73 . The success of this film gave him the opportunity to shoot eight more westerns and become one of the major directors of the genre. At the same time, he celebrated commercial success with films of various genres from the 1950s.
James Stewart was already a star when he played in Winchester '73 . After working in the theater, he became known in the 1930s for his work in a variety of screwball comedies . In addition to these, his main roles in the melodramas of Frank Capra Stewart's prominent image of the American everyman (German: "average American citizen") shaped . His notable participation as a pilot in combat missions during World War II further supported this image of the perfect American. His roles in the films of Alfred Hitchcock and Anthony Mann in the 1950s changed that image. The outbreak of violence and the obsession of his character in Winchester '73 shocked the audience all the more because he played against his previous image. In his later westerns with a husband, Stewart's characters were similar obsession-driven westerners. At almost the same time, Hitchcock turned Stewart's roles into a broken man in his films. This development of the characters that Stewart embodied under Mann and Hitchcock finally culminated in Hitchcock's Vertigo - From the Realm of the Dead (1958).
Mann shot a total of five westerns with Stewart in the 1950s. The already mentioned similarity of the characters takes place here up to the almost identical staging of outbreaks of violence by Stewart. In addition to the westerns, Stewart also took on the lead role in other films by Mann, for example in the biopic The Glenn Miller Story (1953).
reception
Premiere
Winchester '73 was a box-office hit when it premiered on July 12, 1950 in the United States . In TIME , Winchester '73 was named the second best-selling film of the month; it was the only serious western on this list.
TIME's criticism opened with “Winchester '73 is a brisk (crisp) Western”, praised the actors, especially the camera work, and concluded: “Impressively filmed in black and white, the film is with an eye for realistic details, one ear for the often natural dialogues of the script and the ability to create tension are staged. "
The German film release on February 9, 1951 was ignored by the German daily press. The film pages were largely devoted to retrospectives of German film before and after the Nazi era and the scandalous film Die Sünderin ; Westerns were hardly discussed. In a film review by the film magazine Deutsche Film-Illustrierte , the actors were again praised and the article ended with a positive résumé: “There is a little bit of shooting and killing with the 'Winchester' 73 'and other models, but not so unmotivated, cruel -dilettante and in the well-known manner that not even a Wild West denier could watch this film with pleasure. "
Later reception, classification and influence
In retrospect, Winchester '73 is rated extremely positively. The film is praised in numerous reviews for the film structure, the relationships between the characters, the actors and the staging. The lexicon of international film summarizes these arguments in two sentences: "An exciting, psychologically very carefully sound Western, which in all action wealth is happening in quiet, calculated settings conveys, let the landscape and the carefully reconstructed interiors broad space." For the encyclopedia adds a simple "excellently performed" to the rating of the actors . Thomas Jeier certifies that the film, in an overview of western films that he has compiled, shows "one of the most exciting and best-photographed shootings in the history of western films" .
Winchester '73 is often mentioned in later reviews as the turning point of the western and the starting point of the noble western . The box office success of Winchester '73 is also cited as the beginning of the production of more expensive western films, which heralded the great success and revival of the American western in the 1950s. Ulrich Gregor and Enno Patalas write in their detailed film history: "[Anthony Mann] owes the regeneration of the Western to no one else."
The western had increasingly lost its importance in the 1940s and found its way onto the big screen in simple “cowboy and Indian B-movies ”. The great financial success of Winchester '73 led the studios to invest more money in the production of westerns and is often seen as the starting point for the extremely successful phase of American western films up until the 1960s at the box office and with film critics.
In addition, the more complex characters and the accompanying critical view of the settlement of America and the western film itself are a new approach that Winchester '73 shares with other westerns of the time. Subsequent films - also called "adultwestern" in American film history - largely adopt this point of view. The western was elevated from a simple adventure film to a “playground for questions of power, morality and politics” . In addition to Mann's films, there are u. a. the westerns by John Ford , who with Ringo and Faustrecht der Prärie showed similar approaches before 1950 that shaped the American noble westerns of the 1950s and anticipated the motifs of the late western.
Regardless of this, Winchester '73 is also classified in a subgroup of the westerns of this time, which mainly deal with weapons and shooting. Other films by this group such as Vera Cruz ( Robert Aldrich , 1956) or The Sniper ( Henry King , 1950) also contain duels and the worship of weapons or show the lives of particularly well-known shooters.
Staging
Film structure and tension control
With "[a] combination of straight line and circle is evident in the construction of the plot of Winchester '73" , Oplustil describes the main narrative structure of the film, which is divided into Lin's linear pursuit of Dutch and the fate of the eponymous weapon. Most reviewers distinguish between these two levels of action.
Both storylines are divided into a large number of scenes and settings typical for the Western genre : Saloon, shooting competition, (carriage) chase, campfire, wagon castle, cavalry, Indian attack, Indian siege, sheriff against bandit, poker game, bank robbery and finally the final shoot-out face-to-face. Despite this " anthology " of elements from western films and the two storylines, Winchester '73 is often viewed as suspenseful by critics. The formal tension (a content-independent investigation of the cuts-per-minute ratio of a film; see graphic below) shows through some prominent highlights, especially the sequences of the Indian attacks and the bank robbery and final shoot-outs as excitingly staged. These sequences are also described in discussions as high points of tension; especially the final shoot-out of the two brothers is mostly highlighted. Mann chose a rock formation in the middle of the desert as the background for this duel and is satisfied that he had discovered this location because “the two men [...] should not have [been] allowed to fight each other on flat terrain. Both are too good shooters, the duel would only have lasted 15 seconds. "
The cross-film tension arises in Winchester '73 from Lin's search for his brother. This relationship marks the beginning and the end and is the "central focus" of the film. The large number of sequences in the middle of the film, which only revolve around the story of the Winchester, are repeatedly interrupted by Lin's short travel scenes (see graphic), because “even if the narrative is a little fragmented, […] [Lin ] has the task of holding the film together ”.
In addition, tension is created by the fact that the exact relationship (Lin and Dutch are brothers) and Lin's motivation (Dutch killed their father) only gradually explains to the viewer during the course of the film. After receiving no explanation for the hunt for Dutch at the beginning of the film, the viewer only learns that Lin and Dutch had the same teacher for handling weapons; Later this is revealed through a photograph as a probable common father and only shortly before the end is the patricide revealed as the reason for Lin's plan of revenge. According to Stewart, Anthony Mann commented on this film construction in Winchester '73 with “don't spill the beans” (German: “ don't talk about everything”); a film construction that Mann also used in other films (e.g. in The Man from Laramie , 1955, and The Star of the Law , 1957).
The path of the weapon as a further storyline is already clear from a text panel at the beginning of the film. It promises that the following film will be "The Story of the Winchester Rifle, Model 1873". It goes on: “The cowboy and the soldier, the police officer and the persecuted, the Winchester 73 was an expensive possession. And every Indian would have sold his soul for this rifle. “This focus on the Winchester is also evident in the assembly, so each of the five chapters of the film, marked by a fade-in and fade-out, begins with a close-up of the Winchester. The respective owner of the weapon is only brought into the focus of the narrative with a tracking shot. The beginning of the film, however, is realized by a cross-fade from the text table described to the Winchester resting in a showcase.
Motives: revenge and greed
Mann uses two main motives in his film: revenge and greed. These motifs, which are typical of the western, drive the main narrative threads of the film forward. The main motif is revenge as the main character's motivation in the American westerns of the 1950s and 1960s (including the black falcon ) and even more so in the spaghetti westerns from 1963 onwards.
The weapon shows the characters' greed and causes them to commit criminal acts such as cold-blooded murder in order to gain their possession. In Movies and Methods. Vol. I , the Winchester is described in Winchester '73 as a “divine object” that stands for something “ constant, perfect and beautiful” in a changing world and in the manner of “weapons in medieval romanticism” alone by the Presence affects the human behavior of the weapon carrier. The peculiarity of the special edition of the Winchester, which appears in the film, is emphasized by a large number of scenes: the villagers marvel at the Winchesters in the showcase, the sheriff extensively introduces them as the main prize in the duel and the bandits, Indians and soldiers who follow take themselves Time to look at and praise the Winchester. The weapon is described in many reviews as a kind of MacGuffin , which is only supposed to cause people to take action.
The vengeance as the motif of the protagonist Lin drives the other storyline. This vengeance is compounded by the fact that Avengers and The Hunted are brothers. It's a motif that Mann will use in his subsequent westerns. Mann's revenge-driven protagonists, who in the subsequent films even more than Lin in Winchester '73 live outside of society, often show the same characteristics. Lin gave up a life in society to get revenge; the long duration of the search for Dutch is implied indirectly. Later Stewart Mann protagonists live even more in isolation and no longer fight like Lin alongside revenge for the "just cause". The negative aspects of the protagonists in Mann become righteous citizens again at the end of the film through the execution or the abandonment of vengeance, because the " Cain and Abel motifs of Mann's westerns (Winchester '73, mutiny on the snake river ) [...] seem." to find a solution because the hero reacts positively to the changed situation ”.
Outbreaks of violence
Especially in the later reception of the film, Lin's outbreak of violence in the last sequence of the film is discussed. Lin overwhelms Waco Johnny Dean and "grabs Dean's arm, twists it nastily behind his back, and slams Waco's face on the counter while he begs for mercy." The outburst of anger, which is also clearly visible in the face of the actor Stewart, is filmed from a soffit and staged without warning. The hero's behavior, which does not correspond to the western conventions of the time, is staged as a shock effect and clearly shows the negative side of the protagonist, who takes on the traits of an anti-hero. The outbreak of violence is also used in later Mann Stewart westerns - often with an almost identical staging - and other Mann films to reveal the conflicting character of the main actor.
synchronization
role | actor | Voice actor |
---|---|---|
Lin McAdam | James Stewart | Siegmar Schneider |
Lola Manners | Shelley Winters | Gisela Trowe |
Dutch Henry Brown | Stephen McNally | Werner Hinz |
Waco Johnnie Dean | Dan Duryea | Peter Mosbacher |
High spade | Millard Mitchell | Franz Nicklisch |
Steve Miller | Charles Drake | Axel Monjé |
Joe Lamont | John McIntire | Alfred Balthoff |
Doan | Tony Curtis | Klaus Schwarzkopf |
Young Bull | Rock Hudson | Peter Petersz |
media
Winchester '73 was to mm 35 - black and white film shot and - with an aspect ratio of 1.37: 1 - brought into the cinemas and the 1950s. For the German theatrical release in 1951, the film was dubbed in German. As in over 30 other German dubbing, Siegmar Schneider speaks Stewart.
From the 1970s onwards, the film was often broadcast by various television stations in Germany (including ZDF , Bayerisches Fernsehen and kabel eins ). An evaluation on VHS and DVD followed. For the laserdisc -Publishing the home distribution of Universal one was audio commentary in the form of an interview with James Stewart produced. This single audio commentary by Stewart was also included on subsequent DVD releases.
Awards
The Writers Guild of America nominated the screenplay by Robert L. Richards and Borden Chase in its third award gala in 1951 for the category of best screenplay for a western film. Winchester '73 lost to The Broken Arrow ( Delmer Daves , 1950) based on a script by Albert Maltz, who also starred James Stewart. The American Film Institute ranked Winchester '73 578th in its nomination for the "Best American Films of All Time" .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Boorman, Dean K .: The guns of Winchester . Motorbuch-Verlag. First edition 2003, p. 38, ISBN 3-7276-7141-6
- ↑ a b Grant, Barry Keith (ed.): Fritz Lang: Interviews. University Press of Mississippi, Jackson 2003, p. 57, ISBN 1-57806-577-1
- ↑ a b c d e Bernstein, Matthew: Walter Wanger. Hollywood independent . University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 2000, pp. 207ff, ISBN 0-8166-3548-X
- ^ A b c Lindenschmidt, Paul: Interview with James Stewart . In: Winchester '73. Universal DVD. 1989
- ^ A b Georg Seeßlen , Claudius Weil: Basics of popular film 1: Western cinema. History and Mythology of Western Films. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH, Reinbek near Hamburg. 1979
- ↑ a b Kay Less : The large personal dictionary of the film . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 5: L - N. Rudolf Lettinger - Lloyd Nolan. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , (Anthony Mann).
- ^ A b O'Hanlon-Lincoln, Ceane: County Chronicles, Volume II: A Vivid Collection of Pennsylvania Histories . Mechling Bookbindery: Chicora 2006, p. 9, ISBN 0-9760563-4-8
- ↑ a b c Ebert, Roger : Screen icon James Stewart dies . In: Chicago Sun-Times July 3, 1997. ( online )
- ↑ a b c Yoggy, Gary A .: Back in the Saddle: Essays on Western Film and Television Actors . McFarland & Company, 1999. p. 103, ISBN 0-7864-0566-X
- ↑ a b Time . August 21, 1950
- ↑ a b c Time . August 19th July 1950
- ↑ a b Bl., Th .: Winchester '73 . In: Deutsche Film-Illustrierte . Issue 25 1951
- ^ A b Brüne, Klaus (ed.): Lexicon of international films . rororo, Reinbek 2002. Lemma: Winchester 73
- ↑ Thomas Jeier: The Western Film. Heyne, Munich 1987, (Heyne Filmbibliothek; 32/102), ISBN 3-453-86104-3 , p. 100.
- ↑ a b c d Oplustil, Karlheinz: Winchester '73 . In: Bernd Kiefer / Norbert Grob (eds.): Film genres. Western film. Ditzingen: Reclam 2003
- ^ A b Gregor, Ulrich / Patalas, Enno: Geschichte des Films 2. 1940-1960. Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt 1976
- ↑ a b Koebner, Thomas (Ed.): Filmgenres. Western film. Reclam, Stuttgart 2003, p. 36, ISBN 3-15-018402-9
- ↑ a b c Nettelbeck, Uwe: Winchester '73 . In: film review. Issue 4. 1965 (9th year)
- ^ A b c Loy, R. Philip: Westerns in a Changing America. 1955-2000 . 2004, p. 39
- ↑ a b Frazer, Bryant: WINCHESTER '73 [A-] (Mann, 1950) . On: deep focus . Retrieved December 7, 2003 ( online ( January 3, 2007 memento in the Internet Archive ))
- ↑ a b Nichols, Bill (Ed.): Movies and Methods. Vol. I. University of California Press: Berkley and Los Angeles, 1976, p. 159
- ↑ a b Nichols, Bill (Ed.): Movies and Methods. Vol. II. 1985, p. 176
- ↑ Winchester '73 in the German dubbing index
- ↑ a b o.A .: Technical Specifications for Winchester '73 . On: imdb.com ( Memento of the original from November 25, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Accessed October 20, 2006 ( online )
- ↑ a b o.A .: Writers Guild Awards. Past winners. On: wga.org . Accessed November 1, 2006 ( online ( memento of October 1, 2006 in the Internet Archive ))
- ↑ a b o.A .: AFI 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time Nominees . On: films101.com . Accessed November 1, 2006 ( online )
literature
- Jim Kitses: Horizons West - Directing the Western from John Ford to Clint Eastwood. London: British Film Institute 2004. pp. 139–171, ISBN 1-84457-050-9 ( Analysis of the characters, themes and staging strategies in Anthony Mann's Western )
- Karlheinz Oplustil: Winchester '73 . In: Bernd Kiefer / Norbert Grob (eds.): Film genres. Western film. Reclam, Ditzingen 2003, ISBN 3-15-018402-9 ( short analysis of Winchester '73)
Web links
- Winchester '73 in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Winchester '73 in the online motion picture database
- Winchester '73 at Rotten Tomatoes (English)