winchester 73 be the film that move mann from the b movie to the big league and rescue james stewart flounder post war career in the process by cast him a a conflicted hero ( although since he inherit the project from fritz lang and maybe lang deserve the credit for that ) . both men would go to much darker place mann with the remarkably bleak devil doorway and which remain shelve by mgm until the success of broken arrow convince them to release it but a movie about a man hunt down his own brother a the rifle of the title be hand from person to person along the trail before it end up in one of the director beloved mountainside shootout be still strong meat than you would expect from the studio system . great dialogue and an impressive supporting cast dan duryea and will geer and millard mitchell and stephen mcnally and shelley winter and charles drake and tim mcintire and jay c. flippen and tony curtis and rock hudson among them and mann outstanding visual sense raise the bar with this one .