1950 Jimmy Stewart Film Named One of the Best Westerns - It Has 100% Score on Rotten Tomatoes

The 1950 classic Winchester '73 has been named one of the best Western movies of all time.

According to review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the Western starring James "Jimmy" Stewart, Winchester ‘73, is one of the Best Western Movies of All Time, coming in at number 12. The film scored a 100% critic rating on the website. However, the audience score is lower at 85% instead.

The film stars Stewart as Lin McAdam, a cowboy chasing Dutch Henry Brown, played by Stephan McNally. It is set in Dodge City, Kansas, in 1876. The story mostly follows whoever possesses the titular gun.

Lin and High-Spade, played by Millard Mitchell, arrive in town and are greeted by lawman Wyatt Earp, played by Will Greer. When Lin finds Brown, he competes against him for the Winchester 1873 repeating rifle and wins, so Brown steals the gun and flees town. This sends the gun on a journey, hopping from owner to owner as Lin continues to chase down Brown. In the end, Lin catches and kills Brown, revealing that the criminal is actually Lin's brother. The gun ends up back in Lin's possession as he heads back into town to join Shelley Winters as Lola Manners.

The film is directed by Anthony Mann, known for his many Westerns and historical dramas. Winchester ‘73 was the first collaboration between Mann and Stewart, and after its box-office success, they would go on to make eight films together. Stewart had previously starred in Destry Rides Again in 1939, his first Western. Winchester ‘73 was the second Western in Stewart's career and helped redefine him as a Western hero.

Many of the other actors in Winchester ‘73 were not as big as Stewart, but would later rise to fame. Just starting their careers, Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis play minor roles in the film. This was also one of the few films that Geer, who played Wyatt Earp, acted in during the 1950s. He was blacklisted from Hollywood for a time after he refused to testify to Congress and name those who had joined the Communist Party USA.

Winchester ‘73 was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Western, though it did not win. 65 years after its release, the United States Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry for preservation.

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Jun 27, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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This story was originally published June 27, 2026 at 4:30 PM.