How a “desperation move” gave James Stewart the role that “proved a lifesaver” for his career
Even legends struggle to stay on top forever, and despite being one of Hollywood’s most beloved stars, a genuine war hero, and an Academy Award-winning actor, James Stewart had the sneaking suspicion that his career as an above-the-line leading man was on borrowed time by the end of the 1940s.
It’s easy to see why; he was completely absent from the silver screen for five years after enlisting to serve in World War II, and when he returned, his comeback vehicle bombed so badly at the box office that it knocked him for a loop, left him questioning himself, and even sent a production company under.
That film was, of course, Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, but it was anything but an instant classic. It wasn’t until decades after its release that it became a staple of the festive calendar, leaving Stewart to question if he’d ever be able to buffer his star back into a place where it would shine like it used to.
His next picture, Magic Town, was also a flop, while subsequent outings in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope, HC Potter’s You Gotta Stay Happy, and King Vidor’s On Our Merry Way also underperformed. Things were looking grim, which pushed the actor into throwing the most important Hail Mary of his career.
It goes without saying that Stewart’s onscreen persona was not that of a grizzled, hardened, and rough-hewn antihero. He was known as the nicest guy in Hollywood for many good reasons, so eyebrows were naturally raised when he signed on to headline a gritty, revisionist, and noir-tinged western.
And yet, Anthony Mann’s Winchester ’73 turned out to be a masterstroke. It’s a favourite of Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, and Quentin Tarantino, and not only did it prevent Stewart’s ongoing slide down the industry ladder, it was a watershed moment for how performers were compensated.
Reflecting on a decision that was a huge risk at the time, the star called the film “a desperation move that proved a lifesaver,” one that pushed him into a new era. “It opened up sort of a new area for me in the picture business, in the type of story I could do,” he explained. “If you’re able to get the story started at a time when that trend is starting up, you’re in very good shape. That’s what I got a feeling would happen when I got Winchester at that particular time.”
It was the first of eight times he worked under Mann’s direction, and it was years ahead of its time, laying down a marker for the revisionist western, an offshoot of a cinematic staple that wouldn’t become commonplace until the 1960s. All that, and he made history, too.
Winchester ’73 was the first major production to pay an actor a percentage of its profits instead of an upfront salary, with Stewart lowering his usual fee from $200,000 in exchange for taking a cut of the box office receipts, which was estimated to have netted him upwards of $600,000 when all was said and done. As far as desperation moves go, it was a pretty good one.
