Anthony Mann's Winchester '73 (1950)

Beginning with Winchester '73, a new simplicity and clarity entered his [Anthony Mann's] work, bringing with it the psychological intensity of the noir period, but realized in a more direct visual manner.
--Jeanine Basinger, Anthony Mann (Wesleyan University Press, 2017)

Winchester '73 was the first of five Westerns Mann made with James Stewart in the fifties, intense psychological dramas that harked back to the good-bad guy films of the silent film star William S. Hart while moving into complex combinations of good and evil.  Stewart is hunting the brother who shot their father in the back and finds him at a July 4th contest for a Winchester '73.  Stewart wins the contest but his brother (Stephen McNally) attacks him and steals the rifle.  After fleeing town McNally loses the rifle in a poker game, to a trader selling guns to the Indians, who in turn is killed by a chief who takes the gun and then loses it to a cavalry leader, who kills the chief with the help of Stewart when the Indians attack. Stewart and his pal (Millard Mitchell) leave and when cavalry leader (Jay C. Flippen) recovers the rifle he gives it to Lola Manners (Shelley Winters) and Steve Miller (Charles Drake) who are heading for their honeymoon home, where outlaw Waco Johnny Dean (Dan Duryea) shoots Miller and takes the gun, which is taken again by McNally when they get together to plan a bank robbery.  Stewart and his pal interrupt the robbery and Stewart chases McNally into the hills where they shoot it our and Stewart wins both his Winchester and Lola.

In many ways Winchester '73 is an expansive Western -- with every thing from cavalry and Indians to dance hall girls and gunfights -- but its focus in always on the complicated character of Stewart and his relentless pursuit of revenge.  The extraordinary black-and-white cinematography of everything from crowded and dusty towns and saloons to empty prairies and rocky landscapes is by William Daniels, Greta Garbo's favorite cameraman, who painted with beautiful light and shadow.