The Naked Spur is a 1953 American Western film directed by Anthony Mann and starring James Stewart, Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan, Ralph Meeker, and Millard Mitchell. Written by Sam Rolfe and Harold Jack Bloom, the film is about a bounty hunter who tries to bring a murderer to justice, and is forced to accept the help of two strangers who are less than trustworthy. The original music score was composed by Bronisław Kaper and the cinematography was by William C. Mellor. The Naked Spur was filmed on location in Durango and the San Juan Mountains in Colorado and in Lone Pine, California. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay—a rare honor for a Western. This was the third Western film collaboration between Anthony Mann and James Stewart. Plot In 1868, in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, Howard Kemp offers grizzled prospector Jesse Tate $20 for help tracking Ben Vandergroat, wanted for killing a marshal in Abilene, Kansas. Kemp shows him a torn WANTED poster. Tate assumes that Kemp is a sheriff. An avalanche of rocks blocks their path. Kemp fires, provoking another rock slide. Roy Anderson, recently discharged from the 6th Cavalry, is attracted by the shots. Kemp asks to see his discharge: Anderson is "morally unstable". Anderson scales a cliff face and catches Vandergroat. The outlaw's companion, Lina Patch, jumps in. Kemp and Tate stop the fight. Lina's father, killed robbing a bank in Abilene, was Vandergroat's friend. Vandergroat reveals that Kemp is no lawman and that the bottom of the WANTED poster offers $5,000 to whoever brings him in. Tate and Anderson want their shares. Lina believes that Vandergroat is innocent. On the trail, Vandergroat wages a constant psychological campaign to turn his captors against each other by various means, starting with the observation that the reward will be larger divided by two. Scouting a mountain pass, Kemp and Tate spot a dozen Blackfoot far from their normal territory. Anderson confesses that they are after him for raping the chief's daughter. Kemp tells Anderson to ride away, fast, so the rest of them will be safe. The Blackfoot catch up to Kemp's group, and when they all stop, Anderson shoots the chief from hiding. During the ensuing battle, Kemp saves Vandergroat and is shot in the leg. Lina helps him to cover. They all ride on. When Kemp passes out, they make camp.