Hollywood icon Jimmy Stewart’s name evokes images of a wide-eyed, optimistic everyman equipped with bumbling charm and a heart full of kindness, as best seen in movies such as Harvey, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Shop Around the Corner, and Come Live With Me.
He put his mark on the world map when Hollywood kept trusting him with those American-ideal-man roles that he is best known for.
He collaborated with some of the best directors in Hollywood including Alfred Hitchcock and Frank Capra.
But Jimmy Stewart’s time on screen was not all idealistic.
He took up roles that exchanged his charm for grit.
One director who significantly facilitated that change was Anthony Mann, particularly with 1952’s Bend of the River, which shatters Stewart’s typecasting and paves the way for a different Stewart in his decades-long career.