Movie Blog: James Stewart Sans 'Shucks' At Trylon

Every December, we expect to see James Stewart running through Grover's Corners screaming "Merry Christmas, movie house!" and kissing that big, loose wooden banister knob in It's a Wonderful Life.

But this holiday season, the Trylon Microcinema's got a brilliant bit of counter-programming that aims to show that Mr. "Aw, Shucks" Stewart ain't so nice as you think.

With its "No More Mr. Nice Guy" series, the Trylon showcases Stewart's seminal collaborations with Anthony Mann. They feature blood, death, the deconstruction if not outright destruction of western triumphalism. All that holiday goodness.

Stewart and Mann spent the better part of the '50s crafting dark-hearted westerns that some say stand shoulder with the likes of John Ford's The Searchers (which is about as anti-Stagecoach as you can imagine John Wayne getting).

Mann wasn't the only director itching to dig into the darker side of the matinee idol persona of Stewart, which was built mainly on his righteous work with Frank Capra (the aforementioned Life and especially Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) and his Oscar-winning role in The Philadelphia Story.

Following his work with Mann, Stewart plunged into the abyss in Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 masterpiece Vertigo. And the following year, he probably came that close to winning another Oscar for his work in Otto Preminger's taboo-busting Anatomy of a Murder.

But it was his series with Mann that will come to define his gritty, late-period career makeover. Trylon's selection includes some of the touchstones (The Man from Laramie and Winchester '73) as well as some lesser-known properties (such as the proto-There Will Be Blood oil drama Thunder Bay).

Here are the movies the Trylon is showcasing throughout December, with showtimes:

The Man From Laramie (1955)
Friday, Dec. 03; 7 and 9 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 04; 7 and 9 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 05; 5 and 7 p.m.

Bend of the River (1952)
Friday, Dec. 10; 7 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 11; 9 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 12; 7 p.m.

Thunder Bay (1953)
Friday, Dec. 10 8:50 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 11 7 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 12 5 p.m.

The Far Country (1954)
Friday, Dec. 17; 7 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 18; 9 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 19; 7 p.m.

Winchester '73 (1950)
Friday, Dec. 17; 9 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 18; 7 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 19; 5 p.m.

Eric Henderson is a web producer and film blogger for WCCO.COM.