TURN-ONS AND TURN-OFFS IN CURRENT HOME ENTERTAINMENT RELEASES : Excellent Good Fair Poor : Videocassettes

“Winchester ’73.” MCA $59.95. Of the six “adult Westerns” James Stewart and director Anthony Mann made together in the ‘50s, this 1950 film was the first and one of the best. Stewart is among several men who covet the precision-made “one-in-a-thousand” rifle of the the title. The talismanic, social and Freudian implications draw you in, while a brother-versus-brother plot, several top character actors (notably Dan Duryea and Will Geer), early small parts by Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis, and William Daniels’ black-and-white cinematography keep you riding along until the last, classic shootout. 1/2