Stephen McNally's blunt menace makes him a dependable antagonist. We prefer him in Winchester '73, where that hardness suits the film around him; Johnny Belinda leaves him stuck with a part built almost entirely on brutality.
Fi1m perspective
In Johnny Belinda (1948), Stephen McNally's Locky McCormick is a brute from his first scene. We felt impatient with the performance's lack of surprise: his immediate nastiness belongs to a village already drawn too broadly. Jane Wyman's restraint gives the melodrama its value, while McNally has to make a simpler impression. He makes it firmly enough, but there is little pleasure in watching a character whose worst qualities are so thoroughly advertised. That is the limit of this particular part, rather than a reason to dismiss the actor.
He had been playing film supporting parts at MGM from 1942, and Johnny Belinda brought him wider notice in 1948. The resulting association with villains makes sense, though it can obscure the other jobs he did. In Criss Cross (1949), alongside Burt Lancaster, he plays detective Pete Ramirez; in No Way Out (1950), he is Dr Dan Wharton. Those parts are worth remembering before treating every McNally appearance as advance warning of trouble.
Winchester '73 (1950) gives us the more satisfying use of him. Anthony Mann casts him as Dutch Henry Brown, a rival in the rifle contest, opposite James Stewart's unsettlingly angry lead. There is room for an actor this blunt in a western so sour about what men will do for a gun. Not every supporting player benefits equally: the rifle's travels sometimes make their appearances seem too conveniently arranged. We can accept a bluntly threatening rival more readily when the film is so unsentimental about the other men, too.
The hard-man parts continued through the 1950s: an escaped killer holding hostages in Split Second (1953), a bank robber in Violent Saturday (1955). From the late 1950s, the work shifted mainly towards television guest appearances. He was often typecast, and these villainous assignments leave a fair question about how much else he might have offered. On the evidence of Johnny Belinda and Winchester '73, we would not claim hidden subtleties for him, but he does the hard-man work convincingly. Start with Mann; save Johnny Belinda for Wyman.
Biography
Stephen McNally (born Horace Vincent McNally) was an American actor who appeared in numerous Westerns, film noirs and action films, often as villains or hard-hearted characters. Born in New York City on 29 July 1911, he attended Fordham University School of Law and practised as an attorney in the late 1930s before turning to acting.
He began his career on stage and in films under the name Horace McNally. In 1948 he adopted the professional name Stephen McNally and played Locky McCormick in Johnny Belinda. He later appeared in Criss Cross (1949), Winchester '73 (1950) and many television series including The Six Million Dollar Man and Charlie's Angels. He was a one-time president of the Catholic Actors Guild and died in Beverly Hills on 4 June 1994.
