The Sons of Katie Elder

The four Elder brothers return to their hometown of Clearwater, Texas, for the funeral of their mother, Katie. They arrive to find that the family ranch no longer belongs to them: their father lost it in a card game to Morgan Hastings, a local businessman, and was killed soon afterwards. The brothers suspect the deal was not honest, but the local sheriff advises them to stay out of it. Their doubts about how the ranch changed hands lead them into open conflict with Hastings.

Henry Hathaway directed this Western, the fifteenth of the eighteen films he directed in chronological order, coming between Circus World and Nevada Smith. John Wayne plays the eldest brother, John, with Dean Martin as Tom, Earl Holliman as Matt and Michael Anderson Jr. as Bud. Martha Hyer appears as Mary Gordon and Jeremy Slate as Ben Latta. The screenplay was written by Allan Weiss, Harry Essex and William H. Wright, and Hal B. Wallis produced for Paramount.

Made for about 7 million dollars, the film took roughly 23 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.1 from around 21,000 votes, and on TMDB a rating of 7 from about 314 votes.