The Gunfighter
Short description
Jimmy Ringo is the fastest gun in the West, and that reputation has become a burden he cannot escape. Wherever he goes, younger shooters seek him out to prove themselves, forcing him into fights he does not want. Hoping to leave the killing behind and settle down, he returns to the town where his estranged wife, Peggy, lives, but his arrival draws the attention of local men eager to test the legend.
Henry King directed this 1950 western for 20th Century Fox, following his earlier films such as Jesse James, The Black Swan and Twelve O'Clock High. Gregory Peck plays Ringo, with Helen Westcott as Peggy Walsh, Millard Mitchell as Marshal Mark Strett, Jean Parker as Molly, Karl Malden as Mac and Skip Homeier as Hunt Bromley. Roger Corman, William Bowers and William Sellers wrote the screenplay, and Nunnally Johnson produced the 85-minute film.
The Gunfighter holds a critics' rating of 8.3/10 from 16 reviews, alongside a 7.7/10 on IMDb from around 14,000 votes and a 7.4/10 on TMDB from roughly 216 votes, suggesting strong approval from both critics and viewers.
What's left behind the scenes
- The original story was written by William Bowers (1916-1987) and André De Toth (1912-2002) with John Wayne (1907-1979) in mind. Wayne liked the story and offered Bowers $10,000 for it, but Bowers asked for more. Later, Bowers sold the story to Fox for $70,000, which greatly offended Wayne. Subsequently, Harry Cohn (1891-1958), the founder of Columbia Pictures, acquired the story for Wayne, but he refused to work with the company due to old grievances against Cohn. Cohn then sold the screenplay to Twentieth Century Fox, which took on the project and signed Gregory Peck (1916-2003) for the lead role. When Peck was chosen as the "best Western actor" in 1950 and presented with an award – silver spurs – Wayne was furious. Wayne's last film, "The Shootist" (1976), has a noticeable resemblance to "The Gunfighter."
- During the filming of the movie, Gregory Peck wore a mustache that many at the studio disliked. When filming began, producer Spyros P. Skouras was away. By the time he returned, most of the film had already been shot, and it was too late to ask Peck to shave off the mustache and reshoot the footage. After it became clear that the film was not successful and the costs were not being recouped, Skouras went to the actor and told him that his mustache had cost them millions.
- The film is based on the life of John Ringo (1850-1882), an outlaw of the Wild West and a cousin of the Younger Brothers gang. In real life, Ringo was a ruthless killer who managed to survive a famous shootout at the corral. Unlike the character portrayed in the film, the real John Ringo fell into depression after visiting relatives in California in July 1982, went on a 10-day drinking binge, and then sat under a tree and shot himself.
- In the original ending, the sheriff arrested Hunt Bromley, played by Skip Homeier (1930-2017), but this finale enraged studio head Darryl F. Zanuck (1902-1979) so much that director Henry King (1886-1982) and screenwriter Nannelli Johnson (1897-1977) devised a finale in which the sheriff beats Bromley and lets him go. Only then did Zanuck calm down.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
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