Will Penny (1968)

Director:

Tom Gries

Writer:

Tom Gries (writer)

Release Date:

10 April 1968 (USA)

Genre:

Romance | Western

Tagline:

The Brute in Everyman Was Also in Him - And the Love and the Violence

Plot:

Aging cowboy Will Penny gets a line camp job on a large cattle spread and finds his isolated cabin is already occupied by a husbandless woman and her young son.

Plot Keywords:

Mountain | Aging | Son | Cowboy | Squatter

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Charlton Heston	...	Will Penny
Joan Hackett	...	Catherine Allen
Donald Pleasence	...	Preacher Quint
Lee Majors	...	Blue
Bruce Dern	...	Rafe Quint
Ben Johnson	...	Alex (Flat Iron Ranch foreman)
Slim Pickens	...	Ike Walterstein
Clifton James	...	Catron
Anthony Zerbe	...	Dutchy
Roy Jenson	...	Boetius Sullivan
G.D. Spradlin	...	Anse Howard
Quentin Dean	...	Jennie
William Schallert	...	Dr. Fraker
Lydia Clarke	...	Mrs. Fraker
Robert Luster	...	Shem Bodine
Dal Jenkins	...	Sambo
Matt Clark	...	Romulus Quint
Luke Askew	...	Foxy
Anthony Costello	...	Bigfoot
Gene Rutherford	...	Rufus Quint
Chanin Hale	...	Girl
Jon Gries	...	Horace (button) (as Jon Francis)
Stephen Edwards	...	Town boy

Directed by
Tom Gries

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Tom Gries		writer

Produced by
Fred Engel	....	producer
Walter Seltzer	....	producer

Original Music by
David Raksin

Cinematography by
Lucien Ballard

Film Editing by
Warren Low

Art Direction by
Roland Anderson
Hal Pereira

Set Decoration by
Robert R. Benton		(as Robert Benton)
Ray Moyer

Makeup Department
Charles Blackman	....	makeup artist
Nellie Manley	....	hair styles supervisor
Hedy Mjorud	....	hair stylist (as Hedvig Mjorud)
Wally Westmore	....	makeup supervisor

Production Management
C. Kenneth Deland	....	unit production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Daniel McCauley	....	assistant director (as Daniel J. McCauley)

Art Department
Gene Lauritzen	....	construction coordinator (uncredited)

Sound Department
John R. Carter	....	sound recordist (as John Carter)
John Wilkinson	....	sound recordist

Visual Effects by
Paul K. Lerpae	....	special photographic effects

Stunts
Calvin Brown	....	stunts (uncredited)
Joe Canutt	....	stunt coordinator (uncredited)
Ross Dollarhyde	....	stunts (uncredited)
Jerry Gatlin	....	stunts (uncredited)
Rock A. Walker	....	stunts (uncredited)
Jack Williams	....	stunts (uncredited)
Joe Yrigoyen	....	stunts (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
John A. Anderson	....	wardrobe: men
Ruth Stella	....	wardrobe: women

Editorial Department
Jack Wheeler	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Ruby Raksin	....	orchestrator
Van Cleave	....	orchestrator (as Nathan Van Cleave)

Production Companies

• Paramount Pictures

Distributors

• Paramount Pictures (1968) (USA) (theatrical)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1971) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• Paramount Home Video (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Paramount Home Video (2006) (USA) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Bureau of Land Management  special thanks
• Inyo County, California  special thanks
• Inyo National Forest  special thanks
• U.S. Department of Agriculture  special thanks
• U.S. Department of Interior  special thanks
• U.S. Forest Service  special thanks

Runtime:

108 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 (cut) (1968) | UK:12 (2003) | UK:A (1967) (cut) | USA:Approved (Certificate #21512) | Sweden:15 | West Germany:12 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Bishop, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Charlton Heston has often said of all the films he's made, this is his favorite.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: During the fight between Will Penny and the Quint family, one of the brothers throws a knife into Penny's chest. A wire attached to the knife a very obvious.

Quotes:

[Dutchie has been seriously wounded and the nearest doctor in a hundred miles away]
Catron: Best thing you can do for him, pilgrim, is make him rest easy while he waits till the end. Anything he drinks is on the house. And then you can bury him out back and away from the hogs. And it won't cost much. I'll even carve him a nice head marker. Twenty-five dollars sound about right? The ground is kind of hard this time of year... and the diggin' ain't easy.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Ben Johnson: Third Cowboy on the Right (1996)

Soundtrack:

Lonely Rider, The

A Heston Favorite

In his memoirs Charlton Heston waxed pretty eloquent about this film, that he considers a personal favorite. He does some of his best work here in a role that's against type.

Charlton Heston probably has played more real people on screen than any other actor in history. Everything from Moses to Andrew Jackson to Brigham Young to Henry VIII. All of them are endowed with Heston's peculiar talent to bring a certain nobility to all of them.

Will Penny is just an ordinary aging cowboy from the last century working in Brokeback Mountain country. Nothing noble about him, nothing special unless you count the fact that he does his job, does it well and expects to be paid for same. He's probably the kind of guy that Ennis Delmar and Jack Twist would identify with.

Penny gets himself tangled up with a woman and her small son who've taken refuge in the line rider's cabin he's supposed to be in. And he's also earned the emnity of a murderous family of thieves led by crazy patriarch Donald Pleasance.

Heston in his memoirs paid tribute to his co-star Joan Hackett who he says was a great talent and left us too early. She gives a good performance in her role fighting for herself and her child to survive in a rugged winter.

Look for some realistic western portrayals from veterans like Ben Johnson, G.D. Spradlin, Slim Pickens, Anthony Zerbe, Lee Majors, Bruce Dern, and William Schallert.

Will Penny is very similar to Lee Marvin's classic Monte Walsh. A whole lot of the same issues and problems are portrayed there in the same realistic style.

I'm sure Ennis and Jack would have made it point to see Will Penny back in the day.