Death of a Gunfighter (1969)

Directors:

Don Siegel
Robert Totten

Writers:

Lewis B. Patten (novel)
Joseph Calvelli (screenplay)

Release Date:

April 1969 (Austria)

Genre:

Western

Tagline:

Marshall Patch... he lived by the law of the gun...

Plot:

In the turn-of-the century Texas town of Cottownwood Springs, marshal Frank Patch is an old-style lawman in a town determined to become modern...

Plot Keywords:

Marshal | Small Town | Changing Times | Suicide | Marriage

Cast

Richard Widmark	...	Marshal Frank Patch
Lena Horne	...	Claire Quintana
Carroll O'Connor	...	Lester Locke
David Opatoshu	...	Edward Rosenblum
Kent Smith	...	Andrew Oxley
Jacqueline Scott	...	Laurie Mills
Morgan Woodward	...	Ivan Stanek
Larry Gates	...	Mayor Chester Sayre
Dub Taylor	...	Doc Adams
John Saxon	...	Lou Trinidad
Darleen Carr	...	Hilda Jorgenson
Michael McGreevey	...	Dan Joslin
Royal Dano	...	Arch Brandt
Jimmy Lydon	...	Luke Mills (as James Lydon)
Kathleen Freeman	...	Mary Elizabeth

Runtime:

Brazil:94 min | USA:100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Norway:16 | West Germany:18 (nf) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:M (original rating) | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Golden Oak Ranch - 19802 Placerita Canyon Road, Newhall, California, USA

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Star Richard Widmark and original director Robert Totten had "artistic differences," and Totten was replaced by Don Siegel. When the film was completed, Siegel, saying that Totten directed more of the film than he did, refused to take screen credit for it, but Widmark didn't want Totten's name on it. A compromise was reached whereby the film was credited to the fictitious "Alan Smithee" (originally to be called Al Smith, but the DGA said there had already been a director by that name), thereby setting a precedent for directors who, for one reason or another, did not want their name on a film they made.

Quotes:

Wil Oxley: Why did my father kill himself?
Marshal Frank Patch: I don't know, son.
Wil Oxley: Tell me! Tell me!
Marshal Frank Patch: A long time ago, a man was killed... shot in the back.
Wil Oxley: My father did it?
Marshal Frank Patch: Nobody knew for sure who did it.
Wil Oxley: You knew. Why didn't he hang?
Marshal Frank Patch: There was nothing to be gained by hanging. The dead man had a child - a son. Your father agreed to raise him as his own.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in El tiempo de la felicidad (1997)

Soundtrack:

SWEET APPLE WINE

A western based on a dramatic character

Many times western movies are concerned with battles against Indians, duels between gunfighter or just pure adventure centered in heroes like Zorro or Durango Kid.

That's not the case with 'Death of a Gunfighter'. This little and forgotten movie tell a story based on the life - or, to be exact, the last days of a life - of a Marshall called Frank (Widmark) in a little town at the end of Nineteen century, a town where the 'new times' are coming faster and faster and the way of life of a man like Frank is not anymore well accepted.

Like some other western like 'The Shootist' (the last movie of John Wayne) and the more recent TV movie 'Monte Walsh', this one is a movie about loneliness, full of sadness and at the same time with violence, a harsh cruelty that falls upon the men and the women that are not prepared to live in another time and another way of life.

Richard Widmark gives a strong performance, all the time blending sadness, disappointment and angriness with a compassionate composition of the Marshall Frank Persh. Lena Horne is a bit dislocated but the support cast is very good, especially Carrol O'Connor and John Saxon.

'Death of a Gunfighter' is a movie that made all of us think about our lives and how we deal with the challenges put in front of us every day, especially in a world always changing. It's not a movie about heroes and courage - like almost other western movies are - but a movie about fragility.

7 out of 10