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Film details
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Featuring
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Director
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Country
USA
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Year
1958
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Genre
Western
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Type
Film
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Category
Fiction
Alternative titles
- A Bull by the Tail Alternative
Introduction
“Scripted with enormous wit and generosity, it’s the sort of film, in David Thomson’s words, which reveals that ‘men are more expressive rolling a cigarette than saving the world’.”
Geoff Andrew, Time Out Film Guide, 2011
Disgusted by Gary Cooper throwing down his sheriff’s badge at the end of High Noon (1952) – after the community has failed to help him in his hour of need – Howard Hawks determined to make a riposte. Here Sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne) turns down offers of assistance when the dastardly Burdette family rides into town to free one of their kin from the jailhouse.
In Hawks’ world, facing up to responsibility is key, and Chance depends only on his deputies, the boozy Dude (Dean Martin) and decrepit Stumpy (Walter Brennan). An hour longer than High Noon, the result is a leisurely meditation on ageing and companionship that finds time for romance with saloon girl Feathers (Angie Dickinson) and a jailhouse singsong with young gun Ricky Nelson.
Hawks and Wayne returned to this formula twice more, with El Dorado (1967), featuring Robert Mitchum in the drunkard role, then Rio Lobo (1970).
Cast & Credits
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Cast
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Sheriff John T. Chance
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Dude
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'Colorado' Ryan
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'Feathers'
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'Stumpy'
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Pat Wheeler
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Nathan Burdette
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Carlos Remonte
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Consuela
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Joe Burdette
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Jake
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Harold [role deleted]
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[Matt Harris]
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[Charlie the bartender]
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[Bart]
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[Clark]
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[Clem]
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[Pedro]
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[card player]
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[undertaker]
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[barfly]
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[gunman]
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[messenger]
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[henchman]
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[Burt, Chinese townsman]
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[.]
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Credits
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Direction:
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Directed by
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Assistant Director
Rights:
Production:
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Production Company
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Presents
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Produced by
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[Studio]
Writing:
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Screenplay by
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Screenplay by
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From a short story by
Photography:
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Director of Photography
Editing:
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Film Editor
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Sound System
Design:
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Art Director
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Set Decorator
Costumes:
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Costumes Designed by
Make-up:
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Make-up Supervisor
Music:
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Original Songs Music by
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Original Songs Lyrics by
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Music Composed and Conducted by
Sound:
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Sound by
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Sound System
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[Sound Editor]
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[Sound Editor]
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[Sound Editor]
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