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:

Cabin | Aging | Mountain | Cattle | Ranch

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
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)
• Paramount Home Video (1989) (USA) (VHS) (pan and scan)
• Paramount Home Video (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Paramount Home Video (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Muntel International (19??) (Netherlands) (VHS) (as Muntel Video)

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

Also Known As:

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:

Blue:[to Dutchy] Hell, one job's all I need. Sharin' a blanket don't make us married.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Unforgiven (1992)

Soundtrack:

Lonely Rider, The

Superb film.

Will Penny is an absolutely superb film. I find no flaws in it. A story about rough men and hard times, its plot and characters stand on their own merits, not the cowboy setting. The scenery is perfect; the great west during a harsh winter after a long cattle drive. We feel like we are there.

The initial pace of the screenplay is slow and plodding. But this is intentional. It gives us a feel for the dreariness of a common cowboy's bleak life in the late 19th Century. Later the pace picks up.

Charlton Heston is convincing as a tired, aging, wrangler who really doesn't have much to show for his life. Joan Hackett is just plain enough looking to be real but attractive enough to become the love interest. A great actress, she passed away prematurely.

Donald Pleasence and Bruce Dern are frighteningly convincing as a homicidal religious zealot and his psychopathic son. They personify the cults of violent people that occupy the back recesses of society and only come out to work evil on the rest of us. These two are very scary.

Heston and Hackett's love is believable and so is the gun play. Yet there is no gratuitous sex or violence.

Will Penny is well produced and thoroughly entertaining.