The Gunfighter

The original story was written by John Bowers and André De Toth with John Wayne in mind. Wayne loved it and offered Bowers $10,000 for it. The writer thought it was worth more and told Wayne how he felt. The actor reportedly said, "Well, you wrote it for me. Don't you have any artistic integrity?" Bowers later got $70,000 for it at Fox, and Wayne harbored ill-feelings about the incident, accusing Bowers of selling it out from under him. In addition, Wayne refused to work for Columbia Pictures because its chief, Harry Cohn, had mistreated him years before when he was a young contract player. Cohn had bought the project for Wayne, but Wayne's grudge was too deep, and Cohn sold the script to Twentieth Century Fox, which cast Gregory Peck in the role Wayne badly wanted but for which he refused to bend. When the Reno Chamber of Commerce named Peck the top western star for 1950 and presented him with the Silver Spurs award, an angry Wayne said, "Well, who the hell decided that you were the best cowboy of the year?" Wayne's final film, The Shootist (1976), is very similar to this film.

When Ringo and Molly are standing and speaking alone in the Saloon, the mic and part of the boom are visible in the mirror over the bar.

Featured in King of the Movies (1978)