Law of the Lawless | |
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Directed by | William F. Claxton |
Written by | Steve Fisher |
Produced by | A. C. Lyles |
Starring | Dale Robertson Yvonne De Carlo William Bendix |
Cinematography | Lester Shorr |
Edited by | Otho Lovering |
Music by | Paul Dunlap |
Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | A.C. Lyles Productions |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 87 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Law of the Lawless is a 1964 American Techniscope Western film directed by William F. Claxton, produced by A.C. Lyles, and starring Dale Robertson, Yvonne De Carlo and William Bendix. The supporting cast features Lon Chaney Jr., Kent Taylor, Barton MacLane, John Agar, Richard Arlen, Bruce Cabot and Don "Red" Barry. This was the first of eight westerns Chaney made for A. C. Lyles between 1964 and 1968. [1]
Big Tom Stone runs a Kansas town in 1889. His son Pete is jailed for the murder of a man named Stapleton, and into town to oversee the trial rides the circuit judge, Clem Rogers.
Rogers has enemies. Among them are the Johnson brothers, who hold a grudge against the judge, and hired gun Joe Rile, employed by Big Tom to make sure Rogers doesn't convict his son.
A saloon girl, Ellie Irish, is introduced to the judge in an attempt by the Stones to sully Rogers' reputation with others in the town. It backfires when Ellie testifies that she saw Pete in a compromising position with Dee, the wife of Stapleton, after which the victim was drawn into a gunfight. Pete is convicted and Big Tom's men disobey his orders to gun down the judge in cold blood.
Following the departure of the producers of Paramount Pictures B picture unit Pine-Thomas Productions, their publicity director A. C. Lyles, who had been employed by Paramount since the age of 14 [2] was employed by the studio to produce second feature films. During this time Paramount arranged to loan Lyles to CBS where he was involved with the production of the Rawhide series in order to learn about Westerns. [3]
A 1963 Paramount production meeting noticed there were no Westerns set to be made by the studio despite the incredible popularity of American westerns in overseas markets. Lyles offered to make a low budget Western in a rapid amount of time, buying a script from his friend screenwriter Steve Fisher.
The film was initially set to star Rory Calhoun, but Calhoun came down with pneumonia the night before the production was set to start filming. Dale Robertson, star of the television series, Tales of Wells Fargo, stepped in at six hours' notice. [4] Lyles had acquired the friendship and respect of a galaxy of experienced actors who offered their services to his production.
The film was first issued in Italy in late 1963. Its initial American release was as a double feature with Robinson Crusoe on Mars . When the film did well at the box office, Paramount asked him how many more Westerns he could do a year. Lyles replied "five" and he was given the go ahead to produce more second features for the studio. [5]
Creighton Tull Chaney, known by his stage name Lon Chaney Jr., was an American actor known for playing Larry Talbot in the film The Wolf Man (1941) and its various crossovers, Count Alucard in Son of Dracula, Frankenstein's monster in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), the Mummy in three pictures, and various other roles in many Universal horror films, including six films in their 1940s Inner Sanctum series, making him a horror icon. He also portrayed Lennie Small in Of Mice and Men (1939) and supporting parts in dozens of mainstream movies, including High Noon (1952), The Defiant Ones (1958), and numerous Westerns, musicals, comedies and dramas.
Dayle Lymoine Robertson was an American actor best known for his starring roles on television. He played the roving investigator Jim Hardie in the television series Tales of Wells Fargo and railroad owner Ben Calhoun in Iron Horse. He often was presented as a deceptively thoughtful but modest Western hero. From 1968 to 1970, Robertson was the fourth and final host of the anthology series Death Valley Days. Described by Time magazine in 1959 as "probably the best horseman on television", for most of his career, Robertson played in western films and television shows—well over 60 titles in all.
Jesse James is a 1939 American Western film directed by Henry King and starring Tyrone Power, Henry Fonda, Nancy Kelly and Randolph Scott. Written by Nunnally Johnson, the film is loosely based on the life of Jesse James, the outlaw from whom the film derives its name. The supporting cast includes Henry Hull, John Carradine, Brian Donlevy, Jane Darwell and Lon Chaney, Jr.
John George Agar Jr. was an American film and television actor. He is best known for starring alongside John Wayne in the films Sands of Iwo Jima, Fort Apache, and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. In his later career he was the star of B movies, such as Tarantula!, The Mole People, The Brain from Planet Arous, Revenge of the Creature, Flesh and the Spur and Hand of Death. He was the first husband of Shirley Temple.
Sugarfoot is an American Western television series that aired for 69 episodes on ABC from 1957-1961 on Tuesday nights on a "shared" slot basis – rotating with Cheyenne ; Cheyenne and Bronco ; and Bronco. The Warner Bros. production stars Will Hutchins as Tom Brewster, an Easterner who comes to the Oklahoma Territory to become a lawyer. Brewster was a correspondence-school student whose apparent lack of cowboy skills earned him the nickname "Sugarfoot", a designation even below that of a tenderfoot.
Johnny Reno is a 1966 American Western film made by A. C. Lyles Productions and released by Paramount Pictures. It starred Dana Andrews, Jane Russell, John Agar and Lon Chaney Jr.. It was directed by R. G. Springsteen, produced by A. C. Lyles, with a screenplay by Andrew Craddock, Steve Fisher and A.C. Lyles.
Waco is a 1966 American Technicolor Western film directed by R. G. Springsteen and starring Howard Keel, Jane Russell, Brian Donlevy, Wendell Corey, Terry Moore, John Smith, and Jeff Richards.
Andrew Craddock Lyles Jr. was an American film producer for Paramount Pictures, who is best known for producing a variety of Westerns in the 1950s and '60s.
Buckskin (1968) is a Western film, released by Paramount Pictures, released on a low budget and starring an all-star cast. The main stars were Barry Sullivan and Joan Caulfield. Lon Chaney Jr. plays the role of Sheriff Tangley and Richard Arlen plays a townsman. The other stars were Barbara Hale, John Russell, Wendell Corey, Bill Williams, Leo Gordon, George Chandler, Aki Aleong and Barton MacLane. The film was also known as The Frontiersman. It was the last of the series of A.C. Lyles Westerns for Paramount. The screenwriter Michael Fisher was the son of the series screenwriter Stephen Gould Fisher.
North West Mounted Police is a 1940 American epic north-western film produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Gary Cooper and Madeleine Carroll. Written by Alan Le May, Jesse Lasky Jr., and C. Gardner Sullivan, and based on the 1938 novel The Royal Canadian Mounted Police by R. C. Fetherstonhaugh, the film is about a Texas Ranger who joins forces with the North-West Mounted Police to put down a rebellion in the north-west prairies of Canada. The supporting cast features Paulette Goddard, Preston Foster, Robert Preston, Akim Tamiroff, Lon Chaney Jr. and George Bancroft. Regis Toomey, Richard Denning, Rod Cameron, and Robert Ryan make brief appearances in the film playing small roles.
Danger, Go Slow is a 1918 American silent comedy film directed by Robert Z. Leonard, and starring Mae Murray, Jack Mulhall and Lon Chaney. Robert Z. Leonard and Mae Murray co-wrote the screenplay together. The film is today considered lost.
The Boy from Oklahoma is a 1954 American western film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Will Rogers Jr., Nancy Olson and Anthony Caruso. It was produced and distributed by the major studio Warner Bros.
Fort Utah is a 1967 American Western film and the 150th feature film directed by Lesley Selander. Produced by A. C. Lyles for Paramount, it starred John Ireland and Virginia Mayo.
The Old Corral is a 1936 American Western film directed by Joseph Kane and starring Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, and Irene Manning. Based on a story by Bernard McConville, the film is about a sheriff of a small western town who sings his way into a relationship with a singer from a Chicago nightclub who earlier witnessed a murder. The supporting cast features Lon Chaney Jr. and Roy Rogers.
The Lawyer's Secret is a 1931 American pre-Code crime film directed by Louis J. Gasnier and Max Marcin and written by Lloyd Corrigan, James Hilary Finn, and Max Marcin. The film stars Clive Brook, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Richard Arlen, Fay Wray, Jean Arthur, Francis McDonald, and Harold Goodwin. The film was released on June 6, 1931, by Paramount Pictures.
Caught is a 1931 American Pre-Code Western film directed by Edward Sloman and written by Agnes Brand Leahy and Keene Thompson. The film stars Richard Arlen, Louise Dresser, Frances Dee, Tom Kennedy, and Syd Saylor. The film was released on August 8, 1931, by Paramount Pictures.
Young Fury is a 1965 American Western film directed by Christian Nyby and written by Steve Fisher. The film stars Rory Calhoun, Virginia Mayo, William Bendix, Lon Chaney Jr., Richard Arlen and John Agar. The film was released in February 1965, by Paramount Pictures. This was William Bendix's final film role, as he had died two months before its release in December 1964.
Black Spurs is a 1965 American Western film directed by R. G. Springsteen and written by Steve Fisher. The film stars Rory Calhoun, Linda Darnell, Terry Moore, Scott Brady, Lon Chaney Jr., James Best, Richard Arlen, Bruce Cabot and scenes with James Brown and DeForest Kelley. The film was released on June 25, 1965, by Paramount Pictures.
Town Tamer is a 1965 American Western film directed by Lesley Selander, written by Frank Gruber, and starring Dana Andrews, Terry Moore, Pat O'Brien, Lon Chaney Jr., Bruce Cabot, Lyle Bettger and Richard Arlen. It was released on July 7, 1965, by Paramount Pictures.
Apache Uprising is a 1965 American Technicolor Western Techniscope film directed by R. G. Springsteen and written by Max Lamb and Harry Sanford. The film stars Rory Calhoun, Corinne Calvet, John Russell, Lon Chaney Jr., Gene Evans, Richard Arlen and Robert H. Harris. The film was released on December 29, 1965, by Paramount Pictures.