Throughout his life, sheriff-turned-gunfighter John Bernard "J.B." Books has committed thirty-plus killings.
Now an older man, Books arrives in Carson City, Nevada, in late January 1901. Soon, he is confronted by an armed robber, who he quickly disarms by wounding him. He later has another confrontation with dairyman Jay Cobb. However, Cobb's assistant, Gillom Rogers, verbally defuses the situation. Books then visits Dr. E.W. "Doc" Hostetler, a physician who treated his gunshot wounds fifteen years before. Books is looking for a second opinion concerning his failing health. Hostetler confirms that Books has terminal cancer and has only a few months to live. Books is prescribed laudanum to ease his pain but learns that his condition will eventually become unbearable. Hostetler remarks that if he had Books's courage, a painful death from cancer is not the one he would choose.
Needing a place to live, Books finds lodgings at a quiet boarding house owned by Bond Rogers, Gillom's widowed mother. Wanting to be left alone, Books gives her a fake name. However, Gillom finds Books' name on his horse's saddle at the local stable and quickly deduces his true identity. Gillom soon runs home and tells his mother that Books is actually a famous gunfighter. Upset that Books has lied to her about who he is, she summons Marshal Walter Thibido. Books defuses the situation by explaining his circumstances and swearing he will likely die soon. Now more sympathetic to his plight, Bond asks Books to accompany her to church to obtain solace and comfort. However, Books maintains he has no need of repentance, stating that he has never harmed anyone who did not deserve it.
Word spreads that Books is in town, causing him trouble from those seeking to profit off his name, or to kill him. After asking for an interview, local journalist Dan Dobkins is chased off by Books. Serepta, an old flame of Books's, shows up asking to marry him. However, Books turns her down after she admits that Dobkins approached her about writing a "biography" of Books' life filled with exaggerated stories of his gunfights. Books orders a headstone, but rejects the undertaker's offer of a free funeral, suspecting he would charge the public admission to view his remains. Two criminals seeking notoriety try to ambush Books as he sleeps, but he kills them. Gillom is impressed, while his mother is both angry at and frightened for Books. She also grows concerned that the fatherless Gillom will try to follow in his footsteps as the two grow closer. Books teaches Gillom how to shoot and shares his personal credo, "I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them."
Books asks Gillom to visit three men with violent reputations: Mike Sweeney, an aging outlaw and the brother of a man Books once killed in self-defense; deadly crack shot Jack Pulford, the Faro dealer at the local Metropole Saloon; and Cobb, Gillom's boss. Gillom is to tell each of the three men that Books will be at the Metropole at 11:00 am on January 29, his birthday. On that date, the headstone arrives, which only mentions Books' death as occurring in "1901". Books gives Gillom his beloved horse, Ole Dollar, bids farewell to Bond, and then boards a trolley for the Metropole Saloon.
At the saloon, Books finds the three men waiting for him at different tables. He orders the saloon's finest whiskey, toasting his birthday and his three "guests". Cobb opens fire first, causing Books to dive over the bar. Books throws a bottle of whiskey to distract Cobb, and guns him down. Sweeney wounds Books in the arm, using his table as a shield. Books shoots through the table, killing Sweeney. Pulford then shoots one of Books' guns out of his hand. Pulford then tries to sneak up on Books, who lays on the floor. Seeing his reflection in a whiskey glass, Books shoots Pulford in the head. A crowd fills the street outside the Metropole after hearing the gunshots, including Gillom, who enters the bar. His shouted warning is too late, and the Metropole's bartender fires his shotgun into Books' back, mortally wounding him. Gillom rushes over, takes up Books' gun, and kills the bartender. When Gillom realizes what he has done, he throws the gun away. Books smiles and nods in approval before dying. Gillom covers Books' body with his coat and walks outside to his waiting mother. He walks past her, his head hung low, and she turns and follows him.
Producer Mike Frankovich announced that he had purchased the movie rights to Glendon Swarthout's novel The Shootist, and Wayne expressed a strong desire to play the title role, reportedly because of similarities to the character Jimmy Ringo in The Gunfighter, a role that he had turned down 25 years earlier.[3][4] He was not initially considered due to the health and stamina issues that he had experienced during filming of Rooster Cogburn.[5]Paul Newman passed on the role, as did George C. Scott, Charles Bronson, Gene Hackman, and Clint Eastwood, before it was finally offered to Wayne. His compromised lung capacity made breathing and mobility difficult at Carson City's 4,600ft (1,400m) altitude, and production had to be shut down for a week while he recovered from influenza, but Wayne completed the filming without further significant medical issues.[6]
The Shootist was Wayne's final cinematic role, concluding a 50-year career that began during the silent film era in 1926. Wayne was not terminally ill when the film was made in 1976. He had been a heavy cigarette smoker for most of his life, and he was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1964. He underwent surgical removal of his left lung and several ribs. He remained clinically cancer-free until early 1979, when metastases were discovered in his stomach, intestines, and spine; he died in June of that year.[7] Nonetheless, Wayne appeared in a televised public service announcement for the American Cancer Society that began with the scene in which his character is informed of his cancer. Wayne then added that he had enacted the same scene in real life 12 years earlier.[8]
The film's outdoor scenes were filmed on location in Carson City. Bond Rogers' boarding house is the 1914 Krebs-Peterson House, located in Carson City's historic residential district. The buggy ride was shot at Washoe Lake State Park, in the Washoe Valley between Reno and Carson City. It was a Paramount production, yet the street scenes and most interior shots were filmed at the Warner Bros. backlot and sound stages in Burbank, California.[9] The horse-drawn trolley was once used as a shuttle between El Paso and Juarez, Mexico.[10]
Wayne's contract gave him script approval, and he made a number of major and minor changes, including moving the location from El Paso to Carson City[11] and the ending. In the book and original screenplay, Books kills his last opponent by shooting him in the back, is fatally wounded by a bartender with a shotgun, and is finally put out of his misery by Gillom. Wayne maintained that, over his entire film career, he had never shot an adversary in the back and would not do so now. He also objected to his character being killed by Gillom and suggested that the bartender do it, because "no one could ever take John Wayne in a fair fight".[12]
Wayne was also responsible for many casting decisions. Several friends and past co-stars were cast at his request, including Bacall, Stewart, Boone, and Carradine. James Stewart had not worked in films for a number of years, due in part to a severe hearing impairment, but he accepted the role as a favor to Wayne. Stewart and Wayne had worked together in two previous Westerns: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and How the West Was Won, both released in 1962.
While filming the sequence in the doctor's office, both Stewart and Wayne repeatedly muffed their lines over a long series of takes, until director Don Siegel finally pleaded with them to try harder. "If you want the scene done better," joked Wayne, "you'd better get yourself a couple of better actors." Later, Wayne commented in private that Stewart knew his lines, but apparently could not hear his cues.[13]
Another casting stipulation was the horse owned and given away by Wayne's character, a favorite sorrel gelding named Dollor that Wayne had ridden in Big Jake, The Cowboys, True Grit, Rooster Cogburn, Chisum, and The Train Robbers. Wayne had negotiated exclusive movie rights to Dollor with the horse's owner Dick Webb Movie Productions, and he requested script changes enabling him to mention Dollor's name several times.[14]
By one account, Wayne's numerous directorial suggestions and script alterations caused considerable friction between director and star,[11] but Siegel said that he and Wayne got along well.
He had plenty of his own ideas ... some I liked, which gave me inspirations, and some I didn't like. But we didn't fight over any of it. We liked each other and respected each other.[15]
Reception
Box office
Upon its theatrical release, The Shootist was a modest success, grossing $13,406,138 domestically,[1] About $6 million were earned in US theatrical rentals.[16]
There’s nothing in The Shootist you haven’t seen done many times before and done better … but what you haven’t seen before is a dying John Wayne give his last performance. And it’s Wayne’s performance, and the performances of some of the surrounding characters (Howard, Richard Boone, Harry Morgan, and Sheree North) that make The Shootist not the classic it wants to be, but memorable nonetheless.[20]
Western Writers of America, Spur Award winner - "Best Western Novel" - 1975 (as: "one of the best western novels ever written." and as: "one of the 10 greatest Western novels written in the 20th century.")
Destry Rides Again is a 1939 American Western comedy film directed by George Marshall and starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. The supporting cast includes Mischa Auer, Charles Winninger, Brian Donlevy, Allen Jenkins, Irene Hervey, Billy Gilbert, Bill Cody Jr., Lillian Yarbo, and Una Merkel.
Marion Robert Morrison, professionally known as John Wayne and nicknamed "the Duke", was an American actor who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films which were produced during Hollywood's Golden Age, especially in Western and war movies. His career flourished from the silent era of the 1920s through the American New Wave, as he appeared in a total of 179 film and television productions. He was among the top box-office draws for three decades and appeared with many other important Hollywood stars of his era. In 1999, the American Film Institute selected Wayne as one of the greatest male stars of classic American cinema.
Rio Bravo is a 1959 American Western film directed and produced by Howard Hawks and starring John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson, Walter Brennan, and Ward Bond. Written by Jules Furthman and Leigh Brackett, based on the short story "Rio Bravo" by B. H. McCampbell, the film stars Wayne as a Texan sheriff who arrests the brother of a powerful local rancher for murder and then has to hold the man in jail until a U.S. Marshal can arrive. With the help of a lame old man, a drunk, and a young gunfighter, they hold off the rancher's gang. Rio Bravo was filmed on location at Old Tucson Studios outside Tucson, Arizona, in Eastmancolor, with film processing provided by Technicolor.
True Grit is a 1969 American Western film directed by Henry Hathaway, starring John Wayne as U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn, Glen Campbell as La Boeuf and Kim Darby as Mattie Ross. It is the first film adaptation of Charles Portis' 1968 novel of the same name. The screenplay was written by Marguerite Roberts. Wayne won an Oscar for his performance in the film and reprised his character for the 1975 sequel Rooster Cogburn.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is a 1962 American Western film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and James Stewart. The screenplay by James Warner Bellah and Willis Goldbeck was adapted from a 1953 short story written by Dorothy M. Johnson. The supporting cast features Vera Miles, Lee Marvin, Edmond O'Brien, Andy Devine, John Carradine, Woody Strode, Strother Martin and Lee Van Cleef.
{{Infobox person | name = Bill McKinney | image = Bill McKinney.jpg | caption = McKinney in Every Which Way but Loose
El Dorado is a 1966 American Western film directed and produced by Howard Hawks and starring John Wayne and Robert Mitchum. Written by Leigh Brackett and loosely based on the novel The Stars in Their Courses by Harry Brown, the film is about a gunfighter who comes to the aid of an old friend who is a drunken sheriff struggling to defend a rancher and his family against another rancher trying to steal their water. The supporting cast features James Caan, Charlene Holt, Paul Fix, Arthur Hunnicutt, Michele Carey, R. G. Armstrong, Ed Asner, Christopher George, Adam Roarke and Jim Davis.
Jay C. Flippen was an American character actor who often played crusty sergeants, police officers or weary criminals in many films of the 1940s and 1950s. Before his motion-picture career he was a leading vaudeville comedian and master of ceremonies.
Glendon Fred Swarthout was an American writer and novelist.
The Gunfighter is a 1950 American Western film directed by Henry King and starring Gregory Peck, Helen Westcott, Millard Mitchell and Karl Malden. It was written by screenwriters William Bowers and William Sellers, with an uncredited rewrite by writer and producer Nunnally Johnson, from a story by Bowers, Roger Corman, and screenwriter and director Andre de Toth. The film was the second of King's six collaborations with Peck.
The Dawn Rider is a 1935 American Western film starring John Wayne and directed by Robert N. Bradbury.
Angel and the Badman is a 1947 American Western film written and directed by James Edward Grant and starring John Wayne, Gail Russell, Harry Carey and Bruce Cabot. The film is about an injured gunfighter who is nursed back to health by a young Quaker woman and her family whose way of life influences him and his violent ways. Angel and the Badman was the first film Wayne produced as well as starred in, and was a departure for this genre at the time it was released. Writer-director James Edward Grant was Wayne's frequent screenwriting collaborator.
They Came to Cordura is a 1959 American Western film co-written and directed by Robert Rossen and starring Gary Cooper, Rita Hayworth, Van Heflin and Tab Hunter. It was based on a 1958 novel by Glendon Swarthout.
The Cobweb is a 1955 American Eastmancolor MGM drama film. It was directed by Vincente Minnelli, and based on a novel by William Gibson. The film stars Richard Widmark, Lauren Bacall, Charles Boyer, and Gloria Grahame
7th Cavalry is a 1956 American Western film directed by Joseph H. Lewis based on a story, "A Horse for Mrs. Custer", by Glendon Swarthout set after the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Filmed in Mexico, the picture stars Randolph Scott and Barbara Hale.
John Wesley Hardin's legacy as an outlaw has made him a colorful character and the subject of various media works from his own time up to the present day. Many people came to know of Hardin through the TV ad for Time-Life Books "Old West" series. During the description of one book in the series The Gunfighters, the well-known claim is made: "John Wesley Hardin, so mean, he once shot a man just for snoring too loud"
Marshal of Reno is a 1944 American Western film directed by Wallace Grissell starring Wild Bill Elliott in the role of Red Ryder. It was the second of twenty-three Red Ryder feature films that would be produced by Republic Pictures. The picture was shot on the studio’s back lot along with outdoor locations at Iverson Ranch, 1 Iverson Lane, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Frontier Outlaws is a 1944 American Western film directed by Sam Newfield shot at the Corriganville Movie Ranch. It was the second film in Producers Releasing Corporation's Billy the Kid film series where Crabbe changed his name to "Billy Carson".
Gualtiero De Angelis was an Italian actor and voice actor. He was best known for dubbing James Stewart in the Italian language releases of nearly all of his films.
Palmer Edwin Lee, known by his stage name Gregg Palmer, was an American film and television actor.
↑ "AFI's 10 Top 10 Nominees"(PDF). Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved August 19, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
↑ Tarantino, Quentin (December 24, 2019). "The Shootist". New Beverly Cinema. Archived from the original on January 24, 2020. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
↑ "AFI's 10 Top 10 Nominees"(PDF). Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved August 20, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
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