Wild Bill Hickok | |
---|---|
Directed by | Clifford Smith |
Written by | William S. Hart J.G. Hawks |
Produced by | Adolph Zukor William S. Hart |
Starring | William S. Hart Ethel Grey Terry Kathleen O'Connor James Farley Jack Gardner Carl Gerard William Dyer |
Cinematography | Arthur Reeves Dwight Warren |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 70 minutes |
Country | United States |
Languages | Silent English intertitles |
Wild Bill Hickok is a 1923 American silent Western film directed by Clifford Smith and starring William S. Hart, Ethel Grey Terry, Kathleen O'Connor, James Farley, Jack Gardner, Carl Gerard, and William Dyer. It was written by William S. Hart and J.G. Hawks. The film was released on November 18, 1923, by Paramount Pictures. [1] [2] It was the first film to depict Wyatt Earp, although in a very brief role, and the only film made before he died in 1929 that included his character, until Law and Order was released in 1932. [3] [4]
After the America Civil War ends, key military and government leaders meet in Washington D.C. Gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok (William Hart) goes to Dodge City where he hangs up his gun belt and takes over a card table. Local lawmen are unable to rid the town of lawless cowboys. Hickok's arch-enemy and gang leader Jack McQueen (Jim Farley) accuses Hickok of losing his nerve. Hickok visits General Custer and retrieves his sword, taking up his role as a fighter for what is right.
He returns to Dodge City and enlists the help of friends Wyatt Earp, Calamity Jane, Bat Masterson, Doc Holliday, Charlie Bassett, Luke Short and Bill Tilghman to chase the bad guys out of town. Hickcok falls for the wife of George Hamilton (Carl Gerard). Pursued for his crimes, McQueen leaves town and gets away; follows him and kills him. Hickok departs Dodge City in sorrow since the woman he loved was already married. [4]
William S. Hart, who played Wild Bill Hickok, and Wyatt Earp were best friends. Earp wanted Hart's help to make a movie that would improve what the public thought about him and his brothers. Based on what the press wrote about his actions at the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and his job as a referee of the Fitzsimmons vs. Sharkey boxing match, Earp had a dubious reputation. [5] Earp wrote Hart in July 1925: "I am sure that if the story were exploited on the screen by you, it would do much towards setting me right before the public which has always been fed up with lies about me." [6] [7]
Bert Lindley playing Wyatt Earp appeared very briefly in a crowd scene. [8] : 259 This was the first movie that depicted Wyatt Earp, and the only one that included his character before he died in 1929. Hollywood didn't make another film that referenced his character until Law and Order in 1932. [3] [6]
The film premiered in New York city on November 18, two weeks before its public release on December 3, 1923. [4]
Despite his very small role, Earp was prominently featured in the promotional copy as "Deputy Sheriff to Bat Masterson of Dodge City, known as one of the three greatest gun-men that ever lived, along with Bat Masterson and 'Wild Bill' Hickok... Back in the days when the West was young and wild, 'Wild Bill' fought and loved and adventured with such famous frontiersmen as Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp." [9] In reality, Earp was a virtually unknown assistant marshal in Dodge City when Wild Bill Hickok was murdered in 1876. [10]
Earp served as a technical adviser on the film. [10] Because the role of Earp's character in the movie is so small, Bert Lindley is not listed on some descriptions of the movie and this portrayal of Earp is often overlooked. Alan Barra, author of Inventing Wyatt Earp: His Life and Many Legends, overlooked this movie in his biography. [10]
Hart thought a great deal of Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson, and after Masterson's death in 1921, dedicated his next film, Wild Bill Hickok to Masterson. [6]
The film was not well received. [4] The film's poor box office draw helped end Hart's already fading star. [9]
A print of Wild Bill Hickok is maintained in the Museum of Modern Art [11] and Cinematheque Royale de Belgique film archives. [12]
John HenryHolliday, better known as Doc Holliday, was an American dentist, gambler, and gunfighter who was a close friend and associate of lawman Wyatt Earp. Holliday is best known for his role in the events surrounding and his participation in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. He developed a reputation as having killed more than a dozen men in various altercations, but modern researchers have concluded that, contrary to popular myth-making, Holliday killed only one to three men. Holliday's colorful life and character have been depicted in many books and portrayed by well-known actors in numerous movies and television series.
Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was an American lawman in the American West, including Dodge City, Deadwood, and Tombstone. Earp was involved in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, during which lawmen killed three outlaw Cochise County Cowboys. While Wyatt is often depicted as the key figure in the shootout, his brother Virgil was both Deputy U.S. Marshal and Tombstone City Marshal that day and had considerably more experience in law enforcement as a sheriff, constable, and marshal than did Wyatt. Virgil made the decision to enforce a city ordinance prohibiting carrying weapons in town and to disarm the Cowboys. Wyatt was only a temporary assistant marshal to his brother.
Gunfighters, also called gunslingers or in the late 19th and early 20th century gunmen, were individuals in the American Old West who gained a reputation of being dangerous with a gun and participated in shootouts. Today, the term "gunslinger" is more or less used to denote someone who is quick on the draw with a handgun, but this can also refer to those armed with rifles and shotguns. The gunfighter is also one of the most popular characters in the Western genre and has appeared in associated films, television shows, video games, and literature.
Bat Masterson is an American Western television series which was a fictionalized account of real-life marshal, gambler, and journalist Bat Masterson. The title character was played by Gene Barry, and the half-hour black-and-white series ran on NBC from 1958 to 1961. The show was produced by Ziv Television Productions. "Bat" is a nickname for Masterson's first name Bartholemew, although the fictional Masterson says that his name is William Barkley Masterson.
Bartholemew William Barclay "Bat" Masterson was a U.S. Army scout, lawman, professional gambler, and journalist known for his exploits in the late 19th and early 20th-century American Old West. He was born to a working-class Irish family in Quebec, but he moved to the Western frontier as a young man and quickly distinguished himself as a buffalo hunter, civilian scout, and Indian fighter on the Great Plains. He later earned fame as a gunfighter and sheriff in Dodge City, Kansas, during which time he was involved in several notable shootouts.
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William Matthew Tilghman Jr. was a career lawman, gunfighter, and politician in Kansas and Oklahoma during the late 19th century. Tilghman was a Dodge City city marshal in the early 1880s and played a role in the Kansas County Seat Wars. In 1889 he moved to Oklahoma where he acquired several properties during a series of land rushes. While serving as a Deputy U.S. Marshal in Oklahoma, he gained recognition for capturing the notorious outlaw Bill Doolin and helping to track and kill the other members of Doolin's gang, which made him famous as one of Oklahoma's "Three Guardsmen".
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