The Gunfighter (1950) on Netflix
Jimmy Ringo, the fastest draw in the West, kills a young cowboy who provokes him, and the man's brothers ride after him. In Cayenne he seeks his wife and son.
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- Netflix4.3/5
- IMDb7.7/1014,598 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes94%
Trailer
Plot summary
Jimmy Ringo carries a reputation as the fastest gun in the West, and young cowboys want to be the one who beats him. He kills a young cowboy named Eddie in self-defense, and Eddie's three brothers set out after him. Ringo rides into Cayenne looking for his wife, Peggy Walsh, and the son who has never been told who his father is. Peggy has changed her surname to hide the connection and does not want to see him. The marshal, Mark Strett, an old friend, tells Ringo to leave town before trouble starts. Jerry Marlowe blames Ringo for his son's murder, and Hunt Bromley wants the fame that killing him would bring.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Gunfighter (1950)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Columbia Pictures bought the rights and offered the lead of The Gunfighter to John Wayne, who turned it down despite wanting the part, because of his longstanding hatred for the studio's president Harry Cohn.
- The studio hated Gregory Peck's authentic period mustache, and Zanuck, who had been abroad when production began, reportedly said he would give $25,000 of his own money to get that mustache off Peck.
- In the original ending, Hunt Bromley was arrested by the town marshal, but studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck was enraged at this resolution, so King and Johnson rewrote the final scene.
- The script was loosely based on a real Western gunfighter, Johnny Ringo, a distant cousin of the outlaw Younger family and enemy of Doc Holliday and the Earp brothers. Unlike the film's character, his 1882 attempts at reconciliation with his estranged family in California were rejected, and after a 10-day alcoholic binge he died of a gunshot wound, probably self-inflicted.
- William Bowers wrote the role with John Wayne in mind but refused to sell him the script, hoping for a higher price. Wayne offered $10,000; Bowers thought that too little and sold it for $70,000.
- Bob Dylan referenced scenes from The Gunfighter in his song "Brownsville Girl", cowritten by playwright Sam Shepard, on his 1986 release Knocked Out Loaded, and Gregory Peck paid tribute to Dylan's words when Dylan received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1997.
