The wagons were raised and then lowered from the tops of cliffs using the old-fashioned methods that would have been available at the time, that is by rope-and-tackle. When the river was forded, it was with real wagons and the cast. In the absence of CGI, everything seen on the screen was achieved for real without any recourse to blue screen. Around 400 members of cast and crew made the trek. It was an arduous shoot, virtually the whole picture shot as exteriors, in Tucson, Arizona, and in various locations in Oregon including Bend, Christmas Valley and the Crooked River Gorge. Although not in a directorial capacity McLaglen had worked with Mitchum on Blood Alley (1956) before the actor was fired. Mitchum and Douglas had acted together in Out of the Past (1947), where the former had the larger role, and, while not sharing scenes, appeared in The List of Adrian Messenger (1963), where the billing was reversed. He didn’t learn the language, as modern actors might do, but simply recited the words spoken to him off-camera. While Widmark did not attempt a Scandinavian accent, Mitchum spoke Lakota, apparently with a decent accent, in several scenes where he had to communicate with Native Americans. Von Sydow was too big a star to play any of the other supporting parts and the part assigned to Widmark was Scandinavian so in that sense an ideal fit. “I’m awfully glad it worked out the way it did,” recalled McLaglen, “because Widmark was perfect for the other part and Mitchum was perfect for the scout.” It might not have been Widmark because Max von Sydow was also reputedly offered a part. At the end of a long lunch with Hecht and McLaglen, Mitchum could not make up his mind and the producer and director assigned him the role of the scout. When he turned it down, Kirk Douglas signed on for his first western in five years – although his next would also be a western, The War Wagon (1967) with John Wayne – Robert Mitchum ( Villa Rides, 1968) was offered the choice of either scout Dick Summers or firebrand Life Evans. McLaglen, with three box office western hits behind him in McLintock (1963) starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara, Shenandoah (1965) with James Stewart and The Rare Breed (1966) co-starring Stewart and O’Hara, was first choice to sit in the director’s chair.Ĭharlton Heston ( El Cid, 1961) was approached to play the lead of Senator Tadlock. Guthrie, by screenwriters Ben Maddow and Mitch Lindemann, not least to ensure that the character played by Kirk Douglas remained with the wagon train until the end of the trail, unlike in the book. The studio had such high hopes for the movie that plans were made for its world premiere to be held at the Houston Astrodome, a first, and it was considered a natural for roadshow treatment.Ī substantial rejig was required of the source material, the Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel by A.B. When casting issues caused delay, Hecht signed a one-picture deal with United Artists for The Way West. However, given the impact music had in Cat Ballou, Hecht hankered after something in the same vein, except bigger, and bought the rights to Finian’s Rainbow, a Broadway hit from 1947. Hecht’s initial efforts as a solo producer had not paid off, Taras Bulba (1962), Flight from Ashiya (1964), both starring Yul Brynner, and Tony Curtis comedy Wild and Wonderful (1964) all covered in red ink, before suddenly resurfacing with the hit Cat Ballou (1965), making him imminently more bankable than before. When Harold Hecht split from Lancaster, the rights reverted to United Artists. But by 1959 the dream had soured, with $545,000 already shelled out on the western with no sign of a start date. Biggest project on the table: $5 million for The Way West with a dream team of Lancaster, James Stewart and Gary Cooper and a script from Clifford Odets ( The Sweet Smell of Success, 1957). Hecht-Lancaster was at its peak in 1956, each of its first 11 pictures turning a profit, and just signed up to a $40 million three-year deal with United Artists. But when Burt Lancaster’s production outfit Hecht-Lancaster bought the property that was the end of that casting idea. As you might expect with a title like this John Wayne was in the frame, at least at the start.
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