The Jayhawkers!

The Jayhawkers! (1959)

Against the background of a turbulent era when Civil War was a flaming cloud on history's horizon . . A TREMENDOUS MOTION PICTURE!

Before the U.S. Civil War rebel leader Luke Darcy sees himself as leader of a new independent Republic of Kansas but the military governor sends an ex-raider to capture Darcy.

Date of release
1959-10-15
TMDB
6.1 / 10 (30)
Runtime
1h 40m
Genres
Action, Western
Director
Melvin Frank

Casting

Interesting facts

The Jayhawkers! is a 1959 American Technicolor VistaVision western film directed by Melvin Frank, starring Jeff Chandler as Luke Darcy and Fess Parker as Cam Bleeker. The film is set in pre-Civil War land of the Kansas Territory. Darcy leads a gang which seeks to take advantage of Bleeding Kansas ; Bleeker joins the gang. The supporting cast features Henry Silva and Leo Gordon.

Production

The film was made by the team of Norman Panama and Melvin Frank who had a deal with Paramount. They bought the story in January 1957. Panama and Frank were best known for their comedies and had made a comic Western, Callaway Went Thataway but The Jayhawkers was serious. Frank said at the time:

The world has changed in eight years. This is no time to satirize western myth; people won't stand for the making fun of something sacred. Actually, why The Jayhawkers is in the outdoor category and has outlaws and guns and horses, it's a western only in that it takes place on the then-frontier of 1859. Something frightening happened in Kansas on the eve of the Civil War... A man on horseback tried to become A Man on Horseback.

Panama and Frank subjected the script to analysis by a psychological consulting firm.

Melvin Frank tried to interest Vivien Leigh in the female lead. Chandler made the film on loan out from Universal International. Filming started 1 December 1958.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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