Gun the Man Down (1956)

Interesting facts

Gun the Man Down is a 1956 American Western film directed by Andrew V. McLaglen and starring James Arness and Angie Dickinson in her first leading role. The film was produced by Robert E. Morrison for his brother John Wayne's company Batjac Productions. It was the second theatrical feature directed by McLaglen, who was a prolific director of television westerns.

Production notes

Gun the Man Down remains arguably most notable for containing actress Angie Dickinson's first starring (credited) role. She would go on to star in successful films such as Rio Bravo opposite John Wayne and Dean Martin, Ocean's Eleven with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, Captain Newman, M.D.

James Arness was recommended by Gun the Man Down uncredited producer John Wayne for the role of Marshal Matt Dillon in the television version of Gunsmoke, a part Arness played for the next twenty years. Wayne introduced the series in a film clip shown immediately before the initial episode while dressed in cowboy garb and speaking directly to the camera.

Andrew V. McLaglen, the film's director, was the son of actor and former boxer Victor McLaglen, and went on to direct ninety-six episodes of Gunsmoke starring James Arness, as well as five movies starring John Wayne, among many others. Gun the Man Down also remains notable for being the first of many westerns McLaglen directed.

This was also the second screenplay by Burt Kennedy, who became a prolific writer of westerns, particularly those directed by Budd Boetticher, before becoming a director himself in the 1960s. Kennedy had just written his first script, Seven Men from Now, while under contract to John Wayne's company, Batjac but there were no plans to make it. He was called in to rewrite Gun the Man Down.

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