Maragon, who owns the water supply the two families are feuding over. The final important role, Steve Leech (McKay'a antagonist), was offered to Charlton Heston. Already a star and a leading man who had just triumphed as Moses in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments , Heston decided to pass because, in his opinion, at least three parts in the film were better than the one being offered to him. In his autobiography, Heston elaborated:
I was still very preoccupied with the size and centrality of my partâ¦. Is it better to have a good part in an important film, or the best part in an OK film? I know the answer to that nowâ¦. I didn't then. I called Herman [his agent], âLook I know this is a major movie, and it's a very good script, but my part isn't very good. We're getting a lot of offers now anyway. I'll pass on this one.â
âKid,â he said, âyou don't know what the fuck you're talking about. You have an offer to work with Gregory Peck and for maybe the best director in film, and you're worrying the part isn't good enough for you? Don't you know that actors take parts with Wyler without even reading the damn script? I'm telling you, you have to do this picture!â 27
Heston agreed, and Wyler had his cast.
United Artists agreed to a $2.8 million budget for the film. The shoot, which started in July 1958 and lasted four months, was done on two major locations. At one, near Stockton, California, Wyler built a ramshackle, minimal town and shot the range scenes. The other, used for the more remote scenes, was in Red Rock Canyon and the Mojave Desert, which he had used as backdrops for Hell's Heroes almost thirty years earlier.
The plot revolves around the feud between the families of two cattle barons. Both want to take over the Big Muddy, a spread with a bountiful water supply that is owned by the schoolmarm, Julie Maragon (Simmons). She inherited the land from her grandfather but lacks the money to work it. The Hannasseys, headed by Rufus (Ives), and the Terrills, headed by the Major (Bickford), have hated each other for as long as they can remember. Julie will not sell to either of them because she wants the water to be shared, not fought over. Within the generic plot structure of the western, the Terrills seem to be influenced by eastern values: they live in a grand, manor-like home with imported furniture, chandeliers, and carpets. The Major's daughter, Patricia (Baker), dresses well and flaunts ladylike airs; she has been back east, where she met Jim McKay (Peck), the scion of a family of ship owners. In contrast, the Hannasseys, though considerable property owners, are of a lower class; they live in a small, run-down home and dress like westerners. Rufus's son, Buck (Chuck Connors), is a drunken lout. Both Patricia and Buck are intimidated by their fathersâno mothers are evidentâthe difference being that Patricia worships her father to an unhealthy degree, while Buck mostly hates his.
Arriving from the East to marry Patricia, McKay not only becomes embroiled in the feud but also finds himself at odds with the Major's foreman and surrogate son Steve Leech (Heston), who is also in love with Patricia. Leech hates McKay's eastern, gentlemanly ways, which he considers effete and unmanly. As if that were not bad enough, McKay compounds his strangeness by not believing in violence and feeling no need to prove his courage. This pacifist attitude eventually causes a falling-out with Patricia, who comes to doubt his manhood; she also belittles him for not being like her father. Meanwhile, McKay is having second thoughts about Patricia and begins to fall in love with Julie. When Patricia and McKay fight over what she perceives as her fiancé's cowardice and inability to live up to her father's example, he walks out. The feud ends when Major Terrill and Rufus Hannassey kill each other during a shoot-out in Blanco Canyon. McKay and Julie then ride off together.
As he did in The
I was still very preoccupied with the size and centrality of my partâ¦. Is it better to have a good part in an important film, or the best part in an OK film? I know the answer to that nowâ¦. I didn't then. I called Herman [his agent], âLook I know this is a major movie, and it's a very good script, but my part isn't very good. We're getting a lot of offers now anyway. I'll pass on this one.â
âKid,â he said, âyou don't know what the fuck you're talking about. You have an offer to work with Gregory Peck and for maybe the best director in film, and you're worrying the part isn't good enough for you? Don't you know that actors take parts with Wyler without even reading the damn script? I'm telling you, you have to do this picture!â 27
Heston agreed, and Wyler had his cast.
United Artists agreed to a $2.8 million budget for the film. The shoot, which started in July 1958 and lasted four months, was done on two major locations. At one, near Stockton, California, Wyler built a ramshackle, minimal town and shot the range scenes. The other, used for the more remote scenes, was in Red Rock Canyon and the Mojave Desert, which he had used as backdrops for Hell's Heroes almost thirty years earlier.
The plot revolves around the feud between the families of two cattle barons. Both want to take over the Big Muddy, a spread with a bountiful water supply that is owned by the schoolmarm, Julie Maragon (Simmons). She inherited the land from her grandfather but lacks the money to work it. The Hannasseys, headed by Rufus (Ives), and the Terrills, headed by the Major (Bickford), have hated each other for as long as they can remember. Julie will not sell to either of them because she wants the water to be shared, not fought over. Within the generic plot structure of the western, the Terrills seem to be influenced by eastern values: they live in a grand, manor-like home with imported furniture, chandeliers, and carpets. The Major's daughter, Patricia (Baker), dresses well and flaunts ladylike airs; she has been back east, where she met Jim McKay (Peck), the scion of a family of ship owners. In contrast, the Hannasseys, though considerable property owners, are of a lower class; they live in a small, run-down home and dress like westerners. Rufus's son, Buck (Chuck Connors), is a drunken lout. Both Patricia and Buck are intimidated by their fathersâno mothers are evidentâthe difference being that Patricia worships her father to an unhealthy degree, while Buck mostly hates his.
Arriving from the East to marry Patricia, McKay not only becomes embroiled in the feud but also finds himself at odds with the Major's foreman and surrogate son Steve Leech (Heston), who is also in love with Patricia. Leech hates McKay's eastern, gentlemanly ways, which he considers effete and unmanly. As if that were not bad enough, McKay compounds his strangeness by not believing in violence and feeling no need to prove his courage. This pacifist attitude eventually causes a falling-out with Patricia, who comes to doubt his manhood; she also belittles him for not being like her father. Meanwhile, McKay is having second thoughts about Patricia and begins to fall in love with Julie. When Patricia and McKay fight over what she perceives as her fiancé's cowardice and inability to live up to her father's example, he walks out. The feud ends when Major Terrill and Rufus Hannassey kill each other during a shoot-out in Blanco Canyon. McKay and Julie then ride off together.
As he did in The
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