Jesse James: Blood Brothers and The Long Riders / Part 4


midnight rider / greg allman

“The Long Riders has been made on faith and idealism.”
 – Stacy Keach

The Carradine brothers
as The Youngers …

The Keach brothers
as The James’ brothers …

The Quaid brothers …
as The Miller brothers

The Guest brothers
as The Ford brothers

So who gets Top Bill?

Brothers Randy and Stacy Keach were Cast as Jesse and Frank James – and were also Executive Producers of the Movie.
And Co-Writers of the Movie.
And you’d expect Jesse and Frank James to be the main Characters in the movie. Right?
So the Keach boys should get Top Bill. Right?

Nope.

The Carradines were Top Billed on the Movie Posters
and on the Film Credits.

Were the Carradines bigger Stars at that time? Guess so?
Or was there some agreement?
Don’t know?

WIKIPEDIA: “In order to make the movie, David Carradine forfeited his customary profit participation; the Keach brothers gave up the extra profit percentages they were entitled to as executive producer in order that the Carradine brothers got the same amount of profits. When the film went over its original $7.5 million budget, the Keaches forfeited their executive producer fees. “The Long Riders has been made on faith and idealism,” said Keach.”

In the end, the movie Cost: $10,000,000 (estimated)
and Made: $23,000,000, USA, June 1981.

Incredibly, that very same year, (1980) another Western by United Artists: Heaven’s Gate, completely decimated the company.
It’s one of the most infamous stories in Filmdom where Director Michael Cimino was responsible for massive overruns in budget and time …
(But that’s another story)

Blood Brothers Part 5 next…

Author: jcalberta

Howdy! I love Westerns. ... and the intent of MyFavoriteWesterns.com is to celebrate Western Movies/Film - old and new. This site will eventually show my top 30 favorite Westerns - or more. I will have original graphic work with regular updates. All this - and more ... Yee Haw ... !! - jcablerta / Moderator / Administrator

5 thoughts on “Jesse James: Blood Brothers and The Long Riders / Part 4”

    1. This is why they were nearly impossible to catch. They had kin and supporters everywhere.
      Ironically that one of Jesse’s supposed supporters killed him. Otherwise he may never have got caught. They never caught Frank.He eventually turned himself in – after about a year in jail he was acquitted.
      I doubt that God is going to be so merciful.

      Reply

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