In Movies, Billing is a big deal. Billing refers to Order, Place, Size, and Color of your name
as it appears on The Marquee, Posters, Advertising, Film Trailer,
and on Screen, etc. – if at all.
In The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance I noticed some interesting Billing anomalies.
Between 1949–1957 and 1959–1974 John Wayne was in the Top Ten Money Making Stars25 times!!!
That’s a record number.
This includes 1962 when The ManWho Shot Liberty Valance was made.
So you’d expect that Wayne would be Top Billed on everything, right?
Wrong.
But for some reason (unknown to me), he wasn’t.
Let’s start with the Official Trailer Preview.
James Stewart is Billed first!? Wayne is Billed Second!:
Both Bills are the same size and configuration …
BUT Wayne’s Bill is still an obvious Second.
I doubt this could have occurred without Wayne’s approval. Wayne had great respect and friendship with Stewart.
This was later reflected again when Stewart was handpicked by Wayne
for a nice role in Wayne’s final Film: The Shootist (1976).
And it’s notable that both Stars were Billed ahead of the actual Movie Title Banner itself:
This reflects Stewart’s and Wayne’sStar Power of course –
They were the Draw.
However …
… on the actual Film Screen … things are different: Wayne is Billed first – as we would have expected.
Stewart is second …
… and both are still Billed before the Film Banner:
Another interesting Billing oddity of that Lee Marvin isn’t Billed at all !!
in most any of the Movie’s advertising –
even though he plays the Title character, Liberty Valance.
Lee had not yet emerged as a Top Star.
That was soon to change.
Next:
We’re going to check the Billing on the Movie’s Posters.
Casting Call Part 1 / Pike Bishop
The Wild Bunch 1973
The Wild Bunch / Pike Bishop / William Holden
I always like to check who got a particular role/part/casting – and how – why? Who refused it – missed out? The casting story for The Wild Bunch reveals some very interesting candidates.
Who would you have picked? Why? A very tough decision.
Wikipedia says: “Director Sam Peckinpah considered many actors for the Pike Bishop role, before casting William Holden: Richard Boone, Sterling Hayden, Charlton Heston, Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Robert Mitchum, Gregory Peck, and James Stewart. Marvin actually accepted the role but pulled out after he was offered a larger pay deal to star in Paint Your Wagon (1969).”
Pretty well a Who’s Who of Western film Icons.
Who would you have Cast?:
Richard Boone Western Filmography
Way of a Gaucho – (1952) / Pony Soldier (uncredited) (1952) City of Bad Men – (1953) / The Siege at Red River– (1954) The Raid – (1954) / Ten Wanted Men – (1955) Man Without a Star – (1955) /Robbers’ Roost – (1955) Star in the Dust – (1956) / The Tall T – (1957) The Alamo – (1960) / A Thunder of Drums – (1961) Rio Conchos – (1964) / Hombre– (1967) Big Jake – (1971) / Against a Crooked Sky – (1975) Diamante Lobo – (1976) / The Shootist – (1976)
Richard Boone TV Westerns Frontier– episode – The Salt War -1956) Studio One in Hollywood – episode – Dead of Noon – (1957) Have Gun – Will Travel – 225 episodes – (1957–1963) Cimarron Strip – episode – The Roarer – (1967) Hec Ramsey – 10 episodes – (1972-1974)
Sterling Hayden Western Filmography
1949 El Paso / 1952 Flaming Feather
1952 Denver and Rio Grande / 1952 Hellgate
1953 Kansas Pacific / 1954 Arrow In the Dust
1954 Johnny Guitar / 1955 Timberjack
1955 Shotgun / 1955 Top Gun
1955 The Last Command / 1957 Gun Battle at Monterey
1957 The Iron Sheriff / 1958 Terror in a Texas Town
1975 Cipolla Colt
Sterling Hayden TV Westerns
1957 Zane Grey Theater / 1957 Wagon Train
1982 The Blue and the Gray
Charleton Heston Western Filmography 1952 The Savage / 1952 The President’s Lady 1953 Pony Express/ 1953Arrowhead 1955 The Far Horizons / 1957 Three Violent People 1958 The Big Country / 1965Major Dundee 1968 Will Penny / 1972The Call of the Wild 1980The Mountain Men / 1993Tombstone
Burt Lancaster Western Filmography 1951 Vengeance Valley /1951 Ten Tall Men 1954Apache / 1954 Vera Cruz 1955 The Kentuckian / 1956The Rainmaker 1957 Gunfight at the O.K. Corral /1960 The Unforgiven 1965 The Hallelujah Trail / 1966The Professionals 1968 The Scalphunters/1971 Lawman 1971Valdez Is Coming / 1972 Ulzana’s Raid 1976Buffalo Bill and the Indians / 1981Cattle Annie and Little Britches
Lee Marvin Western Filmography Gun Fury(1953) / The Raid(1954) The Comancheros (1961) / The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) Cat Ballou (1965) / The Professionals(1966) Paint Your Wagon (1969) /Monte Walsh (1970) The Spikes Gang (1974)
TV Westerns:
Wagon Train, Bonanza, and The Virginian …
Robert Mitchum Western Filmography
1943 Hoppy Serves a Writ / 1943 Border Patrol
1943 Leather Burners / 1943 Colt Comrades
1943 The Lone Star Trail / 1943 Beyond the Last Frontier
1943 Bar 20 / 1943 False Colors
1943 Riders of the Deadline / 1944 Nevada
1945 West of the Pecos / 1947 Pursued
1948 Blood on the Moon/ 1949 The Red Pony
1952 The Lusty Men / 1954 River of No Return
1955 Man with the Gun / 1956 Bandido
1959 The Wonderful Country/ 1967 El Dorado
1967 The Way West/ 1968 Villa Rides
1968 5 Card Stud/ 1969 Young Billy Young
1969 The Good Guys and the Bad Guys
1993 Tombstone Narrator / 1995 Dead Man
Robert Mitchum TV Work
1985 North and South
Gregory Peck Western Filmography
1946 Duel in the Sun / 1946 Yellow Sky
1950 The Gunfighter / 1950 Only the Valiant
1958 The Bravados / 1958 The Big Country
1962 How the West Was Won / 1967 The Stalking Moon 1967Mackenna’s Gold / 1982 The Blue and the Gray 1989Old Gringo
James Stewart Western Filmography 1939 Destry Rides Again / 1950 Winchester ’73
1950 Broken Arrow / 1952 Bend of the River
1953 The Naked Spur / 1954 The Far Country
1955 The Man from Laramie / 1961 Two Rode Together
1962 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
1962 How the West Was Won / 1964 Cheyenne Autumn
1965 Shenandoah/ 1966 The Rare Breed
1968 Firecreek/ 1968 Bandolero!
1970 The Cheyenne Social Club
1976 The Shootist
Amazing … stunning. You can’t lose. Put all the names in a hat and pull one out … any one of them would have done a great job.
Next let’s have a look at Ernest Borgnine’s role of Dutch Engstrom …
Like this:
LikeLoading…
5 responses to “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance / Oddity No. 2: The BILLING Mystery … Part 1 …”
What do you get when you have John Ford, John Wayne and James Stewart collaborating together in on a western? You have one of the many greatest westerns ever made 🙂 It has been frequently said that The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (along with Sam Peckinpah’s Ride the High Country – both released in 1962), served as an epilogue for the traditional western. This is not to say that westerns did not tackle the darker side of the old west prior to the mid-to-late 1960’s, but The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance debatably served as something of a transitional film in the genre – offering a little bit of what preceded it with the traditional western and everything it was about to become with the revisionist western. Interesting isn’t it? 🙂
It definitely moved Westerns from being Story driven entertainment to being more cerebral and artistic? And when I watch it, I still can’t believe that Ford got away with pretty well shooting the whole darn thing in studio – and pulled it off. Somehow it seems irrelevant. Doubt you could do that these days.
Actually, prior to the rise of the revisionist western during the mid-1960’s, the 1950’s westerns (or at least 50 percent of them) were cerebral and artistic, but in a more subtle way. Nevertheless, you are right that it was after The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance that filmmakers began to simultaneously experiment with the genre, while dissecting all of the hallmarks and myths that we viewers long associated the genre with. Here is an interesting fact for you, John Ford’s My Darling Clementine was actually cited by Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch) as one of his favorite westerns. That might come off as shocking considering how Clementine was a traditionalist piece whereas most of Peckinpah’s westerns deconstructed the elements present in that earlier film. But, it is not surprising to me and now I know why I occasionally think about My Darling Clementine while watching The Wild Bunch – the song Shall We Gather by the River is played in both of them 🙂 Interesting isn’t it? 🙂
Between 1949–1957 and 1959–1974
James Stewart is Billed first!?
Both Bills are the same size and configuration …
Stewart is second …
… and both are still Billed before the Film Banner:
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.