The Sons of Katie Elder movie storyline. The Elder boys return to Clearwater, Texas for their Mother’s funeral. John, the eldest, is a well-known gunfighter and trouble follows him wherever he goes. The boys try to get their ranch back from the town’s gunsmith who won it from their father in a card game, after which he was murdered. Troubles come, however, just because they carry the Elder name.
The Sons of Katie Elder is a 1965 American Western film in Panavision, directed by Henry Hathaway and starring John Wayne, Dean Martin, Martha Hyer, Michael Anderson Jr, Earl Holliman, George Kennedy, Paul Fix, Jeremy Slate, James Gregory, Dennis Hopper, John Doucette and James Westerfield. It was filmed principally in Mexico.
Filming was due to begin in September 1964, but had to be delayed until January 1965, after Wayne was diagnosed with lung cancer.[14] Following Wayne’s surgery to remove a cancerous lung and two ribs, the star insisted on doing his own stunts, and nearly contracted pneumonia after being dragged into a river.
Outdoor locations were filmed in Durango, in northern Mexico, and the opening credits scene as a locomotive travels a narrow stream canyon valley on the famed Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (now a scenic tourist train) Colorado, United States. The train depot scene that follows that (where the brothers wait for no-show John Wayne) was filmed at Perkinsville Arizona, and that same train depot was used as Gold City near the end of How the West was Won. That train depot still stands at the end of the ride for Verde Canyon Railroad, a tourist train originating in Clarkdale, Arizona, before the train reverses and heads back.
Former Disney star Tommy Kirk was signed for the film, presumably in the role of Bud Elder, but his arrest for being at a party where marijuana was used led to his being fired from the production. The name “Kate Elder” was one of several names used by Mary Katherine Horony Cummings, better known as “Big Nose Kate”, a western icon and sometime companion of dentist / gambler / gunfighter Doc Holliday. As Holliday’s Kate Elder lived until 1940, she cannot be the Katie Elder mentioned in this film. John Wayne and Dean Martin had also starred in Howard Hawks’s Rio Bravo six years earlier, one of Martin’s earliest dramatic roles after splitting with his longtime comedic partner Jerry Lewis.
Four years later, Henry Hathaway also directed John Wayne in his first Academy Award-winning role of Indian Territory U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn in the original screen version of True Grit (1969). In addition to Wayne, actors Strother Martin, Dennis Hopper, and Jeremy Slate were all cast in that film as well.
The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)
Directed by: Henry Hathaway
Starring: John Wayne, Dean Martin, Martha Hyer, Michael Anderson Jr, Earl Holliman, George Kennedy, Paul Fix, Jeremy Slate, James Gregory, Dennis Hopper, John Doucette, James Westerfield
Screenplay by: William H. Wright, Allan Weiss, Harry Essex
Cinematography by: Lucien Ballard
Film Editing by: Warren Low
Costume Design by: Edith Head
Set Decoration by: Sam Comer, Ray Moyer
Art Direction by: Hal Pereira, Walter H. Tyler
Music by: Elmer Bernstein
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: June 24, 1965
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