Chicago hotel clerk Frank Harris dreams of life as a cowboy, and he gets his chance when, jilted by the father of the woman he loves, he joins Tom Reece and his cattle-driving outfit. Soon, though, the tenderfoot finds out life on the range is neither what he expected nor what he's been looking for...
Acting
Lemmon's physical comedy meets Ford's stoic weariness.
Direction
Daves shoots cattle drives like actual work, not myth.
Cinematography
Mexico locations that look earned, not postcard pretty.
Director
Delmer Daves
Glenn Ford
Tom Reese
Jack Lemmon
Frank Harris
Anna Kashfi
Maria Vidal / Arriega
Brian Donlevy
Doc Bender, Trailhand
Dick York
Charlie, Trailhand
Víctor Manuel Mendoza
Paco Mendoza, Ramrod
Richard Jaeckel
Paul Curtis
King Donovan
Joe Capper, Trailhand
Vaughn Taylor
Mr. Fowler, Chicago Hotel Manager
Donald Randolph
Senor Vidal, Maria's Father
James Westerfield
Mike Adams
Eugene Iglesias
Don Manuel Arriega
Frank De Kova
Alcaide
Russ Bender
Joe (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Lemmon did his own stunts including the infamous snake bite scene, and reportedly kept the fang marks as a souvenir.
Based on Frank Harris's actual memoir 'My Reminiscences as a Cowboy,' but the film invents the father-daughter conflict entirely—because 1958 needed a love story engine.
US
