Cowboy (1958)
Chicago hotel clerk Frank Harris dreams of making his fortune in the cattle business. He gets his chance when, the father of the Mexican woman he loves breaks off their relationship and Frank bankrolls cattleman Tom Reece to be able to join him on a cattle buying trip to Mexico. Soon, though, the tenderfoot finds out the reality of life on the trail as a cowboy is not what he expected.
THE REAL, TRUE STORY OF THE WEST!
Tom Reese: If you had anything inside you worth saving, I'd beat you until you couldn't stand up. But it wouldn't do any good because you'll never learn. You haven't gotten tougher... you've gotten miserable!
Bonanza Creek Movie Ranch - Bonanza Creek Rd, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
(location)
San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico, USA
Lawton, Oklahoma, USA
El Paso Stockyards, El Paso, Texas, USA
Hereford, Arizona, USA
The trumpeter in the cantina was Rapha?l Mendez, who in the 1950s was considered by many professional musicians to be one of the finest trumpet players in the world, if not the best.
The script is based on the memoirs of Frank Harris, chronicling his first trail drive as a greenhorn from Chicago.
Jack Lemmon was one of the actors considered for the role of Butch Cassidy in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), based on his performance in this film.
This film was later a central part of the plot of the Dennis the Menace (1959) episode Dennis Goes to the Movies (1959).
George Duning's soundtrack uses themes from traditional western and Mexican folk tunes.
Continuity
While trying to place a ring on the bulls obviously rubber horn, Don Manuel Arriegas horse is shown being gored in the right shoulder, with blood spurting out of the wound. In subsequent shots there is no sign of any wound. Additionally, many shots in the scene show lunges by the bull that would have disemboweled the horse had the horns been real.
During the bull - ring game, Glenn Ford is rolled on the ground, but when he pops up again, his clothes don't have a speck of dirt on them.
Revealing mistakes
In a rail car containing the shipment of cattle, Tom Reese, an 'experienced' cattle-handler, attempts to help up a fallen steer by pulling the animal's head so that it can get up on its front legs then, presumably, on to its hind legs. No bovine will normally get up like this, and it's easier for it, firstly, to raise itself up on its hind legs by lunging forward, then put its front legs under it to stand up. To help this animal get up, you must lift its rear end by grabbing either the tail root or its backside.
While Don Manuel Arriega and Tom Reese are attempting to place the ring on the bull's horns, it is obvious the horns, which bend and flop, are made of rubber.
When Tom and Frank strike their deal in the hotel, Tom says "Get some sleep. We leave first thing in the morning." When Tom and the other cowboys arrive the next morning in the wagon, the shadows on the ground are very short, being almost non-existent. This indicates the sun is almost directly overhead and that it is close to noon, and nowhere near early morning.
Anachronisms
The stampede scene had the cowboys using what appear to be 20th century model Winchesters with round barrels. They should have used octagonal-barreled model 73s.