1958 - Dir.: William Wyler - 2 hours 40 minutes - USAThis is a co-production between the star, Gregory Peck, and the director, William Wyler. The two, who had become friends while working on “Roman Holiday”, didn’t start out with the intention of making a western. The original idea was to make a comedy about a museum robbery in Madrid. Writers were hired and casting begun - but the story didn’t work out and the film never got off the ground.
A little later a friend drew Peck’s attention to a story by Donald Hamilton, “Ambush at Blanco Canyon.” which had been serialized in the Saturday Evening Post and later expanded into a novel entitled The Big Country. Peck showed the story to Wyler, noting that it had at least six good parts and was “an anti-macho western”. The director liked the project, and the two friends divided up their responsibilities and formed two separate production companies - Wyler’s was called World Wide Productions, and Peck’s was Anthony Productions. Wyler would be in charge of artistic matters, while Peck, in addition to having casting and script approval, would choose the livestock, horses, and riders. Peck, who also had a development deal with United Artists, arranged for that studio to finance and distribute the film. That agreement was probably the most harmonious moment in the entire process. Wyler, a perfectionist, hired and fired writer after writer as the script developed and eventually admitted that he couldn’t remember who had written which part of the script - the Writers’ Guild of America were called in to arbitrate when the writing credits were being drawn up.
Things went downhill from there. Wyler called for re-take after re-take. Peck, also a perfectionist, was known for his careful preparation… which usually resulted in the scene being shot in one or two takes. After one row things got so bad that Peck had to be coaxed back to the set to complete the picture. They didn’t speak for years. The other actors fared no better - Jean Simmons was so traumatized by the experience that she refused to talk about it until an interview in the late eighties when she revealed, "We'd have our lines learned, then receive a rewrite, stay up all night learning the new version, then receive yet another rewrite the following morning. It made the acting damned near impossible." Despite the friction behind the camera the result is a fine piece of work - perhaps the only “pacifist” western of its day….
NOT MANY PEOPLE KNOW THAT…
● US President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave the movie four consecutive showings at the White House and called it "simply the best film ever made. My number one favorite film."
● Gregory Peck cast all of his sons (Jonathan Peck, Carey Paul Peck and Stephen Peck) in the film.
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