By Glenn Erickson
Cheyenne
Brief Synopsis
A gambler falls for the wife of the outlaw he's out to catch.
Cast & Crew
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Raoul Walsh
Director
Dennis Morgan
James Wylie
Jane Wyman
Ann Kincaid
Janis Paige
Emily Carson
Bruce Bennett
Editor Landers, the Poet
Alan Hale
Fred Durkin
Film Details
Genre
Western
Adventure
Release Date
Jun
14,
1947
Premiere Information
New York opening: week of 7 Jun 1947
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 39m
Sound
Mono (RCA Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Synopsis
In 1867, in Laramie, Wyoming Territory, Wells Fargo agent Webb Yancey coerces gambler James Wylie to search for an outlaw known as "the Poet," who has been robbing Wells Fargo shipments. In return for Jim's capture of the Poet, Yancey promises that Nevada criminal charges currently facing Jim will be dropped, and he will earn a reward. On the way to Cheyenne, where it is rumored that the Poet is forming a gang, Jim shares the stagecoach with Emily Carson and Ann Kincaid. Before they reach Cheyenne, the stage is attacked by the Sundance Kid and his gang, who are furious to discover an empty strongbox containing only a poem from the Poet. That evening at the saloon, where Emily is a singer, Jim spots some of the men in the gang and follows them to their hideout. There, Jim pretends to be the Poet. Sundance then discloses that Ann, the Poet's wife, is also at the hideout. Ann goes along with Jim's deception because, as she later explains, she wants to see the Poet captured as much as he does. Sundance is still skeptical of Jim's claims, however, and assigns some of his men to follow Ann and Jim. To convince the gang that he is really Ann's husband, Jim spends the night at Ann's, but sleeps on her couch. Unknown to Jim, Ann's husband is Ed Landers, a Wells Fargo employee. After Ann warns Landers that he is being followed, he promises to stop stealing and leave for San Francisco with her in three days. Using a ruse, Ann lures Jim to a nearby town, where they are followed by Sundance's men. When Sundance and his men try to rob a stage and again find a note from the Poet, Sundance grows suspicious of Jim, and in the ensuing gunfight, three of Sundance's gang are killed. Realizing that Ann has doublecrossed him, Jim returns to town and, not knowing Landers' true identity, reveals to him that he is working for Yancey. Jim then asks the sheriff to order the livery stable not to rent any horses, hoping this will force the Poet into the open. Learning that earlier a woman had purchased a mare from the stable, Jim watches the horse to see who now owns it. Meanwhile, Landers convinces the sheriff that Jim is really the Poet. When Ann again visits Landers, she smells Emily's distinctive perfume and rightly suspects that her husband is planning to leave town with Emily rather than with her. Ann discovers that Emily is leaving on the evening stage and buys a ticket, as does Jim, who has seen Landers on the mare. Jim shoots Landers when he attempts to hold up the stage. Subsequently, Yancey tells Jim that until he finds the stolen money, he is not entitled to the reward for the Poet's capture. Jim is about to despair, but before Ann leaves town, she throws two bags from the stage. When Jim investigates, he finds the missing money and then rides happily after Ann, with whom he has fallen in love.
Director
Raoul Walsh
Director
Cast
Dennis Morgan
James Wylie
Jane Wyman
Ann Kincaid
Janis Paige
Emily Carson
Bruce Bennett
Editor Landers, the Poet
Alan Hale
Fred Durkin
Arthur Kennedy
Sundance Kid
John Ridgely
Chalkeye
Barton Maclane
[Webb] Yancey
Tom Tyler
Pecos
Bob Steele
Bucky
John Compton
Limpy Bill
John Alvin
Single Jack
Monte Blue
Timberlane
Ann O'neal
Miss Kittridge
Tom Fadden
Charlie
Britt Wood
Stranger
Jack Norman
Gambler
Ray Teal
Gambler
Kenneth Macdonald
Gambler
Robert Filmer
Gambler
Lee "lasses" White
Old hotel keeper
Philo Mccullough
Murrow
Carl Harbaugh
Bartender
Houseley Stevenson
Livery stable proprietor
Jasper Palmer
Andrews
Clancy Cooper
Morgan
Jamesson Shade
Stagecoach agent
Hubert Brill
Card expert
Benny Corbett
Shotgun rider
Artie Ortego
Shotgun guard
Bob Alderette
Shotgun guard
Crew
Milo Anderson
Wardrobe
Robert Buckner
Producer
Reggie Callow
Assistant Director
Leo F. Forbstein
Music Director
Hugo Friedhofer
Orchestra Arrangement
Oliver S. Garretson
Sound
Sid Hickox
Director of Photography
M. K. Jerome
Composer
Ted Koehler
Composer
H. F. Koenekamp
Special Effects
Alan Le May
Screenwriter
John Maxwell
Dialogue Director
Jack Mcconaghy
Set Decoration
William Mcgann
Special Effects Director
Christian Nyby
Film Editor
Ted Smith
Art Director
Max Steiner
Composer
Max Steiner
Music
Jack L. Warner
Executive Producer
Paul I. Wellman
Story
Perc Westmore
Makeup Artist
Thames Williamson
Screenwriter
Film Details
Genre
Western
Adventure
Release Date
Jun
14,
1947
Premiere Information
New York opening: week of 7 Jun 1947
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 39m
Sound
Mono (RCA Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Articles
The Wyoming Kid -
A-level Westerns got off to a roaring postwar start, what with John Ford's My Darling Clementine and King Vidor's Duel in the Sun, both from 1946. But veteran Western director Raoul Walsh's expensive effort The Wyoming Kid (1947) is rarely, if ever, revived. The Wells Fargo company dispatches the slick gambler Jim Wylie (Dennis Morgan) to an area known as 'The Devil's Pocket' to capture an elusive stagecoach robber known as 'The Poet.' Jim thinks that, "Anybody who writes poetry like that should be hung if for no other reason." The local thief The Sundance Kid (Arthur Kennedy) and his gang don't understand how the elusive thief beats them payrolls every time. Jim masquerades as The Poet for The Kid's benefit, a ruse upheld by Ann, The Poet's wife (Jane Wyman) because she wants to see her husband captured. More complications ensue when Ann suspects that her real husband may be two-timing her with the flashy dance hall singer, Emily (Janis Page). The film was originally planned for Humphrey Bogart and Zachary Scott, and it's likely that wartime heartthrob Dennis Morgan didn't measure up as a gunslinger hero. The supporting cast of Bruce Bennett, John Ridgely, Alan Hale, Barton Mac Lane and Bob Steele is a big plus, as are locations filmed in Flagstaff, Arizona. Jane Wyman plays a woman with several secrets, but Janis Page sings two songs and gets all the saucy lines. Reviewers noted Page's 'startling' cleavage, and also a higher level of violence, as when The Kid callously shoots an adversary lying helpless on the ground. The Wyoming Kid (1947) was originally released as Cheyenne, but underwent a title change in 1955 when Warner Television used 'Cheyenne' for an unrelated TV series.
By Glenn Erickson
By Glenn Erickson
The Wyoming Kid -
A-level Westerns got off to a roaring postwar start, what with John Ford's My Darling Clementine and King Vidor's Duel in the Sun, both from 1946. But veteran Western director Raoul Walsh's expensive effort The Wyoming Kid (1947) is rarely, if ever, revived. The Wells Fargo company dispatches the slick gambler Jim Wylie (Dennis Morgan) to an area known as 'The Devil's Pocket' to capture an elusive stagecoach robber known as 'The Poet.' Jim thinks that, "Anybody who writes poetry like that should be hung if for no other reason." The local thief The Sundance Kid (Arthur Kennedy) and his gang don't understand how the elusive thief beats them payrolls every time. Jim masquerades as The Poet for The Kid's benefit, a ruse upheld by Ann, The Poet's wife (Jane Wyman) because she wants to see her husband captured. More complications ensue when Ann suspects that her real husband may be two-timing her with the flashy dance hall singer, Emily (Janis Page). The film was originally planned for Humphrey Bogart and Zachary Scott, and it's likely that wartime heartthrob Dennis Morgan didn't measure up as a gunslinger hero. The supporting cast of Bruce Bennett, John Ridgely, Alan Hale, Barton Mac Lane and Bob Steele is a big plus, as are locations filmed in Flagstaff, Arizona. Jane Wyman plays a woman with several secrets, but Janis Page sings two songs and gets all the saucy lines. Reviewers noted Page's 'startling' cleavage, and also a higher level of violence, as when The Kid callously shoots an adversary lying helpless on the ground. The Wyoming Kid (1947) was originally released as Cheyenne, but underwent a title change in 1955 when Warner Television used 'Cheyenne' for an unrelated TV series.
By Glenn Erickson
Cheyenne aka The Wyoming Kid
Heading up the ensemble cast, and no stranger to the Western genre, is Arthur Kennedy, who despite his penchant for playing macho types (in movies like Bad Men of Missouri (1941) and Air Force (1943), was actually a classically trained actor who began his career bringing Shakespeare to the masses on a Globe Theatre Company tour of the Mid-West. Kennedy's introduction to Hollywood has a mythic quality to it; he made his first screen appearance in the 1940 film City of Conquest, after being hand picked off a L.A. stage by James Cagney. The actor cast Kennedy as his own brother in the film. Arthur Kennedy would rack up five Oscar nominations (with no wins) in his years in Hollywood and appeared in such prestigious projects as Lawrence of Arabia (1962). But his biggest successes were on the stage. In fact, Kennedy's association with playwright Arthur Miller included memorable parts for him as the original John Proctor in The Crucible and Biff in Death of a Salesman, a role that won him a Tony.
Along with Kennedy, veteran character actor Alan Hale figures prominently in Cheyenne. Hale originally had designs on being an opera singer but got his movie break in 1911 as a slapstick comedian. He spent the 1920's playing mostly villains, with the notable exception being his Little John to Douglas Fairbanks' Robin Hood (1922). It was a role Hale would repeat two more times in his career, again with Errol Flynn in 1938 and finally opposite John Derek in Rogue's of Sherwood Forest (1950). Rogue's of Sherwood Forest proved to be his final film (He died in 1950 while working on the Warner Bros. Western Montana). But movies weren't Alan Hale's only passion. He was also an enthusiastic inventor, who held the patent or helped finance the creation of items from auto brakes to hand held fire extinguishers to greaseless potato chips. And according to Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia, Hale also managed to bring his two loves together by inventing the folding theater seat.
Walsh chose Warner Brothers musical star Dennis Morgan to play the flashy gambler in Cheyenne. The actor, who was born Stanley Morner, made his first big Hollywood splash opposite Ginger Rogers in
So, while the impressive talents of the cast and director made Cheyenne only a modest success, the movie enjoyed a longer life on the small screen. A TV series, of the same name, was loosely based on the film and starred Clint Walker and Cheyenne kept riding on ABC from 1955 to 1963.
Producer: Robert Buckner
Director: Raoul Walsh
Screenplay: Alan Le May, Thames Williamson
Art Direction: Ted Smith
Cinematography: Sidney Hickox
Editing: Christian Nyby
Music: M. K. Jerome, Ted Koehler, Max Steiner
Cast: Dennis Morgan (James Wylie), Arthur Kennedy (The Sundance Kid), Jane Wyman (Ann Kincaid), Janis Paige (Emily Carson), Bruce Bennett (Ed Launders), Alan Hale (Fred Durbin), Barton MacLane (Yancey), Tom Tyler (Pecos), Bob Steele (Bucky), John Alvin (Single Jack), Monte Blue (Timberline) .
BW-99m. Closed captioning.
By Stephanie Thames
Cheyenne aka The Wyoming Kid
A series of Wells Fargo stagecoach robberies are attributed to a mysterious bandit known as 'The Poet.' No one knows who he really is but the sheriff of Cheyenne decides to coerce James Wylie, a gambler wanted by the law in another town, to go undercover and ferret out the robber's identity. That's the basic set-up in Cheyenne (1947), a Western adventure directed by Raoul Walsh and featuring a rather unique cast. It boasts not only a Tony winner, a former opera singer and the one-time highest paid male star at Warner Bros., but also, the wife of a future President. While Cheyenne may not be as well remembered as Walsh's White Heat (1949) or his Westerns (They Died With Their Boots On, 1941), its top notch ensemble cast, realistic locations (filmed in Sedona, Arizona, an area which has provided the backdrop for Westerns from John Wayne's Angel and the Badman (1947) to Firecreek (1968), and stripped-down-to-basics storyline make it an excellent example of a big budget Hollywood Western from the late forties.
Heading up the ensemble cast, and no stranger to the Western genre, is Arthur Kennedy, who despite his penchant for playing macho types (in movies like Bad Men of Missouri (1941) and Air Force (1943), was actually a classically trained actor who began his career bringing Shakespeare to the masses on a Globe Theatre Company tour of the Mid-West. Kennedy's introduction to Hollywood has a mythic quality to it; he made his first screen appearance in the 1940 film City of Conquest, after being hand picked off a L.A. stage by James Cagney. The actor cast Kennedy as his own brother in the film. Arthur Kennedy would rack up five Oscar nominations (with no wins) in his years in Hollywood and appeared in such prestigious projects as Lawrence of Arabia (1962). But his biggest successes were on the stage. In fact, Kennedy's association with playwright Arthur Miller included memorable parts for him as the original John Proctor in The Crucible and Biff in Death of a Salesman, a role that won him a Tony.
Along with Kennedy, veteran character actor Alan Hale figures prominently in Cheyenne. Hale originally had designs on being an opera singer but got his movie break in 1911 as a slapstick comedian. He spent the 1920's playing mostly villains, with the notable exception being his Little John to Douglas Fairbanks' Robin Hood (1922). It was a role Hale would repeat two more times in his career, again with Errol Flynn in 1938 and finally opposite John Derek in Rogue's of Sherwood Forest (1950). Rogue's of Sherwood Forest proved to be his final film (He died in 1950 while working on the Warner Bros. Western Montana). But movies weren't Alan Hale's only passion. He was also an enthusiastic inventor, who held the patent or helped finance the creation of items from auto brakes to hand held fire extinguishers to greaseless potato chips. And according to Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia, Hale also managed to bring his two loves together by inventing the folding theater seat.
Walsh chose Warner Brothers musical star Dennis Morgan to play the flashy gambler in Cheyenne. The actor, who was born Stanley Morner, made his first big Hollywood splash opposite Ginger Rogers in
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Studio press releases announced that Humphrey Bogart was to star in this film and that Zachary Scott was also assigned to a starring role. A May 3, 1946 Hollywood Reporter news item reported that John Alvin replaced Clifton Young in the role of "Single Jack" when the latter was taken ill. The Variety review noted that many exterior scenes were shot in Arizona, substituting for Wyoming.
