The Cowboy
Cast & Crew
Elmo Williams
Tex Ritter
Bill Conrad
John Dehner
Larry Dobkin
Carl Brandt
Film Details
Synopsis
The evolution of the modern cowboy in the American Southwest is traced in this documentary. In the days when there were a hundred Indians for every white man, there were also vast herds of wild, long-horn cows. Cowboys captured wild horses so that they could ride the range to round up the cattle and the pursuit, roping and breaking of these mustangs is shown. After the Civil War, with expansion of the railroads, the East became a major market for beef. A cattle drive north to meet the railroads is recreated, including footage of a stampede. The development of ranches and the stringing of wire fences inconveniences many cattle drives as the animals no longer have access to water holes. The fence wars bring gunmen, then lawmen to the West. Bob and Beau Johnson are seen performing their everyday chores on a modern ranch: rounding up calves, administering medications, maintaining equipment, mending fences around fifty-seven square miles, pulling cows out of mudholes and branding calves. When a cow attempts to protect a calf from a coyote attack, Bob chases the coyote away. The social life of a cowboy is depicted as a group of cowboys spruce themselves up and head over to a neighboring ranch for a square dance. Roundup time on the Latham ranch includes scenes of cattle being run through a dipping bath to eradicate ticks and hoof-and-mouth disease. During a small country rodeo, cowboys compete in calf roping and in bull riding. Other events, including bucking broncos, Brahma bull riding and a wild horse race, are also featured. The film ends with the reminiscences of an old cowboy and images of the ruins of former towns.
Film Details
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
This film contains only footage shot specifically for this film. No historical footage is utilized. The opening title cards include the following acknowledgments: "With special thanks to Skeeter and Johnnie, Leona and L. B. Johnson, Elizabeth and Edgar May, Evelyn and Fred Latham, Octavio Elias and Manuel Cuvillo and to THE COWBOYS like BOB and BEAU and MANNY and ROSS and all the others-whose hearts are as big as the country they ride!" Narrators Tex Ritter, Bill Conrad, John Dehner and Larry Dobkin are not seen in the film.
According to information in the file on the film in the MPPA/PCA Collection at the AMPAS Library, after a pre-release screening of the picture, the American Humane Association objected to scenes of mustangs being roped, a fight between a cow and a coyote, scenes of branding, bulls fighting and the busting of calves. These scenes were either deleted or modified before the film's release.
Elmo Williams received an Academy Award for his editing of High Noon (see below) and later became a second-unit director and associate producer. Lorraine Williams was his wife. A March 28, 1954 article in the New York Times reveals that the Williamses shot footage at Sonoita and Douglas, Arizona; on the Cuvillo ranch near Hermosillo, Mexico and near Rincon, Lake Valley and Radium Springs, New Mexico. The modern ranch sequences were shot on the L. B. Johnson ranch near Engle, New Mexico.
