SHANE
DIRECTED AND PRODUCED BY GEORGE STEVENS
PARAMOUNT PICTURES
Photo with the courtesy of lasbugas
Information From IMDb
Plot Summary
Shane rides into a conflict between cattleman Ryker and a bunch of settlers, like the Starretts, whose land Ryker wants. When Shane beats up Ryker's man Chris, Ryker tries to buy him. Then Shane and Joe take on the whole Ryker crew. Ryker sends to Cheyenne for truly evil gunslinger Wilson. We wonder about Shane's relation to Joe's wife Marian. Shane must clear out all the guns from the valley before he can ride off with Joey hollering "Shane ... Shane ... Come Back!"
Written by Ed Stephan
Cast
Alan Ladd ... Shane
Jean Arthur ... Marian Starrett
Van Heflin ... Joe Starrett
Brandon De Wilde ... Joey Starrett
Jack Palance ... Jack Wilson (as Walter Jack Palance)
Ben Johnson ... Chris Calloway
Edgar Buchanan ... Fred Lewis
Emile Meyer ... Rufus Ryker
Elisha Cook Jr. ... Frank 'Stonewall' Torrey
Douglas Spencer ... Axel 'Swede' Shipstead
John Dierkes ... Morgan Ryker
Ellen Corby ... Mrs. Liz Torrey
Paul McVey ... Sam Grafton
John Miller ... Will Atkey, bartender
Edith Evanson ... Mrs. Shipstead
Leonard Strong ... Ernie Wright
Ray Spiker ... Axel Johnson - Homesteader
Janice Carroll ... Susan Lewis
Martin Mason ... Ed Howells
Helen Brown ... Martha Lewis
Nancy Kulp ... Mrs. Howells
Ewing Miles Brown ... Ryker Man (uncredited)
Bill Cartledge ... Ryker man (uncredited)
William Dyer Jr. ... Homesteader (uncredited)
Chester W. Hannan ... Ryker man (uncredited)
Alana Ladd ... Little Girl (uncredited)
David Ladd ... Little Boy (uncredited)
George J. Lewis ... Ryker man (uncredited)
Clayton Moore ... Ryker (uncredited)
Howard Negley ... Pete 'Yank' Potts, harmonica player (uncredited)
Charles Quirk ... Clerk (uncredited)
Steve Raines ... Ryker man (uncredited)
William Simonds ... Homesteader (uncredited)
Jack Sterling ... Ryker man (uncredited)
George Stevens ... Knock him into that pigpen, Chris! (voice) (uncredited)
Beverly Washburn ... Ruth Lewis (uncredited)
Henry Wills ... Ryker man (uncredited)
Writing credits
Jack Schaefer (novel)
A.B. Guthrie Jr.
Jack Sher
Also Produced by
Ivan Moffat .... associate producer
Original Music
Victor Young
Trivia
* At the time of filming, Jack Palance was not comfortable with horses. The one good mount he achieved during the numerous takes was used in the film.
* The music cues for the climactic ride that Shane takes to the showdown are from an earlier Paramount film, Rope of Sand (1949).
* In the funeral scene, the dog consistently refused to look into the grave. Finally, director George Stevens had the dog's trainer lie down in the bottom of the grave, and the dog played his part ably. The coffin (loaded with rocks for appropriate effect) was then lowered into the grave, but when the harmonica player began to play "Taps" spontaneously, the crew was so moved by the scene that they began shoveling dirt into the grave before remembering the dog's trainer was still there.
* The last film of Jean Arthur.
* Jean Arthur was over 50 years old when she played Marian Starrett-she was, in fact, ten years older than Emile Meyer, who plays the grizzled old cattle baron Rufus Ryker.
* The film cost so much to make that at one point, Paramount considered selling it to another distributor. The studio felt the film would never earn back what it cost to make. It ended up making a significant profit.
* Shane's fancy gun twirling in the climactic showdown was actually performed by Rodd Redwing. Earlier, when Shane demonstrates his prowess for Joey, and it is clearly Alan Ladd himself on camera, the actor had been given a different, easier-to-use revolver for the scene.
* George Stevens originally cast Montgomery Clift as Shane, and William Holden as Joe Starrett. When both decided to do other films instead, the film nearly was abandoned before Stevens asked studio head Y. Frank Freeman who was available. Upon seeing a list of actors with current contracts, Stevens cast Alan Ladd, Van Heflin and Jean Arthur within 3 minutes.
* The movie's line "Shane. Shane. Come back!" was voted as the #47 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).
* In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #45 Greatest Movie of All Time.
* Ranked #3 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Western" in June 2008.
* The movie's line "Come back, Shane!" was voted as the #69 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.
* According to the commentary on the DVD, during the scene where Shane and Joe are fighting in the corral, the tied horses were supposed to panic. To instill hysteria in the horses, the director had a man dress in a bear costume to scare them.
* Filmed over the summer and fall of 1951, the film was not released until 1953 due to director George Stevens's extensive editing programme.
* Alan Ladd was 5'6" and this had to be compensated for in Shane. When Ladd is in scenes with Van Heflin, the two are about the same height, although Heflin was far taller. When Ladd is shown with Jean Arthur, he is perhaps a bit taller than she. When Heflin is shown with Arthur, Heflin is far taller than she.
* The first flat widescreen color Western. Although shot in 1.37:1 Academy ratio, the studio dictated that it be cropped in the movie projector to compete with the new CinemaScope format. The music was also recorded in stereo.
* Jean Arthur, then over 50, came out of semi-retirement to play Marian Starrett, largely as a favor to her friend, George Stevens. She would retire completely from film-making after "Shane".
* Close-ups were shot with a telephoto lens so that the striking western backgrounds would still stay in focus.
* The movie was released within a year after another landmark Western High Noon (1952). It was actually made before the Gary Cooper film, but spent months and months in the editing suite.
* Although the movie is generally remembered for its blue sky vistas, the weather was actually cloudy or rainy for a great deal of the shoot. However, if you look beyond the mud in the town, you can see that the ground is dry. Obviously, part of the town had been watered down.
* Meticulous care was taken at all levels of production. All the physical props were true to the period, the buildings were built to the specifications of the time, and the clothing was completely authentic. Stevens even had cattle imported from other areas as the local herds looked too well-fed and healthy.
* Jean Arthur, a committed animal lover, would take it upon herself to personally inspect the conditions that the film's roster of livestock were being kept in, and if it wasn't up to her satisfaction, she would ensure that the matter was rectified.
* When writer A.B. Guthrie Jr. came on board the project, he didn't know what a screenplay looked like.
* The scene were Alan Ladd practices shooting in front of Brandon de Wilde was filmed in 119 takes.
* In the face-off between Wilson (Jack Palance) and Elisha Cook Jr. (Torrey), Torrey tells Wilson that he is "a low-down lyin' Yankee". Although Stevens kept directing Palance at this point to smile an expression of amused contempt at Cook, Palance continued take after take to show too much menace and not enough of a smile mixed in. Finally, Stevens took Cook aside and whispered something to him. During the next take, Cook read his line: "You're a low-down, lyin' Yankee - and a sonofabitch, too!" This time, Stevens got his take.
* Katharine Hepburn was originally suggested for the role of Marian.
Goofs
* Anachronisms: There is a bus (some say truck, some say car, some say motorbike) moving left to right in the far background in one of the opening shots. (The vehicle appears to have been digitally removed from the current DVD version, although it is still visible in the accompanying re-release trailer.)
* Continuity: In the buildup to the climax, Shane rides up to Grafton's store, ties up his horse and steps up to the swing doors. We then see little Joey running toward the store and Shane has disappeared. It could be that he has already gone inside, except that in the next shot he is once again standing at the door.
* Continuity: In the early scene at the saloon where Shane gets the drink spilled on him, his shirt is wet/dry/wet between shots.
* Continuity: Shane clearly misses the third man in the showdown - he fires level instead of up at the balcony, but the next shot shows him almost standing and firing in the right direction. In the following shot he's crouching again.
* Continuity: After Stonewall is gunned down by Jack Wilson, Swede is told to drag him out of the mud. Swede has clean clothes when told to do this. Before he approaches Stonewall's body, his clothes are all muddy, as if he had already dragged Stonewall out once already.
* Continuity: As Shane rides to the climactic late night showdown (under a blue sky), his shadow alternates from his right side to his left.
* Revealing mistakes: During his last impassioned speech Shane calls Joey "Jimmy".
* Continuity: During the dinner, Marian keeps both hands on the table. But between cuts she appears with no hands on the table.
* Continuity: After the dinner, Joey sits down in a rocking chair just behind Joe. In the subsequent shot Joey appears rocking the chair on Joe's right-hand side.
* Continuity: When Shane starts to cut the stump, Joey is looking at him with his arms by his sides. In the following shot he has his left hand leaning on the house wall.
* Continuity: In the barn, when Shane is lying and talking with Joey, he has his hands crossed on his belly, near his hat. Between shots his hands shift to the hat brim.
* Continuity: When Shane enters the saloon the first time, a table on the left side of the screen has a bottle on it, between a little glass and a big one. Thereafter the bottle disappears and reappears from one shot to another.
* Continuity: After the homesteaders arrive in town, Shane stands by out of the Grafton's store for a while. Then a woman approaches him from behind, right after a man. In the next shot the woman is replaced by a man.
* Continuity: Shane takes the empty bottle from Joey, with his left hand, and pulls the swing door. Inside the saloon he appears holding the bottle with the right hand. Then he puts it on the counter, next his hand. Thereafter it disappears and reappears between cuts.
* Continuity: When Joe and Shane are being cared for by Marian, she prepares a wet cloth and moves as if to put it on Shane's head, but in the next shot she is giving it to Joe.
* Continuity: In the Independence Day party, three boys are on a roof while two men light fireworks. After the first explosion, the boys approach the eaves with their hands lowered. In the following shot they are with their hands covering their ears.
* Continuity: When Shipstead appears pulling a horse with Torrey's body, Shane is beside a horse and changes his arm's position from one shot to another.
* Continuity: At the end of the funeral, Joe sits down and talks to the homesteaders, with Shane and Marian behind him. Joey stays a little way behind them all, holding the dog on a rope. In the subsequent shot Shane and Joey appear side by side with Joe.
* Continuity: When Joe and Shane are making an effort to root up the stump, Marian approaches and talks with Joe. Then Joe takes off his hands from the stump, but Shane does not. However, the next shot shows Shane with both his hands on his hips.
* Continuity: At the funeral, the coffin is lowered below ground level, but then we see the dog put his paw on the coffin and the coffin is suddenly above ground level.
* Anachronisms: After Shane gets in the barn carrying the saddle to set it by, a motorized vehicle drives left to right far on the outside. It appears just above Joey's head.
* Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Shane is teaching Joey to shoot he says that the handle of the gun should be placed between the wrist (pointing to Joey's elbow) and the shoulder (pointing to Joey's wrist).
* Continuity: Prior to Shane and Calloway's fight in the bar, In the Side and rear shots of Shane, Shane's left arm is in a straight position with the palm of his hand flat on the bar. From the front view of Shane the arm is bent and Shane is leaning on his elbow.
Filming Locations
Big Bear Lake, California, USA
Grand Teton National Park, Moose, Wyoming, USA
Iverson Ranch, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California, USA
Jackson Hole, Wyoming, USA
Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA