JOE KIDD
DIRECTED BY JOHN STURGESS
A MALPASO COMPANY PRODUCTION
A UNIVERSAL/MALPASO PRODUCTION
INFORMATION FROM IMDb
Plot Summary
Joe Kidd is a former bounty hunter and all-around tough-guy in the American Southwest.
When a band of Mexicans find their U. S. land claims denied and all relevant records
destroyed in a courthouse fire, they turn to force of arms.
Luis Chama is their charismatic leader, spouting revolutionary rhetoric
and demanding land reform.
A wealthy landowner with interests in the disputed area,
Frank Harlan, decides to settle things his own way. He hires a band of killers
and wants Joe Kidd to help them track Chama. Initially, Kidd wants to avoid any involvement,
until Chama makes the mistake of stealing Kidd's horses and terrorizing his friends.
Written by Tad Dibbern
Cast
Clint Eastwood ... Joe Kidd
Robert Duvall ... Frank Harlan
John Saxon ... Luis Chama
Don Stroud ... Lamarr
Stella Garcia Stella Garcia ...
Helen Sanchez
James Wainwright ... Mingo
Paul Koslo ... Roy
Gregory Walcott ... Mitchell
Dick Van Patten ... Hotel Manager
Lynne Marta ... Elma
John Carter ... Judge
Pepe Hern ... Priest
Joaquín Martínez ... Manolo (as Joaquin Martinez)
Ron Soble ... Ramon
Pepe Callahan ... Naco
Clint Ritchie ... Calvin
Gil Barreto ... Emilio
Ed Deemer ... Bartender
Maria Val ... Vita
Chuck Hayward ... Eljay
Michael R. Horst ... Deputy
and many more...
Directed
John Sturges
Writing Credits
Elmore Leonard
Produced
Sidney Beckerman ... producer
Robert Daley ... executive producer
Clint Eastwood ... executive producer (uncredited)
Jennings Lang ... executive producer (uncredited)
Music
Lalo Schifrin
Cinematography
Bruce Surtees ... director of photography
Trivia
Writer Elmore Leonard certainly did know something about classic firearms.
From Frank Harlan's Custom Savage 99 (1899), Olin Mingo's Remington-Keene sporter (1880)
in .45-70, Lamarr Simms Mauser C-96 (1896) broomhandle and Joe's Cased Ross Rifle sporter model M-10 (1910)
in .280 Ross. Leonard took special care to ensure all weapons (even the optics)
were period accurate for that movie, being set in pre-statehood New Mexico territory (1912).
The custom Savage 99 that Frank Harlan carries is a left hand model.
This is the last time someone else (John Sturges) directed Clint Eastwood in a western.
Eastwood's next four westerns would not only be his last, but were all directed by Eastwood himself.
In an interview given to French student Emmanuel Laborit in 1990, John Sturges
told he had lot of problems directing Clint Eastwood and regretted not to have resign during the filming.
Goofs
Anachronisms
In the scene where Joe Kidd is approaching town after having joined up with Luis Chama,
he sends one of Chama's men to ride into town first to test if the area is covered by gunmen.
As he's riding into town you can see a vehicle driving across the frame in the distance.
Character error
Near the end of the film when Joe Kidd and the sheriff are coming out of the courthouse,
the sheriff tries to put his gun in his holster, but misses and has to try again.
Frank Harlan's custom Savage 99 is a left-handed version,
but Robert Duvall is right-handed and carries the rifle right-handed throughout the film.
Continuity
When the Harlan gang rides into the village, some of the riders pass in front of the church.
The sun is very low in the sky, so low that the shadow from the cross,
atop the front of the church, is being cast onto the wall of the church tower.
In the following shot, Harlan tells Mingo to call the villagers into the street.
Mingo rides back past the church, and the shadow is now completely gone from the tower,
as the sun is considerably higher in the sky.
When Joe Kidd is kissing Elma, Harlan's girlfriend,
they are interrupted by one of Harlan's henchmen (Gannon).
Elma turns her head to the right to look at him.
In the next shot her head is turned to the left as she looks back to Kidd.
At the beginning of the film when Joe is lying on the cot in jail,
Naco pours a coffee into a mug on the corner of the table,
then proceeds to fill it again after asking Joe if he wants one.
When Joe fires up the train, white smoke comes out of the smokestack.
After that, all long shots show dark black smoke,
whilst shots from inside the train show no smoke coming out at all.
Errors in geography
When Joe Kidd and the towns people are imprisoned in the church,
the padre tells Kidd that today is the Feast of St. James.
The Feast of St. James occurs on July 25.
Throughout the film, it clearly is on the shoulder of winter (fall or spring)
with the characters wearing heavy coats and small patches of snow visible
in the mountains around the desert.
The character of Joe Kidd says that he shot a buck mule deer
"over south of Monero," and Mitchell says that's on the Jicarilla reservation.
It isn't. South of what's left of Monero is not on the reservation;
in fact, Monero is east of the reservation.
In between Monero and Dulce (which is on the reservation) is a very small town, Lumberton.
There is no way at all that Kidd could have been charged with hunting on reservation land
if he were south of Monero.
The movie takes place in New Mexico, but saguaro cactus can be seen in the town
(Sinola County) scenes.
Saguaro cactus can only be found in Arizona, which is where
those scenes were actually filmed (at Old Tucson).
Factual errors
Kidd fires the ten-round Mauser pistol twice: 14 rounds and about 22 rounds.
In one or two sequences the hammer clearly does not function so the sound effect was added separately.
Some of the characters wear 1970s bat wing rodeo hats, especially Frank Harlan.
When Harlan's gang returns to Sinola, Roy tells the desk clerk at the hotel
that there are eleven of them.
However, in the gunfight,
we see the deaths of seven (including Harlan) and the surrender of two more. Two have disappeared.
Revealing mistakes
Just before Mingo is shot by Joe Kidd with the sniper rifle, Mingo's glove
is shown already covered with blood, holding his own rifle.
After he reacts to being shot in the chest, he presses the glove to his chest wound, then holds up his hand to reveal the blood.
In the early jail scene, after Joe Kidd throws the stew in Naco's face,
he hits him with the empty pan.
After the hit you can see the pan has no dent in it.
Joe lowers the pan out of camera sight (you can hear it bump the table).
When he raises it again, it has a large dent in the bottom.
If you watch closely you can tell that he is changing pans out of sight of the camera.
When the shootout begins in the Mexican village, one of the bad guys is shot in a doorway,
when he flies backwards into the room, the "brick" wall he lands against
gives and then wobbles and shakes like rubber or card board.
When Mingo begins to fall off the rock after Joe Kidd shoots him,
he is obviously throwing himself into the roll.
This is especially noticeable just before he goes over the edge.
Filming Locations
Old Tucson - 201 S. Kinney Road, Tucson, Arizona, USA
Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, USA
Sherwin Summit, Inyo National Forest, California, USA
Buttermilk Country, Inyo National Forest, California, USA