''A Time for Killing'' is a 1967

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

film directed originally by

Roger Corman Roger William Corman (born April 5, 1926) is an American film director, producer, and actor. He has been called "The Pope of Pop Cinema" and is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film. Many of Corman's films are based on works t ...

but finished by Phil Karlson. Filmed in

Panavision Panavision is an American motion picture equipment company founded in 1953 specializing in cameras and lenses, based in Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk as a small partnership to create anamorphic projection lenses dur ...

and

Pathécolor Pathécolor, later renamed Pathéchrome, was an early mechanical stencil-based film tinting process for movies developed by Segundo de Chomón for Pathé in the early 20th century. Among the last feature films to use this process were the British ...

, it stars

Glenn Ford Gwyllyn Samuel Newton "Glenn" Ford (May 1, 1916 – August 30, 2006) was a Canadian-American actor who often portrayed ordinary men in unusual circumstances. Ford was most prominent during Hollywood's Golden Age as one of the biggest box-offi ...

, George Hamilton,

Inger Stevens Inger Stevens (born Ingrid Stensland; October 18, 1934 – April 30, 1970) was a Swedish-American film, stage and Golden Globe-winning television actress. Early life Inger Stevens was born in Stockholm, Sweden, the eldest child of Per ...

, and Harrison Ford (credited as Harrison J. Ford) in his first credited film role. It was also known as ''The Long Ride Home''.

Plot

During the Civil War, Confederate soldiers escape from a Union prison and head for the Mexican border. Along the way, they kill a Union courier bearing the news that the war is over. Keeping the message a secret, the captain has his men go on and they soon find themselves in a battle with the Union search party who also is unaware of the war's end.

Cast

as Emily Biddle *

as Maj. Tom Wolcott *

Paul Petersen William Paul Petersen (born September 23, 1945) is an American actor, singer, novelist, and activist. Petersen first rose to prominence in the 1950s playing Jeff Stone on ''The Donna Reed Show'', and transitioned to a singing career in the 19 ...

as Blue Lake *

Timothy Carey Timothy Agoglia Carey (March 11, 1929 – May 11, 1994) was an American film and television character actor. Carey was best known for portraying manic or violent characters who are driven to extremes. Career He made his screen debut with a ...

as Billy Cat *

Kenneth Tobey Kenneth Jesse Tobey (March 23, 1917 – December 22, 2002) was an extremely prolific American actor who performed in hundreds of productions during a career that spanned more than half a century, including his role as the star of the 1957-1 ...

as Sgt. Cleehan *

Richard X. Slattery Richard Xavier Slattery (June 26, 1925 – January 27, 1997) was an American character actor in film, theater and television. Slattery appeared in such films as '' A Distant Trumpet'', '' The Boston Strangler'', '' Walking Tall'', '' The No Merc ...

as Cpl. Paddy Darling * Harrison J. Ford as Lt Shaffer * Kay E. Kuter as Owelson * Dick Miller as Zollicoffer *

Emile Meyer Emile Meyer (August 18, 1910 – March 19, 1987) was an American actor, usually known for tough, aggressive, authoritative characters in Hollywood films from the 1950s era, mostly in westerns or thrillers. Career Meyer had an uncredited ...

as Col. Harries *

Marshall Reed Marshall Jewel Reed (May 28, 1917 – April 15, 1980) was an American actor who appeared in over 200 films between 1943 and 1978. He was born in Englewood, Colorado. Early years Reed's parents were Walter George Reed and Ruth Dustin. By a ...

as Stedner * George Hamilton as Capt. Dorrit Bentley *

Max Baer Jr. Maximilian Adelbert Baer Jr. (born December 4, 1937) is an American actor, producer, comedian, and director widely known for his role as Jethro Bodine, the dim-witted relative of Jed Clampett (played by Buddy Ebsen) on ''The Beverly Hillbillies ...

as Sgt. Luther Liskell *

Todd Armstrong Todd Armstrong (born John Harris Armstrong; July 25, 1937 – November 17, 1992) was an American actor who appeared in ten films and several television series. He is best known for playing the titular role in the cult classic '' Jason and the A ...

as Lt. 'Pru' Prudessing *

Harry Dean Stanton Harry Dean Stanton (July 14, 1926 – September 15, 2017) was an American actor, musician, and singer. In a career that spanned more than six decades, Stanton played supporting roles in films including ''Cool Hand Luke'' (1967), ''Kelly's Heroes ...

as Sgt. Dan Way

Production

Development

The film was based on a 1961 novel ''The Southern Blade''. The ''Los Angeles Times'' called it "fast moving" The ''New York Times'' said it was full of "military stereotypes" but that it was written with "professional skill." In October 1964 the screen rights to the novel were purchased by producer

Harry Joe Brown Harry Joe Brown (September 22, 1890 – April 28, 1972) was an American film producer, and earlier a theatre and film director. Biography Harry Joe Brown was born in 1890 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As a producer, he had a partnership wit ...

. He set up the project at Columbia where he joined forces with Roger Corman.

Pre-production

By the end of 1964,

was one of the most successful low-budget filmmakers in Hollywood, mostly working for

American International Pictures American International Pictures (AIP) is an American motion picture production label of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution company known for producing and releasing fi ...

. "Everything had been interesting, artistically satisfying, economically satisfying", Corman said eighteen months later. "But I decided I was going nowhere and wanted to move directly into the business." So he accepted a contract with Columbia. Corman had a deal to make three films with Columbia. "But every idea I submitted was too strange, too weird", he later said. "Every idea they had seemed too ordinary to me. Ordinary pictures don't make money today n 1966because audiences today are too intelligent... It's a young people's audience... They can see the average for free on TV. You've got to give them something a little more complex artistically and intellectually. To show something you can't see on TV leads inevitably to unusual material." Corman says the ideas he submitted to Columbia were a biopic of Baron von Richthofen, a story of the St Valentine's Day Massacre and an adaptation of ''Only Lovers Left Alive''. (He would end up making the first two films for other studios). Eventually he agreed on three films. The first was ''The Southern Blade'', which he was to produce along with

. The others were ''Iwo Jima'' (about the Battle of Iwo Jima) and ''Robert E. Lee'', a biopic of the famous general. (Later ''Robert E. Lee'' would go to United Artists and the proposed third Columbia film would be a war film, ''The Day They Let the Prisoners Out'', by

Peter Bogdanovich Peter Bogdanovich (July 30, 1939 – January 6, 2022) was an American director, writer, actor, producer, critic, and film historian. One of the " New Hollywood" directors, Bogdanovich started as a film journalist until he was hired to work on ...

.) In June 1965 the title of ''The Southern Blade'' was change to ''The Long Way Home''. Filming was meant to start in September 1965. However, Columbia and Corman clashed and Corman wound up returning to AIP where he directed the hugely successful ''

The Wild Angels ''The Wild Angels'' is a 1966 American outlaw biker film produced and directed by Roger Corman. Made on location in Southern California, ''The Wild Angels'' was the first film to associate actor Peter Fonda with Harley-Davidson motorcycles an ...

''. "The main difference between the minors and the majors is the amount of freedom allowed", Corman said. He and the studio came to terms once they agreed to give him a free hand with the script. Corman had the script rewritten by

Robert Towne Robert Towne (born Robert Bertram Schwartz;'' Easy Riders, Raging Bulls'' by Peter Biskind page 30, 1999 Bloomsbury edition November 23, 1934) is an American screenwriter, producer, director and actor. He started with writing films for Roger ...

with whom he had collaborated a number of times, most recently on ''

The Tomb of Ligeia ''The Tomb of Ligeia'' is a 1964 British horror film directed by Roger Corman. Starring Vincent Price and Elizabeth Shepherd, it tells of a man haunted by the spirit of his dead wife and her effect on his second marriage. The screenplay by Robe ...

'' (1965).

Casting

In April 1966

signed to star. The following month

Cliff Robertson Clifford Parker Robertson III (September 9, 1923 – September 10, 2011) was an American actor whose career in film and television spanned over six decades. Robertson portrayed a young John F. Kennedy in the 1963 film '' PT 109'', and won the 19 ...

signed to co star. Eventually Robertson dropped out and was replaced by George Hamilton whose fee was a reported $100,000. Inger Stevens and Max Baer Jr also joined the cast.

Warren Beatty Henry Warren Beatty (né Beaty; born March 30, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker, whose career spans over six decades. He was nominated for 15 Academy Awards, including four for Best Actor, four for Best Picture, two for Best Director, ...

had been offered the lead role but turned it down. However he was impressed by Towne's writing, and later hired the writer to do uncredited work on the script for '' Bonnie and Clyde'', which led to a long collaboration between the men. The film was Harrison Ford's first film with a credited role; despite not having a middle name, he was billed as "Harrison J. Ford" (where the "J" did not stand for anything) to avoid confusion with the

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) ...

actor of the same name.

Principal photography

Filming started in June 1966 in Kanab, Utah. By the end of the month, Corman had left the project and been replaced by Phil Karlson. Columbia gave no reason for this decision. Once Corman left, his editor

Monte Hellman Monte Hellman (; born Monte Jay Himmelbaum; July 12, 1929 – April 20, 2021) was an American film director, producer, writer, and editor. Hellman began his career as an editor's apprentice at ABC TV, and made his directorial debut with the ho ...

also left the project. Richard Devon, an actor who had worked with Corman, later argued the problem on the film was that Corman could not reconcile his low budget ways to work for a major studio.

He was given a fine budget and stars and everything else. But he started shooting the film and he just couldn't get out of his old ways. He was pushing the footage, he was pushing the actors, the crew was upset, everybody was upset, etc. The Columbia brass looked at the rushes and called him in and said: ‘You know. Roger, we want something to be on the film, We don’t need this fast kind of attitude that you’ve had in the past. There's a talent there, there's an ability. Stretch it out." But he couldn’t hack it. And he got replaced on the film.

Parts of the film were shot in

Zion Zion ( he, צִיּוֹן ''Ṣīyyōn'', LXX , also variously transliterated ''Sion'', ''Tzion'', ''Tsion'', ''Tsiyyon'') is a placename in the Hebrew Bible used as a synonym for Jerusalem as well as for the Land of Israel as a whole (see Nam ...

Glen Canyon Glen Canyon is a natural canyon carved by a length of the Colorado River, mostly in southeastern and south-central Utah, in the United States. Glen Canyon starts where Narrow Canyon ends, at the confluence of the Colorado River and the Dirty D ...

Kanab Kanab ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Kane County, Utah, United States.Find a County
". ''N ...

movie fort, Paria, and the Coral Pink Sand Dunes in

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. Filming also took place in Old Tucson, Arizona.

Soundtrack

The original score of the film was composed by

Van Alexander Van Alexander (May 2, 1915 – July 19, 2015) was an American bandleader, arranger, and composer. Early years Van Alexander was born Alexander Van Vliet Feldman in Harlem. His mother was a classical pianist, and she taught him to play the piano. ...

who was given seven weeks to compose 45 minutes of music for the film. He collaborated with

Ned Washington Ned Washington (born Edward Michael Washington, August 15, 1901 – December 20, 1976) was an American lyricist born in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Life and career Washington was nominated for eleven Academy Awards from 1940 to 1962. He won the Bes ...

for a title song by

Eddy Arnold Richard Edward Arnold (May 15, 1918 – May 8, 2008) was an American country music singer who performed for six decades. He was a Nashville sound (country/popular music) innovator of the late 1950s, and scored 147 songs on the ''Billboard'' cou ...

. Though producers Harry Joe Brown, Jonie Taps and Columbia's

Mike Frankovich Mitchell John "M. J." Frankovich (September 29, 1909 – January 1, 1992), best known as Mike Frankovich, was an American football player turned film actor and producer. Frankovich was the adopted son of actor Joe E. Brown and his wife, Kathry ...

were enthusiastic about Alexander's score, once the film was met with a disastrous reception at a preview it was decided to restore the film with a guitar score by Mundell Lowe.Alexander, Van & Fratallone, Stephen ''From Harlem to Hollywood: My Life in Music''

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Time For Killing, A 1967 Western (genre) films 1967 films American Civil War films Columbia Pictures films 1960s English-language films Films directed by Phil Karlson American Western (genre) films Films directed by Roger Corman Films based on American novels Films based on Western (genre) novels Films shot in Utah Films shot in Tucson, Arizona 1960s American films