A charming but totally roguish and ruthless criminal called Paris Pitman Jr. (Kirk Douglas) is detained for robbing and condemned for a long time in a remote , impregnable territorial prison . There Pitman to start doing ten years in an isolated jail but being supported by a motley group of inmates (Burguess Meredith , Warren Oates , John Randolph , Hume Cronyn) . All of them are surveyed by an assorted team of stiff wardens (Victor French , Gene Evans , Alan Hale Jr.) . However , those years should pass quickly because of a $500,000 loot previously stashed away . But then , an innovative and incorruptible warden chief (Henry Fonda) takes over the Arizona town's prison and he has some new ideas about law and order . Scurrilous Pitman enlists the help of his cellmates in an escape attempt with the promise of sharing his hidden loot . At the end one of them lived happily ever after .
Offbeat Western black comedy displays an excellent plethora of actors , as main as secondary cast and with fine acting all around . This is a richly amusing tale , including hilarious touches , tongue-in-cheek , twists and turns . Interesting and fun script written by two prestigious screenwriters : David Newman and Robert Benton . Overlong Western ; however, Warners objected Mankiewicz's preferred version of the film (it ran to 165 minutes) and re-cut the film , to his great irritation , to a more manageable 126 minutes . One notable casualty of this re-cutting was the prominently-billed Lee Grant , a very well-known actress at the time, whose appearance is now barely a couple of minutes in length . Enjoyable performance by Kirk Douglas as a charming , intelligent and successful criminal who eventually imprisoned is sent in the middle of the Arizona desert ; here Douglas steals the show playing one of the smiling rogues that he did so well . Henry Fonda is perfect as a new idealistic warden who starts to manipulate everyone to achieve his goal , to take the stash . Douglas and Fonda dominate this western comedy as two immensely likable roguish men making plans to collect the buried loot . And brief nudism by today's standards, what remains is fairly tame : a couple glimpses of the bare backside of Kirk Douglas, a glimpse of a bare breast here and there and some mildly risqué drawings . Impressive production design , in fact a realistic 1880s territorial prison replica was constructed on four acres in the high-desert country of the Joshua Tree National Monument , being designed by Edward Carrere , Oscar-winning designer of such movies as Wind Bunch (1969) , it was one of the most massive location sets ever built . As the prison set took seven weeks to build , when construction began , it was snowing , when it ended, the temperature was 100 degrees . Furthermore , it contains a colorful cinematography in Panavision by Harry Stradling Jr . Lively and vivid musical score by Charles Strouse , adding some catching songs sung by Trini López .
The motion picture was compellingly made by Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909-1993) , it was promoted as a "cynical western" , the film was released on Christmas Day 1970 and it did poorly at the holiday box office . Mankiewicz is considered to be one of the best directors of film history . He directed excellent pictures in all kinds of genres , such as intriguing dramas : ¨All about Eva¨ (50) , ¨Five Fingers¨ (51) , ¨The barefoot Contessa¨ (54) , ¨Suddenly , Last summer¨ (59) , ¨The honey pot¨ (67) ; Noir Film : ¨House of strangers¨ (49) , ¨No way out¨(50) ; Musical : ¨Guys and dolls¨ (55) , Fantasy : ¨The ghost and Mrs. Muir¨ (47) , and Historical : ¨Julius Caesar¨ (53) and ¨Cleopatra¨(63) .
Offbeat Western black comedy displays an excellent plethora of actors , as main as secondary cast and with fine acting all around . This is a richly amusing tale , including hilarious touches , tongue-in-cheek , twists and turns . Interesting and fun script written by two prestigious screenwriters : David Newman and Robert Benton . Overlong Western ; however, Warners objected Mankiewicz's preferred version of the film (it ran to 165 minutes) and re-cut the film , to his great irritation , to a more manageable 126 minutes . One notable casualty of this re-cutting was the prominently-billed Lee Grant , a very well-known actress at the time, whose appearance is now barely a couple of minutes in length . Enjoyable performance by Kirk Douglas as a charming , intelligent and successful criminal who eventually imprisoned is sent in the middle of the Arizona desert ; here Douglas steals the show playing one of the smiling rogues that he did so well . Henry Fonda is perfect as a new idealistic warden who starts to manipulate everyone to achieve his goal , to take the stash . Douglas and Fonda dominate this western comedy as two immensely likable roguish men making plans to collect the buried loot . And brief nudism by today's standards, what remains is fairly tame : a couple glimpses of the bare backside of Kirk Douglas, a glimpse of a bare breast here and there and some mildly risqué drawings . Impressive production design , in fact a realistic 1880s territorial prison replica was constructed on four acres in the high-desert country of the Joshua Tree National Monument , being designed by Edward Carrere , Oscar-winning designer of such movies as Wind Bunch (1969) , it was one of the most massive location sets ever built . As the prison set took seven weeks to build , when construction began , it was snowing , when it ended, the temperature was 100 degrees . Furthermore , it contains a colorful cinematography in Panavision by Harry Stradling Jr . Lively and vivid musical score by Charles Strouse , adding some catching songs sung by Trini López .
The motion picture was compellingly made by Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909-1993) , it was promoted as a "cynical western" , the film was released on Christmas Day 1970 and it did poorly at the holiday box office . Mankiewicz is considered to be one of the best directors of film history . He directed excellent pictures in all kinds of genres , such as intriguing dramas : ¨All about Eva¨ (50) , ¨Five Fingers¨ (51) , ¨The barefoot Contessa¨ (54) , ¨Suddenly , Last summer¨ (59) , ¨The honey pot¨ (67) ; Noir Film : ¨House of strangers¨ (49) , ¨No way out¨(50) ; Musical : ¨Guys and dolls¨ (55) , Fantasy : ¨The ghost and Mrs. Muir¨ (47) , and Historical : ¨Julius Caesar¨ (53) and ¨Cleopatra¨(63) .