Will Penny
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Will Penny | |
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| Directed by | Tom Gries |
| Produced by | Fred Engel Walter Seltzer |
| Written by | Tom Gries |
| Starring | Charlton Heston Joan Hackett Donald Pleasence |
| Music by | David Raksin |
| Cinematography | Lucien Ballard |
| Editing by | Warren Low |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 16 February 1968 (Finland) 10 April 1968 (USA) |
| Running time | 108 minutes |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Will Penny is a 1968 western film directed by Tom Gries starring Charlton Heston and Donald Pleasence. It was based upon an episode of the 1960 Sam Peckinpah television series The Westerner called "Line Camp," which was also written and directed by Tom Gries.
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[edit] Plot
Will Penny (Charlton Heston) is an aging cow hand who at the end of a long trail hires on to ride the boundary of a ranch over the winter. He immediately comes across a woman (Joan Hackett) and her son using one of the remote cabins to over-winter and despite his bosses instructions gives them a week to move on. He runs into trouble and is brought back to health by the woman and they fall in love. In the end though he realizes he is too old (pushing 50) to finally settle down and rides off into the proverbial if not actual sunset.
[edit] Production
The film features a David Raksin and Robert Wells song "The Lonely Rider" with vocals by Don Cherry. The exteriors were filmed in Inyo County, California, USA.
[edit] Cast
- Charlton Heston as Will Penny
- Joan Hackett as Catherine Allen
- Donald Pleasence as Preacher Quint
- Ben Johnson as Alex (Flat Iron Ranch foreman)
- Lee Majors as Blue
- Bruce Dern as Rafe Quint
- Slim Pickens as Ike Walterstein
- Anthony Zerbe as Dutchy
[edit] Reviews
"The admirable thing about the movie is its devotion to real life. These are the kind of people, we feel, who must really have inhabited the West: common, direct, painfully shy in social situations and very honest." — Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times [1]
"...Will Penny ranks as a superior Western for a multitude of reasons. Heston, so often required to play larger-than-life characters throughout his career, here delivers a sublime performance in a role that is the exact opposite." — Reel.com DVD review [2]
[edit] Trivia
- Charlton Heston frequently cites Will Penny as his personal favorite film from his career.
