itdo
September 27th, 2003, 07:45 AM
Just read the original shooting script for The Sons of Katie Elder (the version ready to shoot says 24 December 1964, significant date for the shooting was delayed due to JW's cancer operation).
Most often when you read a script you find they changed a lot when shooting it, really using a script as a general guideline. Not so with Katie Elder. Except for minor changes Hathaway shot it pretty much the way it was written, changed little dialogue. Only once they added, when the brothers discuss the "marble horse" for a monument, the scene ends with John Elder's line: "The Dalton Gang was hung!". In the film, Wayne makes clear: "We keep the bible", then shaking his head to Dean Martin: "a horse...". (the Tom Elder character, by the way, isn't really much in the script and it's really a tribute to Dean Martin the way he fleshed him out. His character really died in the script - probably because it was the star Dino who played him, they added this little piece of dialogue in the end where it becomes clear he survived the shot in the back. But y'know, when I first saw this one, I thought he was done for, too, they way they filmed how he crashed and Wayne took the gun from his - dead? - hands).
Anyway, what I REALLY wanted to tell you here is a change they made in the shootout at the bridge. In the jail, when Tom Elder produces his hidden knife, John Elder takes it away from him - but KEEPS it (a slight difference, in the finished film, John throws it out the window). Why he kept it? He would use it in the following scene, starting with shot nr. 229: in the middle of the shootout:
BUD AND TOM
as Bud notices the red smear forming on his chest, he realizes that he has been hit.
JOHN
He tries to run toward the boy, forgetting that he's shackled to a corpse. He is dragged down. He removes the knife from his boot and reaches down (OUT OF SHOT) to cut the dead man's ankle.
BUD
looking over, he reacts in horror, forgetting his own pain.
BUD
John! What are you doing!
JOHN
He can't feel it.
BUD
But that's Matt!
JOHN
It was. He's dead.
He is frew now, except for the long chain with a vacant loop at the far end, and the ring around his own ankle. He tucks the chain under his belt. Now he devotes his full time to the enemy. He moves out into the open, guns blazing, eyes cold with hate.
CREEPY, isn't it?! Earl Holliman's Matt had to be glad John Wayne didn't shoot his eyes out!
Most often when you read a script you find they changed a lot when shooting it, really using a script as a general guideline. Not so with Katie Elder. Except for minor changes Hathaway shot it pretty much the way it was written, changed little dialogue. Only once they added, when the brothers discuss the "marble horse" for a monument, the scene ends with John Elder's line: "The Dalton Gang was hung!". In the film, Wayne makes clear: "We keep the bible", then shaking his head to Dean Martin: "a horse...". (the Tom Elder character, by the way, isn't really much in the script and it's really a tribute to Dean Martin the way he fleshed him out. His character really died in the script - probably because it was the star Dino who played him, they added this little piece of dialogue in the end where it becomes clear he survived the shot in the back. But y'know, when I first saw this one, I thought he was done for, too, they way they filmed how he crashed and Wayne took the gun from his - dead? - hands).
Anyway, what I REALLY wanted to tell you here is a change they made in the shootout at the bridge. In the jail, when Tom Elder produces his hidden knife, John Elder takes it away from him - but KEEPS it (a slight difference, in the finished film, John throws it out the window). Why he kept it? He would use it in the following scene, starting with shot nr. 229: in the middle of the shootout:
BUD AND TOM
as Bud notices the red smear forming on his chest, he realizes that he has been hit.
JOHN
He tries to run toward the boy, forgetting that he's shackled to a corpse. He is dragged down. He removes the knife from his boot and reaches down (OUT OF SHOT) to cut the dead man's ankle.
BUD
looking over, he reacts in horror, forgetting his own pain.
BUD
John! What are you doing!
JOHN
He can't feel it.
BUD
But that's Matt!
JOHN
It was. He's dead.
He is frew now, except for the long chain with a vacant loop at the far end, and the ring around his own ankle. He tucks the chain under his belt. Now he devotes his full time to the enemy. He moves out into the open, guns blazing, eyes cold with hate.
CREEPY, isn't it?! Earl Holliman's Matt had to be glad John Wayne didn't shoot his eyes out!