Classic Movie Westerns- High Plains Drifter (1973)

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HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER

DIRECTED BY CLINT EASTWOOD
PRODUCED BY ROBERT DALEY
MALPASO/UNIVERSAL

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Information From IMDb

Full Cast
Clint Eastwood ... The Stranger
Verna Bloom ... Sarah Belding
Marianna Hill ... Callie Travers (as Mariana Hill)
Mitch Ryan ... Dave Drake (as Mitchell Ryan)
Jack Ging ... Morgan Allen
Stefan Gierasch ... Mayor Jason Hobart
Ted Hartley ... Lewis Belding
Billy Curtis ... Mordecai
Geoffrey Lewis ... Stacey Bridges
Scott Walker ... Bill Borders
Walter Barnes ... Sheriff Sam Shaw
Paul Brinegar ... Lutie Naylor
Richard Bull ... Asa Goodwin
Robert Donner ... Preacher
John Hillerman ... Bootmaker
Anthony James ... Cole Carlin
William O'Connell ... Barber
John Quade ... Jake Ross
Dan Vadis ... Dan Carlin
Buddy Van Horn ... Marshal Jim Duncan
Jane Aull ... Townswoman
Reid Cruickshanks ... Gunsmith
Jim Gosa ... Tommy Morris (as James Gosa)
Jack Kosslyn ... Saddlemaker
Russ McCubbin ... Fred Short
Belle Mitchell ... Mrs. Lake
John Mitchum ... Warden
Carl Pitti ... Teamster (as Carl C. Pitti)
Alex Tinne
Chuck Waters ... Stableman

Stunts
Buddy Van Horn .... stunt coordinator
Mario Arteaga .... stunts (uncredited)
Blair Burrows .... stunts (uncredited)
Richard Farnsworth .... stunts (uncredited)
Chuck Hayward .... stunts (uncredited)
John Hudkins .... stunts (uncredited)
George Orrison .... stunt double: Clint Eastwood (uncredited)
George Orrison .... stunts (uncredited)
Carl Pitti .... stunts (uncredited)
Bob Terhune .... stunts (uncredited)
Buddy Van Horn .... stunt double (uncredited)
Chuck Waters .... stunts (uncredited)
George P. Wilbur .... stunts (uncredited)

Writing Credits
Ernest Tidyman (written by)
Dean Riesner uncredited

Produced
Robert Daley .... producer
Jennings Lang .... executive producer

Cinematography
Bruce Surtees

Music
Dee Barton

Trivia
One of the headstones in the graveyard bears the name Sergio Leone as a tribute.

Other headstones bear the names of Don Siegel (Clint Eastwood's director on five films, four of which preceded this one) and Brian G. Hutton (director of Where Eagles Dare (1968) and Kelly's Heroes (1970)). Patrick McGilligan's 2002 Eastwood biography quotes the star as saying, "I buried my directors."

Editing of the film was done in a log cabin on the shores of Mono Lake.

Universal Pictures wanted the film to be shot on the studio lot. Instead, Clint Eastwood had a whole town built in the desert near Mono Lake in the California Sierras. Many of the buildings were complete and three-dimensional, so that interiors could be shot on location.

The Bible verse on the wall of the church is Isaiah 53:3-4 which reads, "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted"

Shortly after the film's release, Clint Eastwood wrote to John Wayne, suggesting that they make a western together. Wayne sent back an angry letter in reply, in which he denounced this film for its violence and revisionist portrayal of the Old West. Eastwood did not bother to answer his criticisms, and consequently they did not work together.

There is no spoken dialogue until six minutes into the film.

We only learn The Stranger's name at the end. Marshal Jim Duncan.

Filmed in six weeks.

The character of Marshal Duncan was played by stuntman Buddy Van Horn, a long-time stunt coordinator for Clint Eastwood, in order to create some ambiguity over whether he and The Stranger are one and the same.

During an interview on "Inside the Actors Studio" (1994), Clint Eastwood commented that earlier versions of the script made The Stranger the dead marshal's brother. He favoured a less explicit and more supernatural interpretation and excised the reference. Although the Italian, Spanish, French and German dubbings retain it.

The first time Clint Eastwood directs one of his Westerns.

Goofs
* Continuity: The level of The Stranger's beer while watching the carriage as the men practice shooting at the dummies.

* Anachronisms: All houses in the city (Lago) have modern window glass of the type float glass and not "handmade" as they were until the mid-19th century.

* Continuity: At the ambush, the stranger places the stick of dynamite just back from the edge of the slope. When it explodes, the explosion is a couple of feet down the slope from the edge, not where the dynamite was placed.

* Continuity: When the Stranger is first sipping his beer at the saloon, the bottle of whiskey is placed on the bar to the left of his glass of beer. When he reaches for his beer while saying the line "Faster than you'll ever live to be" to the one gunfighter, the bottle of whiskey "jumps" to the right of his glass of beer so he can pretend to draw his gun yet reach for the bottle of whiskey instead.

* Factual errors: When the town men are in the church debating their predicament, there is a plaque on the wall that quotes a scripture. Isaiah 53:3-4 is the scripture address written at the bottom of the plaque, but the scripture written out on the plaque is only Isaiah 53:3 (kjv); verse 4 is missing.

* Crew or equipment visible: Regarding one of the three bad guys who confront the Stranger in the barber shop. The tall guy with the beard who is shot and crashes through the window into the street. As he attempts to support himself against the hitching post one can clearly see the shape of an elbow protector for his left arm under his shirt.

* Continuity: The morning after his first night in Lago the stranger steps out of the hotel and the mayor says "good morning." The shadows on the ground clearly show that it is late afternoon as Lago is located on the western shore of Mono Lake.

* Continuity: The amount of shaving cream on The Stranger's face during the shooting of the three bad dudes in the barber shop.

* Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When Stacey, Cole and Dan come across three campers in the mountains, they have plenty of ammo despite their guns being given back to them empty when they left prison. However, it can be seen that their gun-belts still had ammunition in them.

* Continuity: The clouds in the sky appear and disappear between shots in several scenes.

* Revealing mistakes: When the next to last bad guy is hanged with a bull whip, as he is first hoisted he spins a little and you can clearly see that is is a rope around his neck (not a bull whip), and that it is tied in a knot with some other ropes going down the back of his shirt (obviously attached to a supporting harness).

Filming Locations
Inyo National Forest - 351 Pacu Lane, Bishop, California, USA
Mono Lake, California, USA (town: Lago)
Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, USA
Winnemucca Lake, Nevada, USA (Winnemucca Dry Lake)