Mr. Horn | |
---|---|
Genre | Western |
Written by | William Goldman |
Directed by | Jack Starrett |
Starring | David Carradine |
Music by | Jerry Fielding |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) | Lee Rich |
Producer(s) |
Robert L. Jacks Elliott Kastner Catherine McCabe (associate producer) Octavio Elías (associate producer): Mexico |
Location(s) | Mexicali, Baja California Norte, Mexico |
Cinematography | Jorge Stahl Jr. |
Editor(s) | Michael McCroskey |
Running time | 180 minutes |
Production company(s) | Lorimar Productions |
Distributor | CBS |
Release | |
Original network | CBS |
Original release |
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Mr. Horn is a 1979 television film chronicling the life of Tom Horn. It was directed by Jack Starrett from a screenplay by William Goldman.
This version came out just prior to the 1980 feature film Tom Horn, which starred Steve McQueen.
Tom Horn's life is covered from his early days as an army scout, to his time as a Pinkerton agent, concluding with the events surrounding his death by hanging in 1903.
Comparing this movie to documented history shows many factual errors. Karen Black's character of Ernestina Crawford, sister to Emmet Crawford in the movie, was completely fictitious. General Crook appears in the movie after the point he historically died.
William Goldman had come across the story of Tom Horn while researching that of Butch Cassidy and became fascinated with him, calling Horn "the most talented man who ever lived" in the Wild West, deciding to write a screenplay about him. In 1974 it was announced Goldman, Robert Redford and Sydney Pollack had formed a company, the Horn Company, to make the movie. " Like Jeremiah [Johnson], the script is very mythic," said Pollack. Goldman was reportedly paid $500,000 for his work.
In 1977 Mike Medavoy at United Artists announced he had bought William Goldman's script to star Redford. Pollack was still attached and he got David Rayfield to rewrite the script. Around this time it was announced that Steve McQueen had been developing his own Tom Horn movie.
Walter Coblenz was assigned to produce. "He is a hero of Western lore," said the producer. "Our picture will be very much about the man, his life and times. This is a distinct personality, the last of a breed, a man who was there in the last days of the real west. When he died, a good part of that life also died forever."