The Unforgiven (1960)

Director:

John Huston

Writers:

Ben Maddow (screenplay)
Alan Le May (novel)

Release Date:

6 April 1960 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | Western

Tagline:

A NEW TRIUMPH FROM ACADEMY AWARD WINNER JOHN HUSTON (original ad - all caps)

Plot:

The neighbors of a frontier family turn on them when it is suspected that their adopted daughter was stolen from the local Kiawa tribe.

Plot Keywords:

Chase | Ranch | Adoption | Cowboys And Indians | Native American Attack

Cast

Burt Lancaster	...	Ben Zachary
Audrey Hepburn	...	Rachel Zachary
Audie Murphy	...	Cash Zachary
John Saxon	...	Johnny Portugal
Charles Bickford	...	Zeb Rawlins
Lillian Gish	...	Mattilda Zachary
Albert Salmi	...	Charlie Rawlins
Joseph Wiseman	...	Abe Kelsey
June Walker	...	Hagar Rawlins
Kipp Hamilton	...	Georgia Rawlins
Arnold Merritt	...	Jude Rawlins
Doug McClure	...	Andy Zachary
Carlos Rivas	...	Lost Bird

Directed by
John Huston

Writing credits
Ben Maddow		(screenplay)
Alan Le May		(novel) (as Alan LeMay)

Produced by
Harold Hecht	....	co-producer (as Hecht)
James Hill	....	producer
Burt Lancaster	....	co-producer (as Lancaster)

Original Music by
Dimitri Tiomkin

Cinematography by
Franz Planer		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Russell Lloyd

Art Direction by
Stephen B. Grimes		(as Stephen Grimes)

Costume Design by
Dorothy Jeakins

Makeup Department
Frank La Rue	....	makeup artist (as Frank LaRue)
Frank McCoy	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Gilbert Kurland	....	executive production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Tom Shaw	....	assistant director
Emilio Fernández	....	second unit director (uncredited)

Art Department
Ramón Rodríguez Granada	....	associate art director (as Ramon Rodriguez Granada)

Sound Department
Basil Fenton-Smith	....	sound recordist
Leslie Hodgson	....	sound editor

Stunts
Jack Conner	....	stunts (uncredited)
Bob Herron	....	stunts (uncredited)
Bob Terhune	....	stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Inge Morath	....	still photographer (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Joan Joseff	....	costume jeweller (uncredited)

Music Department
Dimitri Tiomkin	....	musical director (uncredited)

Other crew
Harold Hecht	....	presenter (as Hecht-Hill-Lancaster)
James Hill	....	presenter (as Hecht-Hill-Lancaster)
Burt Lancaster	....	presenter (as Hecht-Hill-Lancaster)
'Chema' Hernandez	....	head wrangler (uncredited)

Production Companies

• James Productions

Distributors

• United Artists (1960) (USA) (theatrical)
• United Artists (1960) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• American Broadcasting Company (ABC) (1963) (USA) (TV)
• MGM Home Entertainment (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• MGM/UA Home Video (1993) (USA) (VHS)
• MGM/UA Home Video (1993) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• MGM Home Entertainment (Europe) (2004) (UK) (DVD)
• MGM Home Entertainment (2004) (Germany) (DVD)
• Hosh Posh Video (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Hosh Posh Video (2005) (USA) (VHS)
• Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (2006) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (2010) (USA) (DVD) (included with "Lawman" and "The Kentuckian" in "MGM Movie Collection: 3 Westerns")
• Comet Video (????) (USA) (DVD)
• Opção (19??) (Brazil) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Studios  DVD package design
• Panavision  photographic lenses

Also Known As:

"Denen man nicht vergibt" - Austria, West Germany
"Lo que no se perdona" - Mexico, Uruguay (imdb display title)
"O Passado Não Perdoa" - Brazil (imdb display title), Portugal
"Affedilmeyen" - Turkey (Turkish title)
"De uovervindelige" - Denmark
"Els que no perdonen" - Spain (Catalan title)
"Gli inesorabili" - Italy
"Kitaszítva" - Hungary (imdb display title)
"Le vent de la plaine" - France
"Leppymättömät" - Finland
"Los que no perdonan" - Spain
"Nie do przebaczenia" - Poland (imdb display title)
"Nincs bocsánat" - Hungary (alternative title)
"Oi asyghoritoi" - Greece (transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title)
"Vinden fra slettene" - Norway (imdb display title)

Runtime:

125 min | USA:121 min (Turner library print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Norway:16 | West Germany:12 (f) | Netherlands:12 | Netherlands:6 (re-rating) | USA:Approved (PCA #19245) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Durango, Mexico

Company:

James Productions

Trivia:

DOP Oswald Morris says in his memoirs he was offered this film.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In the scene where the piano is delivered, Lancaster's hair style changes again and again, from trimmed to long, from wind swept to coiffured.

Quotes:

[first lines]
[yelling at a cow eating grass growing on the Zachary family's roof]
Rachel Zachary:Shoo now! Shoo! Ain't you got no better manners than to eat at the top of a house?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Lo chiamavano Trinità... (1970)

Soundtrack:

The Battle Hymn of the Republic

Tearing The Family Apart

This film, The Unforgiven, as opposed to Clint Eastwood's classic is taken from a novel by Alan LeMay who also wrote The Searchers. Both stories are about the post Civil War Texas frontier. But in this one we have the Indians seeking out one of there's who's been taken by whites and raised as one of their own. The person in question is Audrey Hepburn who's been raised by Lillian Gish as her own daughter and sister to her three sons, Burt Lancaster, Audie Murphy, and Doug McClure.

It was an unwritten law of Hollywood that no one shoots a film in Monument Valley except John Ford. So John Huston made due with Durango in Mexico which had become a favorite western location site also. Huston got some good performances out of his cast although he had many problems.

Audrey Hepburn fell off a horse and was injured for a few weeks. Audie Murphy nearly drowned in a river. Topping it all off, according to a recent biography of Burt Lancaster was the fact that Lillian Gish served as a kind of back seat driver to John Huston. She was forever telling him that D.W. Griffith did this or that a different way. But apparently Ms. Gish was satisfied with the finished product because she acclaimed Huston as another Griffith when it was over.

The story really gets going when some Kiowas come knocking on Lillian Gish's door demanding Audrey Hepburn's return. When it's discovered that Hepburn in fact is an Indian, the reaction of the neighbors and some of the family is to send her back. Lancaster, Gish, and McClure aren't having it though.

The Unforgiven was butchered in the editing department. One role that was mostly left on the cutting room floor apparently was John Saxon as a halfbreed named Johnny Portugal. Standing out though is Joseph Wiseman as the crazy ex-cavalryman now turned preacher who has a hate for Audrey Hepburn. Why he does you'll have to see the film, but it's an interesting problem.

Its parts, its individual performances make The Unforgiven an uneven film where the whole is not greater than the sum of those parts.