Sergio Leone was approached to direct this film, but he turned it down since he was working on C'era una volta il West (1968) at the time.
The first film produced by Clint Eastwood's Malpaso Company.
Reportedly, producer Leonard Freeman clashed with director Ted Post during production. One day Freeman showed up on the set, issuing orders and taking charge. Post wanted to confront him, but Clint Eastwood intervened. Eastwood spoke to Freeman, and Freeman left the set and didn't return. What he said was, "If you show up on this set again, there won't be a set ... won't be a cast, won't be a crew."
Miller:
You ain't never gonna get me back to town alive, boy.
Jed Cooper:
Then I'll get you there dead... boy.
Francis Elroy Duffy, Prisoner:
Now Preacher?
The Preacher:
You may say your peace now.
Francis Elroy Duffy, Prisoner:
You're now looking, for the last time, at the mortal body of Francis Elroy Duffy, born to John and Edna Duffy, good, God-fearing folk. Who raised me up to be a good man and a good Christian, and I was a good Christian, a good husband to my beloved wife, good father to my children, who I leave behind, hoping that they, and all you, will learn this here lesson which I leave you with. When you take the devil into your mouth, you're doomed! For he is lying there in wait for you inside that bottle of whiskey. Waiting for you to take him into your mouth. Waiting to get down into your guts where he can do his devil's work. Liquor is the most foul, evil thing in this here world. It destroyed good men like myself. It'll destroy you too. Beer is not much better - it's slower, cheaper. So take these words of advice. And remember, you heard them from a poor sinner, got no more cause to lie, 'cause he's going to meet his Maker. Now he's ready. Well that's all I've got to say.
Captain Wilson, Cooper Hanging Party:
All right, now that makes three mistakes we've made. The money, we hung an innocent man, and we didn't finish the job. We can't undo the first two... but we can still finish the job.
Judge Adam Fenton:
So that's how it is, huh? That Rachel lit a fire in you with that rich body of hers. You lit a fire in each other. Now you're gonna get married, raise cattle and kids, devil take the rest of the world.
Jed Cooper:
Maybe.
Judge Adam Fenton:
You used the law and a badge to heal that scar on your neck.
Jed Cooper:
Well, how many men are you going have to hang to heal your scar?
Judge Adam Fenton:
Go to hell, Cooper.
Jed Cooper:
I've already been there, judge, in your wagon and that hole you call a jail.
Jed Cooper:
Seems like you're a man trying to give away money and don't have too many takers.
Judge Adam Fenton:
You sound like a man protesting the pay is too high. Don't.
Captain Wilson, Cooper Hanging Party:
Let's ride, gentlemen.
Judge Adam Fenton:
[hands Cooper a cup of coffee] Here, if that hangin' rope didn't kill ya, maybe my coffee will.
Judge Adam Fenton:
Pick up the badge, Mr. Cooper.
[Cooper glares at Fenton]
Judge Adam Fenton:
Pick up the badge, or leave justice to me and my men.
Schmidt, the Hangman:
[to the condemned] You haff last request?
[first lines]
Captain Wilson, Cooper Hanging Party:
Alright, drop your gunbelt.
Jed Cooper:
What is this all about?
Loomis, Cooper Hanging Party:
The captain said to drop your gunbelt.
Captain Wilson, Cooper Hanging Party:
Now.
[reading Cooper's bill of sale]
Captain Wilson, Cooper Hanging Party:
Mr. Maddow, is that Joe Hansen's mark?
Maddow, Cooper Hanging Party:
Joe Hansen didn't have to make his mark - he can write as well as you can.
Captain Wilson, Cooper Hanging Party:
Hang him.
[after rescuing Cooper from being lynched]
Marshal Dave Bliss:
Some people call this hell, but you're still in Oklahoma Territory... Save your breath. I don't know who hung you are why, but if you're innocent, the judge will set you free. And if you're not, we'll have to take the trouble to hanging you again.
Prisoner:
Always uses top grade hemp, Schmidt does. He oils it so it slides read good. Snaps your neck like a dry twig.
Jed Cooper:
They'll be no hanging here.
Cowboy:
These men killed my father and brother. They're gonna get what's coming to 'em.
Jed Cooper:
They're gonna get what the law says is coming to 'em.
Jed Cooper:
You're lynching those boys. Why?
Judge Adam Fenton:
Why? Because of you, Cooper. Because of that beautiful, that magnificent journey you took to bring three killers to justice. Because if the law didn't hang them, the next posse that goes out will say, 'Hang 'em and hang 'em high, there's no justice in Fort Grant. and if there's no justice in Fort Grant, Cooper, there will be no statehood for this territory.
Jed Cooper:
Well, I don't care how you slice it - whether there's nine men out in the plains with a dirty rope or a judge with his robe on in front of the American flag - those boys are going to be just as dead as if they'd been lynched.
Judge Adam Fenton:
That's right, Cooper, just as dead - but they won't have been lynched. They would have been judged. And if you can't see the difference, you'd better take off that star right now!
Judge Adam Fenton:
Nineteen marshals and one court to commandeer 70,000 square miles. A happy hunting ground filled with bushwackers, horse thieves, whiskey peddlers, counterfeiters, hide peelers, marauders - they'd kill you for a hat band. Now that's why there's a badge in my desk, Cooper, itching to sit on somebody's chest... and no takers!
Judge Adam Fenton:
You think I judged him too harshly? Used him for kindling my fire of justice? Well, maybe that's inevitable when there's only one man, one court, with the power of final justice over a territory that's five times the size of most states. Mistakes? Oh, I've made 'em, Cooper. Don't you doubt about that. Don't you doubt, either, there are times sitting up there in that judgement seat I wished, I prayed, that there was someone standing between me and God Almighty - someone with the power to say, "You're wrong, Fenton. You've made an error in law - that this man deserves another trial, this man here a reprieve, this man is innocent." But until this territory becomes a state with a governor and a state court of appeals, I am the law here - all the law. If you don't like that, you can cuss me till hell freezes over... or you can join me, Cooper; even fight me. Help me turn this God forsaken territory into a state where no one man calls himself the law.
[last lines]
Judge Adam Fenton:
Cooper, Charlie Blackfoot was seen in the town of Ridgeway. I got two unfilled warrants here for Blackfoot and Maddow. The law still wants 'em.
Crew or equipment visible: The shadow of the cameraman as Jed Cooper walks into the saloon.
Crew or equipment visible: When Jed walks into the Sheriff's Office to find the Swede after being hired as a Marshall, a shadow from the camera man is clearly seen following Eastwood on the lower left part of the screen.
Continuity: The length of Miller's beard seems to vary considerably from shot-to-shot, especially during his fist-fight seen with Cooper on their way back to Fort Grant. He appears nearly clean-shaven, but once on the ground, his beard is quite heavy. In contrast, Cooper's facial hair never changes.
Miscellaneous: When Jedd is hanging on the noose, you can see the film being reversed back and forth to see his feet go back and forth in the same pattern for 10 seconds
Continuity: Jed Cooper breaks a window pane to unlock it to get into Captain Wilson's house. When he crawls through window in the following shot, the window hasn't been broken.
Crew or equipment visible: At the beginning of the movie a piece of camera equipment can be plainly seen lying on the bottom of the gallows.
Revealing mistakes: In the big hanging scene, while there are six men being hanged, the hangman only pulls four rings to actuate the six trap doors,
Continuity: At the beginning of the movie, Jed has to pick up a calf from the water and carry him on shore. However, after the calf walks off, we can see that his leggings (which should be wet) are dry.
Revealing mistakes: When Jed is walking outside, just before entering the saloon where he will kill Reno, he has two shadows. Inside the saloon, he casts two shadows too (but this could be due to two oil lamps).
Continuity: At the start of the film, when Jed carries the calf out of the river, he places it on the ground and his chaps and pants are soaked from walking out of the water. He then turns to get on his horse and his chaps and pants are dry.
Continuity: During the picnic scene in which Rachel tells Jed of her husband's murder and her rape, her hair is alternately wind-blown/neat between shots.
Continuity: When Jed Cooper is unsuccessfully hanged in the opening scenes, he is seen rocking back and forth after the horse bolts. In the close-up, Cooper becomes still and the rope stops swinging.
Anachronisms: When Jed is rescued from the noose, a white vehicle can be seen flashing quickly between the trees in the distance.
Revealing mistakes: When Marshal Cooper wakes up in the hotel after returning with the three outlaws, you can hear a man and woman cooing and laughing in the background, if you listen carefully, you'll notice it is on a loop and keeps playing over and over again
Crew or equipment visible: There's a ventilated electrical transformer underneath the gallows at the first hanging.
Anachronisms: Near the end of the film when Cooper assaults Captain Wilson's house, it is guarded by a German Shepherd which didn't come into existence until 1894-1899 which is well after the time period of this film.
Featured in
100 Years of the Hollywood Western (1994) (TV)
Big Guns Talk: The Story of the Western (1997) (TV)
John Wayne Made Me Cry: Our Western Heros (2002) (TV)
Spoofed in
Shanghai Noon (2000)