Tom Horn ***½ (1979, Steve McQueen, Linda Evans, Richard Farnsworth, Billy Green Bush, Slim Pickens, Peter Canon, Elisha Cook Jnr, Geoffrey Lewis) – Classic Movie Review 3,529

The 1979 Western film Tom Horn is notable as Steve McQueen’s penultimate movie and his final Western. It tells the tale of the last days of real-life Wyoming cavalry scout and bounty hunter Tom Horn, based on his memoirs.

Director William Wiard’s 1979 Western film Tom Horn is notable as Steve McQueen’s penultimate movie and his final Western. It tells the tale of the last days of real-life Wyoming cavalry scout and bounty hunter Tom Horn, based on his memoirs Life of Tom Horn: Government Scout and Interpreter, written from jail, in which he alleges that he was framed for murder.

As Tom Horn, McQueen is hired by ranchers to hunt down rustlers but ends up on trial for the murder of a boy. He escapes from jail on foot and then is recaptured to face the death penalty.

The only McQueen vehicle to receive an R rating, it is a sombre, death-filled movie, with a strange, haunting poignancy brought about by being made during the star’s terminal illness from cancer, leading to his untimely death on November 7 1980 at the age of only 50. McQueen looks thin and haunted, though his weight loss was said to be due to a crash diet and he denied reports that he had lung cancer.

The intriguing result is a bit of a muddle as story-telling in the final edit from Thomas McGuane and Bud Shrake’s screenplay, and not the great Western McQueen obsessively aspired for so long to make. Nevertheless, it is still well worth a look for McQueen’s star turn, the supporting turns of the great Seventies character actor players, and John A Alonzo’s outstanding cinematography on location in Arizona and Mexico.

Those great supporting players are Richard Farnsworth as John C Coble, Billy Green Bush as US Marshal Joe Belle, Slim Pickens as Sheriff Sam Creedmore, Peter Canon, Elisha Cook Jnr, Geoffrey Lewis, Roy Jenson, James Kline, Steve Oliver, Bill Thurman, Bobby Bass and Harry Northup.

It co-stars Linda Evans as Glendolene Kimmel, the local schoolteacher.

It has a long and unhappy production story. William Goldman wrote an early version of the Tom Horn screenplay, but McQueen fell out with him and also original director Don Siegel. Tom Horn was finally released, after many delays and changes of personnel in 1980. Five directors worked on Tom Horn, but were fired or quit after disagreements with McQueen.

Siegel was replaced with Elliot Silverstein, and then with James William Guercio, who was fired after three days by McQueen, who then wanted to direct himself. But DGA rules forbidding actors from taking over direction once filming had begun officially prevented that and TV movie director William Wiard was brought in to finish the film, his only feature film directing credit. However McQueen is said to have directed much of the movie himself.

Tom Horn was heavily re-edited for its March 1980 release. The producers tried a linear version of the story and then another telling it in flashback, before settling on the former. But Tom Horn met with critical and commercial failure. Because of the poor reviews, it had only a limited release and was soon withdrawn from cinemas.

It was shot at the beginning of 1979 when McQueen was already very ill with cancer. He began coughing up blood towards the end of filming, but believed he had pneumonia. In February 1980 the cancer was found to have spread. On 11 March 1980, just 17 days before the film opened, the National Enquirer reported that his condition was terminal.

Goldman’s script was converted into a simultaneously made two-part TV movie, Mr Horn (1979), but even this wasn’t a happy ending as it was made with many alterations, of which Goldman disapproved. Mr Horn was rushed into production to compete with Tom Horn, making it onto TV several months ahead of Tom Horn’s much-delayed release. In Mr Horn, David Carradine plays the same Tom Horn character, and Richard Widmark and Karen Black co-star.

As usual, the film takes liberties with the facts. The American scout, cowboy, soldier, range detective, and Pinkerton agent Thomas Horn Jr (November 21, 1860 – November 20, 1903) was believed to have committed 17 killings as a hired gunman in the West. He was convicted in 1902 of the murder of 14-year-old Willie Nickell near Iron Mountain, Wyoming, and was executed by hanging in Cheyenne, Wyoming. In jail, he wrote his autobiography, Life of Tom Horn: Government Scout and Interpreter, published posthumously in 1904.

Director Arthur Penn said the real-life Tom Horn was the inspiration for the villainous Marlon Brando character in his film The Missouri Breaks (1976). Thomas McGuane worked as screenwriter on both films.

John Ireland plays Horn in the 1967 Western film Fort Utah.

McQueen was still a huge star in the Seventies with The Getaway (1972), Papillon (1973), and The Towering Inferno (1974). In 1974 he was the world’s highest-paid movie star, but he was combative with directors and producers, and then did not act in films for four years. After the troubled production and release of An Enemy of the People (1978), McQueen struggled to find work. The production company First Artists persuaded him to film Tom Horn from a script they long owned as the final film in his three-picture deal with them and Warner Bros. He was also executive producer.

After Tom Horn, McQueen was able to make one more movie, The Hunter.

Linda Evans (born Linda Evenstad) turned 80 on 18 November 2022. She is best known for The Big Valley (1965–1969) and Dynasty (1981 – 1989). She plays Rita Parker Sloan in the 2021 film Swan Song.

The cast are Steve McQueen as Tom Horn, Linda Evans as Glendolene Kimmel, Richard Farnsworth as John C Coble, Billy Green Bush as US Marshal Joe Belle, Slim Pickens as Sheriff Sam Creedmore, Peter Canon as Assistant Prosecutor, Elisha Cook Jr as Stablehand, Roy Jenson as Lee Mendenhour, James Kline as Arlo Chance, Geoffrey Lewis as Walter Stoll, Harry Northup as Thomas Burke, Steve Oliver as Gentleman Jim Corbett, Bill Thurman as Ora Haley, Bert Williams as Judge, Bobby Bass as Corbett’s Bodyguard, Mickey Jones as Brown’s Hole Rustler, Mel Novak as Corbett’s Bodyguard, Clark Coleman as Jimmy Nolt, Drummond Barclay as Charlie Ohnhouse, and Chuck Hayward as Deputy Earl Proctor.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3,529

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/