The Plainsman (1936)
The Plainsman is a western released in 1936 by Paramount Pictures. The film is a fictionalized dramatization of the adventures and lives of Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Buffalo Bill, and General George Custer. Charles Bickford plays Lattimer, the movie’s main villain.
The Plainsman is famous for paying little to no attention to real-world time lines, going so far as to include an opening scene showing Abraham Lincoln introducing the adventures of Hickok. The Plainsman was remade in 1966.
Cast and Crew of The Plainsman
The Plainsman was directed and produced by Cecil B. DeMille. Courtney Ryley Cooper and Frank J. Wilstach wrote the original screenplay. George Antheil composed the musical score. Victor Milner provided cinematography, while Anne Bauchens edited the film.
The Plainsman stars Gary Cooper as Wild Bill Hickok, Jean Arthur as Calamity Jane, James Ellison as Buffalo Bill, Charles Bickford as John Lattimer, Helen Burgess as Louisa Cody, Porter Hall as Jack McCall, Victor Varconi as Painted Horse, and Paul Harvey as Yellow Hand. The supporting cast for The Plainsman includes John Miljan as General Custer and Frank McGlynn Sr. as Abraham Lincoln, as well as Granville Bates, Frank Albertson, Purnell Pratt, Fred Kohler, Pat Moriarty, Charles Judles, Harry Woods, and Anthony Quinn.
Plot Synopsis for The Plainsman
The Plainsman begins when the Civil War is coming to a close. President Abraham Lincoln has just been assassinated, and General Custer is continuing to fight off the Indians in the Western US. John Lattimer makes his arrival in Leavenworth, Missouri, intending to sell rifles to the Indians. Meanwhile, Buffalo Bill and his wife Louisa meet with Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok.
The soldiers at Fort Piney are massacred by the Sioux Indians, and General Custer orders Buffalo Bill to deliver ammunition to the fort. Meanwhile, Wild Bill pursues Yellow Hand, the Sioux chief. Louisa informs Calamity Jane that she is pregnant, just as Cheyenne Indians stage a raid on Buffalo Bill’s home and kidnap Calamity Jane away to their camp. The Indians hold Wild Bill hostage and threaten to kill him unless Jane tells them where Buffalo Bill is located.
Jane, who loves Wild Bill, manages to save him. The Cheyenne Indians, using rifles procured from Lattimer, stage a siege on Buffalo Bill’s men. Wild Bill sends Calamity Jane to inform Custer of the attack. Wild Bill, Buffalo Bill, and the remaining men fend off the oncoming Indian attackers. Custer sounds his bugle, scaring the Indians into retreating.
Wild Bill challenges Lattimer to a pistol duel, but Hickok kills three of Lattimer’s henchmen (all of whom were soldiers) in the process. Wild Bill chases Lattimer up into the Black Hills, while Custer tells Buffalo Bill to bring back Wild Bill, dead or alive, charged with the crime of killing soldiers.
Buffalo Bill spends weeks tracking down Wild Bill, until he is informed by a single Cheyenne Indian that Custer has been defeated. Sitting Bull and Yellow Hand devise a scheme to kill additional soldier’s with Lattimer’s rifles, and Wild Bill and Buffalo Bill arrive in Deadwood to prevent the gun shipment. A skirmish breaks out, and Wild Bill shoots and kills Lattimer. Wild Bill rounds up Lattimer’s henchmen at the Bella Union Saloon to play poker.
Wild Bill Hickok is playing a hand of eights and Aces when he is shot in the back by Jack McCall, the coward who had previously warned Lattimer of Wild Bill’s presence. Buffalo Bill arrests McCall and receives a kiss from Calamity Jane.
Additional Information about The Plainsman
During the filming of the massacre at Fort Piney, over 2,000 Indian extras were used. Several individuals from the Wyoming National Guard where used in the filming of the cavalry sequences. Two of them were badly injured during filming.
John Wayne was extremely interested in playing Wild Bill, but Cecil B. DeMille insisted on Gary Cooper. Gary Cooper had extensive experience riding horses, and did the majority of the riding stunts himself.
Humorously, actor Anthony Quinn informed DeMille that he could speak fluent Cheyenne. Quinn speaks several lines, supposedly in Cheyenne, during the film. Although the lines were complete nonsense, DeMille couldn’t tell the difference.
Executives at Paramount pressured DeMille to have Hickok survive the scene where he is shot in the back during a poker game, but DeMille insisted that Hickok die.
The Plainsman was heavily criticized for it’s disregard for factual timelines. In the film, the town of Deadwood is established immediately after the Civil War, in 1865. However, Deadwood was not actually established until 1876. In addition, characters in the film discuss "Go West, Young Man," an editorial by John Soule, as if it were current on the day of Lincoln’s assassination. In reality, the editorial was released 14 years before the assassination.
Generally, the Plainsman attempts to compress the events of seven years into a three month period. Although fans of wild west genre films will probably appreciate The Plainsman, the film received mediocre reviews, and is currently rated at 6.9 out of 10 on the Internet Movie Database.