Blake Edwards

CHAPTER 7Wild Rovers (1971)

Written, Produced, and Directed by Blake Edwards

When Wild Rovers was released in 1971, many viewers probably considered this Western to be an unexpected genre for Edwards, who at that time was primarily characterized as a comedy director. But in fact, his first two films as a writer and producer were Westerns: Panhandle (1948, in which he also acted) and Stampede (1949). They were low-budget, black-and-white B films, but they already demonstrated Edwards’s penchant for experimenting with genre conventions, particularly those involving pacing and tone (see Chapters 1 and 2). He would return to Westerns throughout his career. Ken Wales told us that a three-picture directing deal Edwards had with Paramount for Gunn included a Western, Waterhole #3, which he ended up only producing (uncredited) in 1967. He had also included a segment satirizing Westerns in The Great Race (1965). Late in his career he returned to the genre once again with Sunset (1988) in which he would play with the genre’s conventions in a story about a popular Western movie actor, Tom Mix, and a legendary figure from Western history, Wyatt Earp, working together in 1920s Hollywood (see Chapter 11).

As is widely known, Wild Rovers was cut dramatically when it was released in the United States with a length of 106 minutes. Edwards was devastated since he considered his cut of the film to be his greatest achievement. That experience, combined with the production problems on his next ...