The Cheyenne Social Club
Encyclopedia
The Cheyenne Social Club is a 1970 Western comedy
film
written by James Lee Barrett
and directed and produced by Gene Kelly
, starring James Stewart
, Henry Fonda
, and Shirley Jones
.
Set in a brothel with suggestive dialogue, the movie was one of the few off-color screen ventures for Stewart, who specifically suggested that his friend Fonda be cast; they had most recently worked together two years previously in Firecreek
. Stewart and Fonda's first film together had been the musical comedy On Our Merry Way
(1948), and they had also both appeared in How the West Was Won
(1962) but had no scenes together despite playing best friends.
Firecreek was shot at the Bonanza Creek Ranch and Eaves Movie Ranch outside Santa Fe
, New Mexico
(exteriors), and the Samuel Goldwyn Studio
s in Hollywood, California
(interiors).
, that his disreputable and now deceased brother, DJ, left him something called The Cheyenne Social Club in his will
.
After they make the 1,000 mile (1,600 km) trek to Cheyenne, O'Hanlan and Sullivan learn that The Cheyenne Social Club is a high-class brothel
next to the railroad. O'Hanlan's new-found status as a man of property makes him the most popular man in town, until he decides to turn the Club into a respectable boarding house.
The ladies of the Club hunker down, and show no sign of leaving. John gets into a bar-room brawl with several men who are equally-angry at the prospect of the Club closing. John then learns from DJ's lawyer that DJ had made a deal with the railroad: if the ladies leave the Club, the land the Club is on will revert back to the railroad.
John returns to the Club to discover that Jenny, the head girl, has been assaulted by a man named Corey Bannister. John, with Harley following along, arms himself and goes to the bar where Bannister is. John kills Bannister when Bannister mistakes Harley's cracking pecans for a second gun. "Just like DJ would have done" the barkeeper intones of John's heroics.
The Sheriff advises John and Harley that Bannister's relatives are sure to head for Cheyenne once they learn of Bannister's death. He says he would like to stay and help John and Harley face down the Bannisters, but has to leave town on business.
Harley heeds the Sheriff's warning and leaves for Texas in spite of John's pleads to stay. En route, Harley meets several men at a campfire. While engaging in conversation with the men, Harley discovers they are the Bannisters. He gets on his horse and rides on.
The Bannisters show up at the Club and a gunfight ensues. John, with help from Jenny, kills two Bannisters from the window. A third Bannister enters the house through a back door and is killed by Jenny. Harley, who has returned, kills the fourth Bannister after climbing the railroad water tower. John yells, "Is that you Harley?" The head Bannister hears this and remembers Harley as the man who approached them at the campfire. He shoots at Harley, but is gunned down by John. The sixth Bannister runs away.
John and Harley are feted at the bar which had formerly shunned them. The Sheriff congratulates them and then tells them 20 to 30 of the Bannisters cousins, the Markstones, are heading to Cheyenne. He says he would like to stay and help John and Harley face the Markstones, but has to leave town again on business.
This time, John decides to leave and he has DJ's lawyer transfer ownership of the Club to Jenny. Months later, while working cattle on the range in Texas, John receives a letter from Jenny. He is touched by it, but tosses it into the fire before him. Harley is upset John has destroyed the letter because he wanted to read it. They then ride off together, arguing.
nomination for "Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen", but lost to Neil Simon
for The Out-of-Towners
.
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
written by James Lee Barrett
James Lee Barrett
James Lee Barrett was an American producer, screenwriter, and writer.Barrett, along with Peter Udell and Phillip Rose won the 1975 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for Shenandoah, which was based on his 1965 film by the same name, which starred James Stewart.Other notable works written by...
and directed and produced by Gene Kelly
Gene Kelly
Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer...
, starring James Stewart
James Stewart (actor)
James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...
, Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
, and Shirley Jones
Shirley Jones
Shirley Mae Jones is an American singer and actress of stage, film and television. In her six decades of television, she starred as wholesome characters in a number of well-known musical films, such as Oklahoma! , Carousel , and The Music Man...
.
Set in a brothel with suggestive dialogue, the movie was one of the few off-color screen ventures for Stewart, who specifically suggested that his friend Fonda be cast; they had most recently worked together two years previously in Firecreek
Firecreek
Firecreek is a 1968 western movie directed by Vincent McEveety and starring James Stewart and Henry Fonda in his second role as an antagonist that year. The film is similar to High Noon in that it features an entire town refusing to help a peace officer against outlaws, showing no backbone...
. Stewart and Fonda's first film together had been the musical comedy On Our Merry Way
On Our Merry Way
On Our Merry Way is an American comedy film, produced by Benedict Bogeaus and Burgess Meredith, and released by United Artists. At the time of its release, King Vidor and Leslie Fenton were credited with its direction, although the DVD lists John Huston and George Stevens, who assisted with one of...
(1948), and they had also both appeared in How the West Was Won
How the West Was Won
How the West Was Won may refer to:* How the West Was Won * How the West Was Won * How the West Was Won * How the West Was Won * How the West Was Won...
(1962) but had no scenes together despite playing best friends.
Firecreek was shot at the Bonanza Creek Ranch and Eaves Movie Ranch outside Santa Fe
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
, New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
(exteriors), and the Samuel Goldwyn Studio
Samuel Goldwyn Studio
Samuel Goldwyn Studio was the name that Samuel Goldwyn used to refer to the Pickford-Fairbanks Studios lot and the offices and stages that his company, Goldwyn Pictures, rented there during the 1920s and 1930s...
s in Hollywood, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
(interiors).
Plot
In 1867, John O'Hanlan and Harley Sullivan are aging cowboys working on open cattle ranges in Texas. O'Hanlan gets a letter from an attorney in Cheyenne, WyomingCheyenne, Wyoming
Cheyenne is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming and the county seat of Laramie County. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne, Wyoming, Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Laramie County. The population is 59,466 at the 2010 census. Cheyenne is the...
, that his disreputable and now deceased brother, DJ, left him something called The Cheyenne Social Club in his will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
.
After they make the 1,000 mile (1,600 km) trek to Cheyenne, O'Hanlan and Sullivan learn that The Cheyenne Social Club is a high-class brothel
Brothel
Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...
next to the railroad. O'Hanlan's new-found status as a man of property makes him the most popular man in town, until he decides to turn the Club into a respectable boarding house.
The ladies of the Club hunker down, and show no sign of leaving. John gets into a bar-room brawl with several men who are equally-angry at the prospect of the Club closing. John then learns from DJ's lawyer that DJ had made a deal with the railroad: if the ladies leave the Club, the land the Club is on will revert back to the railroad.
John returns to the Club to discover that Jenny, the head girl, has been assaulted by a man named Corey Bannister. John, with Harley following along, arms himself and goes to the bar where Bannister is. John kills Bannister when Bannister mistakes Harley's cracking pecans for a second gun. "Just like DJ would have done" the barkeeper intones of John's heroics.
The Sheriff advises John and Harley that Bannister's relatives are sure to head for Cheyenne once they learn of Bannister's death. He says he would like to stay and help John and Harley face down the Bannisters, but has to leave town on business.
Harley heeds the Sheriff's warning and leaves for Texas in spite of John's pleads to stay. En route, Harley meets several men at a campfire. While engaging in conversation with the men, Harley discovers they are the Bannisters. He gets on his horse and rides on.
The Bannisters show up at the Club and a gunfight ensues. John, with help from Jenny, kills two Bannisters from the window. A third Bannister enters the house through a back door and is killed by Jenny. Harley, who has returned, kills the fourth Bannister after climbing the railroad water tower. John yells, "Is that you Harley?" The head Bannister hears this and remembers Harley as the man who approached them at the campfire. He shoots at Harley, but is gunned down by John. The sixth Bannister runs away.
John and Harley are feted at the bar which had formerly shunned them. The Sheriff congratulates them and then tells them 20 to 30 of the Bannisters cousins, the Markstones, are heading to Cheyenne. He says he would like to stay and help John and Harley face the Markstones, but has to leave town again on business.
This time, John decides to leave and he has DJ's lawyer transfer ownership of the Club to Jenny. Months later, while working cattle on the range in Texas, John receives a letter from Jenny. He is touched by it, but tosses it into the fire before him. Harley is upset John has destroyed the letter because he wanted to read it. They then ride off together, arguing.
Reception
The Cheyenne Social Club was a minor success, but was poorly received by critics. It didn't receive any notoriety until decades later with numerous cable television broadcasts. Barrett's script earned a 1970 Writers Guild of AmericaWriters Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi....
nomination for "Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen", but lost to Neil Simon
Neil Simon
Neil Simon is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has written numerous Broadway plays, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and The Odd Couple. He won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Lost In Yonkers. He has written the screenplays for several of his plays that...
for The Out-of-Towners
The Out-of-Towners (1970 film)
The Out-of-Towners is a 1970 comedy film written by Neil Simon, directed by Arthur Hiller, and starring Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis. It was released by Paramount Pictures on May 28, 1970....
.
Cast
- James StewartJames Stewart (actor)James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...
as John O'Hanlan - Henry FondaHenry FondaHenry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
as Harley Sullivan - Shirley JonesShirley JonesShirley Mae Jones is an American singer and actress of stage, film and television. In her six decades of television, she starred as wholesome characters in a number of well-known musical films, such as Oklahoma! , Carousel , and The Music Man...
as Jenny - Sue Ane LangdonSue Ane LangdonSue Ane Langdon is a retired American actress.She began her performing career singing at Radio City Music Hall and acting in stage productions. In the mid-1960s she acted at Manhattan's Schubert Theatre in The Apple Tree musical, which starred a young Alan Alda...
as Opal Ann - Elaine DevryElaine DevryElaine Devry is an American actress. She appeared in a number of films including A Guide for the Married Man and was formerly married to actor Mickey Rooney.-Filmography:* The Atomic Kid * China Doll...
as Pauline - Jackie Russell as Carrie Virginia
- Jackie JosephJackie JosephJackie Joseph is an American character actress, voice artist, and writer known for portraying the film characters of: Audrey Fulquard in the original The Little Shop of Horrors, Sheila Futterman in both Gremlins films, and the voice of Melody in the animated television series Josie and the...
as Annie Jo - Sharon DeBord as Sara Jean
- Robert MiddletonRobert MiddletonRobert Middleton, born Samuel G. Messer , was an American film and television actor known for his large size and beetle-like brow. With a deep, booming voice, Middleton trained for a musical career at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
as Barkeep