Will Penny is a 1968 western film written and directed by Tom Gries and starring Charlton Heston, Joan Hackett and Donald Pleasence. The picture was based upon an episode of the 1960 Sam Peckinpah television series The Westerner called "Line Camp," also written and directed by Tom Gries. Heston mentioned that this was his favorite film in which he appeared. The supporting cast features Ben Johnson, Bruce Dern, and Slim Pickens.
Plot
A trail drive is coming to an end, with the resulting payoff of the now out-of-work trail hands. A trio of punchers, Blue, Dutchy, and an aging Will Penny decide to drift south and avoid the oncoming winter. One morning they fire at a bull elk near a river bottom. As they move to claim their prize, they encounter a ragged man near the riverbank who contests their right to the meat. Gunfire erupts, and Will shoots a man. He appears gravely injured, and his companions stop fighting in order to assist. Dutchy is wounded in the exchange, so Will and Blue head to a nearby sutler’s store, where they encounter Catherine Allen and her son Horace. After leaving Dutchy at the doctor, Blue decides to look for a job in the town, while Will proceeds alone. He comes across a horse without a rider and locates a dead cowboy, thrown from his saddle. Will turns the body over to the ranch that he rode for and is offered a job. Will hires on to ride the far-off boundaries of Flat Iron ranch over the winter. As he arrives at the upper range, he finds Catherine and Horace staying in the line-rider's cabin after being abandoned by their guide. He rides away to inspect the fence line, warning them that they must be gone when he returns in one week. The next morning as Will is sleeping outside near the fence, he is ambushed and savagely beaten up by the Quints, who have sworn vengeance on him for the death of their relative at the river. They leave Will for dead, but he drags himself to the cabin, where he is slowly nursed back to health by Catherine. As the winter passes, Will and Catherine fall in love, and Will develops fatherly affection for Horace. As Will and Catherine prepare for Christmas, the Quint family bursts into the cabin, force Will into hard labor, and coerce Catherine into making plans to marry one of the ne'er do well, belligerent, hair-trigger sons. After some days, Catherine distracts two of the Quints so Will can make an escape. A few minutes later, his two former saddle pals Blue and Dutchy arrive looking for him. The three return to attack the cabin to free Catherine and Horace, using a bag of sulfur that was at the cabin to smoke out the Quints. Ultimately, Will realizes that he is too set in his ways to settle down into a domestic life. Deeply regretful about what he is leaving behind, he rides away from the woman and boy, never to return.
"The admirable thing about the movie is its devotion to real life. These are the kind of people, we feel, who must really have inhabited the West: common, direct, painfully shy in social situations and very honest." — Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times "And I got to really like the guy. A lot of people told me that I wouldn't like him, but I liked him. And he tried very hard. I mean, Will Penny is far and awaythe best thing he's ever done." — Bruce Dern on Charlton Heston "Intelligent and thoughtful, Will Penny is a good Western and even a better character study. The West is more than deglamorized here; we get a good approximation of what a real cowboy's life might have been like around the turn of the century." — DVD Savant, DVDTalk "The villains in Will Penny are so unbelievable and so unrealistic that they almost seem like they came out of a Western spoof, rather than the serious, realistic Western which Will Penny aspires to be." — Erik Rupp, Vista Records "This is one of the classic movies of all time. It will last for all eternity as a classic in writing and in acting." — Ange Kenos, OPA Magazine "Charlton Heston told me this was the film he is most proud of and was his favorite screen role." — Rick Schmidlin, producer of the re-edited version of Touch of Evil
