Shane - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Shane or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Shane

[veronica]

Alan Ladd, who was under contract to Paramount, earned $145,000. Jack Palance earned $12,500 for 10 weeks work.

[ava]

"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on February 22, 1954 with Alan Ladd and Van Heflin reprising their film roles.

[frederick]

At the time of filming, Jack Palance was not comfortable with horses. The one good mount he achieved during the numerous takes was used in the film.

[norma]

One of the Ryker men in the fist fight with Shane, listed in the cast as Rex Moore, would be better known to viewers as Clayton Moore--The Lone Ranger. "Shane" was filmed while Moore was in a salary dispute with Jack Wrather, producer of The Lone Ranger (1949), and John Hart had replaced him on the show Moore eventually got his raise and resumed his legendary role.

[sylvia]

George Stevens originally cast Montgomery Clift as Shane and William Holden as Joe Starrett. When both decided to do other films instead, "Shane" was nearly abandoned before Stevens asked studio head Y. Frank Freeman who was available. Upon seeing a list of actors under contract to the studio, Stevens cast Alan Ladd, Van Heflin and Jean Arthur within three minutes.

[jesse]

In the face-off between Wilson (Jack Palance) and Torrey (Elisha Cook Jr.), Torrey tells Wilson that he is "a low-down, lyin' Yankee". Although director George Stevens kept directing Palance at this point to smile--an expression of amused contempt at Cook--Palance continued take after take to show too much menace and not enough of a smile mixed in. Finally Stevens took Cook aside and whispered something to him. During the next take, Cook read his line, and added "and a son of a bitch, too!" This time, Stevens got his take. When Shane faces Wilson, Shane says, "You're a low-down Yankee liar".

[leo]

In the scene when Shane first enters the bar, he answers a question from Chris with "you speakin' to me" to which he gets a reply from Chris "I don't see nobody else standin' there" - very much an influence for dialogue used by Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver (1976).

[alyssa]

Inspired the Special Guest Villain "Shame", played by Cliff Robertson, on five episodes of the television series "Batman", from 1966 to 1968.

[carl]

Features Brandon De Wilde's only Oscar nominated performance.

[ronnie]

Jack Schaefer's novel was a huge success when it was first published in 1949 with Paramount swiftly snapping up the film rights.

[wesley]

Besides the "You speakin' to me?" quote that Martin Scorsese famously mirrored in Taxi Driver, Scorsese also paid homage to the sinister lap-dissolve shot of Jack Palance crossing the floor towards the bar with the same camera trick featuring Travis Bickle walking along the sidewalk outside the cab company.

[bessie]

The music cues for the climactic ride that Shane takes to the showdown are from an earlier Paramount film, Rope of Sand (1949).

[chris]

Although promoted as, and widely believed to be, the first pre-anamorphic widescreen color Western, this was actually shot in the traditional1.37:1 Academy ratio, but prior to its release, the studio dictated that it be cropped and projected in the trendy new wider 1.66:1 format. The music was also re-recorded in stereo.

[nina]

Shane's gun is a nickel-plated Colt 1873 Single Action Army revolver with a 7 & 1/2 inch barrel and ivory grips with carved horse's heads, in either .44 or .45 caliber. It is carried in a "Mexican" double-loop holster on a belt decorated with numerous silver open-starburst conchos.

[carl]

In an interview in the New York Times, Woody Allen described why he considered Shane one of his favorite movies.

[caroline]

When Jack Palance died in 2006, he was the last living billed cast member.

[kim]

Alan Ladd was only 5'7", and this had to be compensated for. When he is in scenes with Van Heflin the two are about the same height, although Heflin was far taller. When Ladd is shown with Jean Arthur he is perhaps a bit taller than she. When Heflin is shown with her, Heflin is far taller than she.

[jeffrey]

Although never explicitly stated, elements of the setting for Shane were derived from Wyoming's Johnson County War (1892), the archetypal cattlemen-homesteaders conflict, which also served as the background for The Virginian (1946) and Heaven's Gate (1980).

[toni]

Jean Arthur was 50 years old when she played Marian Starrett - she was, in fact, ten years older than Emile Meyer, who played grizzled old cattle baron Rufus Ryker. Arthur wore heavy make up and an extremely inappropriate 1952 styled short cut, wavy blonde wig, which sadly emphasized the advancing age of the woman wearing it. Soft focus closeups only made the situation worse, drawing audience's further attention to the problem.