Cowboy

Cowboy is a 1958 American Western film directed by Delmer Daves and starring Glenn Ford, Jack Lemmon, Anna Kashfi and Brian Donlevy. This film is an adaptation of the Frank Harris semi-autobiographical novel My Reminiscences as a Cowboy. Lemmon's character is based on Harris. The opening animated title sequence was created by Saul Bass. The screenwriters were Edmund H. North and Dalton Trumbo - the latter received no screen credit at the time because he had been blacklisted as one of the Hollywood Ten. Plot Frank Harris (Jack Lemmon) is a Chicago hotel clerk who dreams of making his fortune in the cattle business and has also fallen in love with Maria, the daughter of hotel guest and Mexican cattle baron, Señor Vidal. When Señor Vidal finds out about the relationship, he orders Harris to stay away and arranges to return immediately to Mexico with his daughter. Meanwhile, Tom Reece (Glenn Ford), an experienced trail boss, finishes a cattle drive and takes over an entire wing of the hotel, as usual. He makes a deal to buy cattle from Vidal in Mexico. However, when Reece loses his money in a poker game, Harris sees his opportunity to better himself (and see Maria again) – he offers his entire life savings for a partnership in Reece's next drive, including his joining the drive. Reece in desperation accepts on the basis that the profits are shared 50:50. The next morning, when Harris shows up, Reece tries to renege, not wanting to burden himself with an inexperienced greenhornish tenderfoot as a partner, but Harris holds him to their deal. As they travel to Vidal's ranch, the cowboy life on the trail is not what Harris had envisioned. Harris is upset when one of the hands is killed by a rattlesnake bite during some fooling around by two other hands. Reece, still upset about having Harris along, continues to treat him harshly, but Harris toughens up and Reece starts taking a liking to him.