The Shepherd of the Hills (film)

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The Shepherd of the Hills
Directed by	Henry Hathaway
Produced by	Jack Moss
Written by	Stuart Anthony Grover Jones Harold Bell Wright
Starring	John Wayne Betty Field
Cinematography	W. Howard Greene Charles Lang
Editing by	Ellsworth Hoagland
Release date(s)	18 July 1941
Running time	98 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
IMDb profile

The Shepherd of the Hills is a 1941 film starring John Wayne. It was Wayne's first film in Technicolor. The film was based on the novel of the same name by Harold Bell Wright.

1 Differences from the novel
2 Cast
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Differences from the novel

While the novel interposed fiction with portrayals of actual persons residing in the Missouri Ozarks, in the early Branson area, the film departed markedly from the book's presentations. Old Matt, a patriarch, mill owner and influential person within the community, is presented in the film as a dottering fool, henpecked by his wife, Aunt Mollie. In the novel she's a nurturing, kindly, loyal wife and friend, but in this film she is a shrill, nasty moonshiner. The "Shepherd" of the title, a cultured, sympathetic visitor from Chicago who contributes positively to the society he's visiting, in this film is an aging gunfighter with a guarded past and, in total odds with the book, is here Young Matt's (John Wayne's) father, with a shootout perpetrated by "Big John." Other characters differ as markedly from Wright's novel. Although a good representation of the Ozarks area several decades ago, a decent story in its own right, and good nostalgia, it probably represents as great a departure by a film, versus the novel it is based on, in all motion picture history.