The Sons of Katie Elder is based on a story written by screenwriter and playwright Talbot Jennings. The film is said to be ‘l o o s e l y’ based Kate Elder a.k.a. Big Nose Kate, Doc Holliday’s on again off again love. Knowing something of Kate from having researched and written the just released Lunger: The Doc Holliday Story, I can safely say any similarity between Doc’s Kate and the film stops with the use of her name. Kate had no sons (she claimed) let alone four, though given her ‘professional’ calling, one might suppose the possibility here or there.

Talbot’s story might give us a clue as to how director Henry Hathaway got from Kate to The Sons of, but research tells us the story is lost to the mists of history, title, and all. Talbot was a writer of some renown with graduate degrees from Harvard and Yale back when those degrees meant more than participation trophies hung on a wall.

So, we are left with a film staring, John Wayne, Dean Martin, Michael Anderson, and Earl Holliman. Katie Elder is dead. Her sons, gunfighter John (Wayne), gambler Tom (Martin), shopkeeper Matt (Holliman), and college-boy wannabe gunman Bud (Anderson) return home for her funeral. Katie, who lived in poor circumstances, is loved nonetheless by the townsfolk. The sons who neglected her are not John and Tom in particular.

Morgan Hastings claims to have won the Elder ranch from the boys’ father in a card game the night the old man was mysteriously murdered. The boys are suspicious, so is the sheriff. Hastings hires a gunman to have his back. Pressed by the sheriff’s questions, Hastings kills him, making it look like the Elders did it. The boys are arrested, prompting lynch mob retribution for the beloved sheriff. The judge sends the boys to Laredo for safekeeping. Hasting arranges an ambush, foiled by the sheriff’s deputy. Hastings gunman dynamites a bridge killing Matt.

Tom suspects Hastings’ son knows the truth of the old man’s death. He abducts the youth but is shot by Hastings who shoots his own son to keep him quiet. The boy tells all before the judge with his dying breaths, clearing the Elders. John pursues Hastings to his firearms factory. In a showdown gunfight, John blows a powder keg and the factory with Hastings in it.

More than you bargain for from a short story with no title.

Next Week: Bandolero
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Ride easy,
Paul