{ "id": "epf3thdqhb", "slug": "buffalo-bill-1944-film", "title": "Buffalo Bill (1944 film)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1940s", "label": "Drama films 1940s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1940s" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "United States · 1800 to 1945: Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "path": [ { "id": "geo.us", "label": "United States", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800", "label": "United States · 1800 to 1945", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Buffalo Bill (1944) is a Twentieth Century-Fox Technicolor Western biography directed by William A. Wellman, starring Joel McCrea as Buffalo Bill Cody with Maureen O'Hara and Linda Darnell; a 1944 box-office hit remembered for its War Bonnet Gorge battle scene.", "snippet": "Buffalo Bill (1944) is a Twentieth Century-Fox Technicolor Western biography directed by William A. Wellman, starring Joel McCrea as Buffalo Bill Cody with Maureen O'Hara and Linda Darnell; a 1944 box-office hit remembered for its War Bonnet Gorge battle scene.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1940s", "markdown": "# Buffalo Bill (1944 film)\n\n**Buffalo Bill** is a 1944 American Technicolor biographical Western directed by William A. Wellman for Twentieth Century-Fox, starring [Joel McCrea](https://www.edgepedia.org/joel-mccrea) as the frontier scout and showman William Frederick \"Buffalo Bill\" Cody (1846–1917), with [Maureen O'Hara](https://www.edgepedia.org/maureen-ohara) as his wife Louisa and [Linda Darnell](https://www.edgepedia.org/linda-darnell) as a fictional Cheyenne woman.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24304-BUFFALO-BILL?cp=1&pos=1&sid=8aa14618-348c-41ab-b6f4-86873d1bc519&sr=13.6256695) It was one of the big hits of 1944, though its director, writer, and leading lady later spoke of it with little affection.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1008121/buffalo-bill-1944)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director / producer | William A. Wellman; produced by Harry A. Sherman, with Darryl F. Zanuck as executive producer, for Twentieth Century-Fox[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24304-BUFFALO-BILL?cp=1&pos=1&sid=8aa14618-348c-41ab-b6f4-86873d1bc519&sr=13.6256695) |\n| Cast | Joel McCrea (Cody), Maureen O'Hara (Louisa Frederici Cody), Linda Darnell (Dawn Starlight), Thomas Mitchell (Ned Buntline), Anthony Quinn (Yellow Hand)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24304-BUFFALO-BILL?cp=1&pos=1&sid=8aa14618-348c-41ab-b6f4-86873d1bc519&sr=13.6256695) |\n| Release | Los Angeles opening 13 April 1944; New York opening the week of 19 April 1944[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24304-BUFFALO-BILL?cxt=filmography) |\n| Physical properties | Technicolor, Western Electric sound, 90 minutes, 8,126 feet on 10 reels[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24304-BUFFALO-BILL?cxt=filmography) |\n| Writers | Aeneas MacKenzie, Clements Ripley, and Cecile Kramer, from a story by Frank Winch[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24304-BUFFALO-BILL?cp=1&pos=1&sid=8aa14618-348c-41ab-b6f4-86873d1bc519&sr=13.6256695) |\n| Box office | Zanuck later told Wellman it was the second-biggest moneymaker Fox had ever made[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1008121/buffalo-bill-1944) |\n| Filming locations | Crow Indian Reservation (Montana), Zion National Park and Kanab (Utah)[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24304-BUFFALO-BILL?cxt=filmography) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story\n\nThe film follows Cody from his service as an Army scout friendly with the Cheyenne, through his reluctant participation in the buffalo hunting that gave him his name, to his rise to fame after the dime novelist Ned Buntline romanticized his exploits, and finally to his career as proprietor of the Wild West show.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/buffalo_bill) • [5](https://www.chicagofilmsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/2006.2-Mustache-Cinema-Web.pdf) In the plot, Cody rescues a wagon party that includes Senator Frederici and his daughter Louisa, whom he marries; industrialist Schyler Vandevere's railroad through Cheyenne land ignites a war led by the war chief Yellow Hand; and Frederici is captured, with Cody negotiating his release before a peace treaty is signed.[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24304-BUFFALO-BILL?cxt=filmography) • [6](https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/16588/buffalo-bill/)\n\nThe first half is an exuberant frontier Western with expertly staged battle scenes; the second half turns somber as Cody is publicly scorned in the East, denounced as a fraud in the New York press, and reduced to performing as a sharpshooter on a wooden horse in a dime museum, before hitting on show business and regaining his celebrity.[5](https://www.chicagofilmsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/2006.2-Mustache-Cinema-Web.pdf) • [7](https://www.history.org.uk/files/download/9522/1325594476/Have_gun_will_travel.pdf) In the film's bitter last act, industrialists and politicians discredit his accomplishments because of his defense of the American Indian and his anger at the rapid development of the West.[6](https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/16588/buffalo-bill/)\n\n## Production background\n\n**A discarded truthful script.** Writer Gene Fowler considered Cody \"the fakiest guy who ever lived\" and wanted a film that showed the less-glamorous truth of the man. Wellman agreed, and the two spent months researching Cody's life, producing what Wellman called \"half a script that was absolutely beautiful\" after three months of work. Fowler then changed his mind, telling Wellman that destroying a hero the public worshipped was the wrong approach, and the two men burned the script page by page in a fireplace. Wellman later called it the most wonderful work he had ever done with a writer, but said Fowler was right.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1008121/buffalo-bill-1944)\n\nThe completed screenplay perpetuated the heroic, romantic legend, and Wellman was disgusted by it. He directed the film anyway because he owed Fox a picture in exchange for having been allowed to make *The Ox-Bow Incident* (1943), which studio chief Darryl Zanuck disliked as much as Wellman disliked *Buffalo Bill*.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1008121/buffalo-bill-1944) According to Fox legal records, the studio had purchased the rights to Frank Winch's unpublished story \"Pahaska\" from Sherman, who had originally intended to make the film at Paramount in the late 1930s.[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24304-BUFFALO-BILL?cxt=filmography)\n\nA June 1943 draft of the screenplay carried a foreword dedicating the film to Indian warriors then serving in the United States armed forces. Zanuck objected in a July 1943 story conference, saying the dedication recalled \"our ignoble treatment of the American Indian,\" a situation he preferred not to have raised. [Vincent Price](https://www.edgepedia.org/vincent-price) was originally scheduled to play Murdo Carvell but was replaced when the part was cut.[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24304-BUFFALO-BILL?cxt=filmography)\n\n## The War Bonnet Gorge battle\n\nThe film's centerpiece is a cavalry-versus-Indians battle at War Bonnet Gorge, based on a true-life skirmish and counted among the most exciting such scenes of its era. To shoot it, Wellman had a river dammed so that only a little water would cover the valley floor where the battle takes place. Flash floods washed out the dam three times at considerable cost; Zanuck gave him one more chance, and the sequence was completed just before another flood destroyed the dam again the next day.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1008121/buffalo-bill-1944)\n\nThe footage was so effective that Fox reused it in later Westerns, including the opening of *Pony Soldier* (1952) and the ending of *The Siege at Red River* (1954). Film historian William K. Everson later noted that critics praised the battle scene as if it were new, more than a decade after it was filmed.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1008121/buffalo-bill-1944)\n\n## Reception\n\nCritics received the film coolly, though they praised the battle scene. The New York Times treated the film's mythmaking with resignation, writing that as \"a purely romantic fiction about the great man who had the Wild West show\" it was as credible as many of the stories Cody told about himself, and that Fox had \"done nothing to tear it down.\" The trade paper [Variety](https://www.edgepedia.org/variety-magazine), by contrast, called it \"a magnificent production\" with \"topflight\" photography and \"outstanding\" sound recording.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1008121/buffalo-bill-1944) A contemporary New Yorker review observed that \"fact and fiction, as usual, are given about equal representation\" in the film.[8](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1944/04/22/1944-04-22-062-tny-cards-000014915)\n\nAudiences responded to the cast, Leon Shamroy's Technicolor cinematography, and the action scenes. O'Hara later wrote that she believed the [Technicolor](https://www.edgepedia.org/technicolor) photography was what made the film such a substantial box-office success; she otherwise thought little of the picture.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1008121/buffalo-bill-1944) Fox released *Buffalo Bill* before *The Ox-Bow Incident*, and while the former scored at the box office, the latter made little impression with moviegoers at the time, though it has since come to be regarded as a classic of the era while *Buffalo Bill* is remembered mainly for its battle scene and technical merits.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1008121/buffalo-bill-1944)\n\n## History and legend\n\nThe AFI Catalog notes that some incidents in the film are true, including Cody's fight with the Cheyenne leader Yellow Hand and his being awarded the [Medal of Honor](https://www.edgepedia.org/medal-of-honor), while others were invented. In reality, Cody's wife Louisa was not a senator's daughter, and the couple had three other children besides Kit Carson Cody, who died of scarlet fever. Fox legal records contain letters from Cody's relatives, some protesting that the picture was made without their permission and others complaining after release that the depiction of Cody was grossly inaccurate; no claims were filed, and the studio maintained that because Cody was dead it did not need rights to his life story.[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24304-BUFFALO-BILL?cxt=filmography)\n\nCenter historian Jeremy Johnston of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West observes that Hollywood films \"based on a true story\" often reflect the culture of the time they were made rather than the period depicted. The film shows Cody ashamed of the bison he killed; in reality Cody was proud of his hunting career and featured it in his stories and shows. The film also gives Cody an exceptionally warm relationship with Lakota performers, even showing him slandered for supporting them; historically, Cody's positive view of Native peoples is well documented from the period of his show, while his attitudes as a younger plainsman and scout are less clear.[9](https://centerofthewest.org/2021/06/22/old-westerns-fiction-vs-reality/) Reviewers have noted further liberties, from casting the Irish O'Hara as a woman of northern Italian heritage to scenes in which real buffalo are shot on camera in a film that mourns their near-extinction.[6](https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/16588/buffalo-bill/)\n\nA later scholar contrasts the film's structure with the historical record: Wellman's \"colourful and generally cheerful\" picture demarcates Cody's progression from frontier hero to popular-culture icon, from events to their re-staging, whereas the real Cody moved freely between the frontier and the Eastern stage from the early 1870s onward, with the popular image and the documented life developing together rather than in sequence.[10](https://www.screeningthepast.com/issue-39-first-release/from-bonanza-to-buffalo-bill-robert-altman-and-the-western/)\n\n## Place among Cody films\n\nCody had appeared on film himself, in the 1901 Biograph release *Buffalo Bill's Wild West Parade* and the 1917 Essanay release *The Adventures of Buffalo Bill*, and other actors played him in the 1926 silent *Buffalo Bill on the U.P. Trail*, the 1936 Paramount film *[The Plainsman](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-plainsman)*, and [Robert Altman](https://www.edgepedia.org/robert-altman)'s revisionist *Buffalo Bill and the Indians or Sitting Bull's History Lesson* (1976) with [Paul Newman](https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-newman).[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24304-BUFFALO-BILL?cxt=filmography) The studio publicity for the 1944 film announced that Linda Darnell was perfect for her part as a Cheyenne schoolteacher because she had \"a few drops\" of Cherokee blood; her character nonetheless delivers lines about racism that TCM's Jeremy Arnold describes as quite progressive for 1944.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1008121/buffalo-bill-1944) The film is available on streaming services in the United States, most recently on Tubi.[11](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/buffalo-bill)\n\n## References\n\n1. [AFI|Catalog](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24304-BUFFALO-BILL?cp=1&pos=1&sid=8aa14618-348c-41ab-b6f4-86873d1bc519&sr=13.6256695)\n2. [Jeremy Arnold, \"Buffalo Bill (1944),\" Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1008121/buffalo-bill-1944)\n3. [Buffalo Bill (1944), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24304-BUFFALO-BILL?cxt=filmography)\n4. [Buffalo Bill (1944), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/buffalo_bill)\n5. [Buffalo Bill (1944), Chicago Film Society program notes](https://www.chicagofilmsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/2006.2-Mustache-Cinema-Web.pdf)\n6. [DVD Talk review of Buffalo Bill](https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/16588/buffalo-bill/)\n7. [\"The celebratory wartime portrait of Buffalo Bill (1944),\" Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television feature](https://www.history.org.uk/files/download/9522/1325594476/Have_gun_will_travel.pdf)\n8. [\"The Buffalo Man,\" The New Yorker, April 22, 1944](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1944/04/22/1944-04-22-062-tny-cards-000014915)\n9. [Brylee Schuler, \"Old Westerns: Fiction vs Reality,\" Buffalo Bill Center of the West (2021)](https://centerofthewest.org/2021/06/22/old-westerns-fiction-vs-reality/)\n10. [\"From Bonanza to Buffalo Bill: Robert Altman and the Western,\" Screening the Past](https://www.screeningthepast.com/issue-39-first-release/from-bonanza-to-buffalo-bill-robert-altman-and-the-western/)\n11. [Buffalo Bill (1944) streaming, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/buffalo-bill)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1940s*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/buffalo-bill-1944-film", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/buffalo-bill-1944-film.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Buffalo Bill (1944 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/buffalo-bill-1944-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Buffalo Bill (1944 film)](https://www.edgepedia.org/buffalo-bill-1944-film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/buffalo-bill-1944-film](https://www.edgepedia.org/buffalo-bill-1944-film). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Buffalo Bill (1944 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/buffalo-bill-1944-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Buffalo Bill is a Twentieth Century-Fox Technicolor Western biography directed by William A." }