# Will Penny
*Will Penny* is a 1968 American Western film written and directed by Tom Gries and starring [Charlton Heston](https://www.edgepedia.org/charlton-heston) as an aging, illiterate cowboy who takes a winter job as a line rider on a vast cattle ranch and forms a bond with a stranded woman and her young son. It was produced by Fred Engel and Walter Seltzer for Paramount Pictures, photographed by Lucien Ballard, and scored by David Raksin.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/18808)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | Premiered in Philadelphia on 6 March 1968; New York opening 10 April 1968; Los Angeles opening 24 April 1968[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/18808) |
| Production | Paramount Pictures; principal photography began 8 February 1967 in Bishop, California, with later studio work in Hollywood[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/18808-WILL-PENNY?cp=1&pos=1&sid=618a99ff-9351-4c1e-b9d2-952df8267bcf&sr=0.10860489) |
| Running time | 109 minutes per the AFI Catalog; Paramount lists 110 minutes[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/18808) • [3](https://www.paramount.com/movies/will-penny) |
| Principal cast | Charlton Heston (Will Penny), Joan Hackett (Catherine Allen), Donald Pleasence (Preacher Quint), Bruce Dern (Rafe Quint), Lee Majors (Blue), Ben Johnson (Alex), Slim Pickens (Ike Walterstein)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/18808) |
| Origin | Developed by Gries from an episode he wrote for Sam Peckinpah's television series *The Westerner* (1960)[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/176175/will-penny) |
| Box office | Earned about $1.3 million in its theatrical run[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/176175/will-penny) |
| Heston's view | He called it his personal favorite among his films, citing its themes of loyalty, fatherhood, and aging[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/176175/will-penny) |
## Spoilers
### Story
Will Penny, a middle-aged cowhand, loses his job to a younger man who needs it more and rides north with his friends Blue ([Lee Majors](https://www.edgepedia.org/lee-majors)) and Dutchy ([Anthony Zerbe](https://www.edgepedia.org/anthony-zerbe)) to find work before winter.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/176175/will-penny) • [5](https://www.filmaffinity.com/us/film671924.html) A quarrel with a religious fanatic called Preacher Quint ([Donald Pleasence](https://www.edgepedia.org/donald-pleasence)) and his sons ends in a shootout that kills one of the preacher's sons, and Quint swears revenge.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/176175/will-penny) • [6](https://www.plotexplained.com/movie/willpenny-1967/)
Will is hired as a line rider on the enormous Flat Iron ranch, responsible for keeping trespassers and squatters off the property. At his remote mountain cabin he finds Catherine Allen ([Joan Hackett](https://www.edgepedia.org/joan-hackett)) and her son Horace, whose guide has deserted them on their way to Oregon to join her husband. Too soft-hearted to turn them out as winter sets in, he agrees to share the cabin.[7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063811/plotsummary/) When the Quint family ambushes him, robs him, and leaves him for dead, Catherine nurses him back to health, and the three form an improvised family through the winter.[6](https://www.plotexplained.com/movie/willpenny-1967/)
The Quints eventually invade the cabin and hold the trio captive; Will and Blue drive them out with a bag of sulfur dropped down the chimney and a gunfight. Afterward Will decides he is too old and set in his ways for domestic life, leaves his ranch wages to Catherine, and rides on with Blue and Dutchy.[6](https://www.plotexplained.com/movie/willpenny-1967/)
## Production
Gries developed the screenplay from an episode he had written for *The Westerner*, the [Sam Peckinpah](https://www.edgepedia.org/sam-peckinpah) television series, in 1960.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/176175/will-penny) Heston, who kept an actor's journal from 1956 onward, was so taken with an unfinished draft that he agreed to read it and expressed interest in the role before learning that Gries insisted on directing as well.[8](https://366weirdmovies.com/will-penny-1968/)
**Casting.** The part of Horace Greeley Allen was hard to fill; after many boys auditioned, producer Walter Seltzer noticed Gries's son Jon at the production office, and the untested boy won the part after a screen test, credited onscreen as Jon Francis.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/18808-WILL-PENNY?cp=1&pos=1&sid=618a99ff-9351-4c1e-b9d2-952df8267bcf&sr=0.10860489) Lee Majors, then known for the television series *The Big Valley*, received his first credited feature-film role as Blue.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/18808-WILL-PENNY?cp=1&pos=1&sid=618a99ff-9351-4c1e-b9d2-952df8267bcf&sr=0.10860489) Both Lee Remick and [Eva Marie Saint](https://www.edgepedia.org/eva-marie-saint) turned down the role of Catherine before Joan Hackett accepted it.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/176175/will-penny)
**Locations and crew.** [Principal photography](https://www.edgepedia.org/principal-photography) began on 8 February 1967 in [Bishop, California](https://www.edgepedia.org/bishop-california), where a blizzard sequence required six snow machines; location work around Bishop was followed by filming on the Paramount lot in Hollywood.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/18808-WILL-PENNY?cp=1&pos=1&sid=618a99ff-9351-4c1e-b9d2-952df8267bcf&sr=0.10860489) The film was a modest production, with Heston's salary the largest single expense. Lucien Ballard's cinematography of the rugged California terrain drew particular praise; *Variety* commended the "topnotch technical crew headed by Lucien Ballard with his color cameras," and the critic David Sterritt wrote that Ballard never shot a more visually evocative Western.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/176175/will-penny) David Raksin's score is used sparingly and matches the film's melancholy mood.[9](https://onceuponatimeinawestern.com/will-penny-1967/)
## Reception
Contemporary and later critics singled out Heston's performance and the film's restraint. Roger Ebert, then the film critic of the *Chicago Sun-Times*, distinguished Westerns from "cowboy movies" and called *Will Penny* "the best cowboy movie since *Hud*," praising a love story in which the couple take most of the film to work up to a kiss.[10](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/will-penny-1968) *TIME* found the opening scenes of cowboys as "a sordid rabble of exploited riffraff" convincing but judged that the film settles into formula in its middle stretch.[11](https://time.com/archive/6638315/cinema-will-penny/) Renata Adler of *The New York Times* wrote that but for one scene too cruel for the story and one too maudlin, it "might have been the best cowboy movie in some time."[12](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/will_penny) On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 93% Tomatometer score from 14 reviews.[12](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/will_penny)
Commercially the film earned about $1.3 million at the box office, though it later drew healthy television, home-video, and cable revenues, and its reputation has continued to rise.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/176175/will-penny) Heston recalled people telling him, "That's maybe the best movie you ever made, Chuck, but if you'd taken the girl with you at the end, it would've made a ton of money, too."[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/176175/will-penny)
## Place in the Western genre
The film's realism helped spark a trend that revitalized the Western in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, and it predates *The Wild Bunch* by a year while avoiding that film's stylized violence.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/176175/will-penny) • [13](https://philipbrophy.com/projects/essaysF/rewrittenwesterns/essay.html) Its legacy shows in [Clint Eastwood](https://www.edgepedia.org/clint-eastwood)'s *Unforgiven* (1992), in which hero William Munny's children are named Will and Penny.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/176175/will-penny) Critics have also noted its echoes of earlier Westerns: the Quint family recalls the Cleggs of John Ford's *Wagon Master* (1950), and the ending recalls *Shane* (1953), with Ben Johnson, who appeared in both earlier films, cast here as the ranch foreman Alex.[14](https://www.classicmoviehub.com/blog/western-roundup-will-penny-1967/)
The film's treatment of cowboy life is deliberately unglamorous. Its title character does not strike gold, fill his pockets after a cattle drive, outgun a badman at high noon, or ride off with the girl.[15](https://jeffarnoldswest.com/2022/01/will-penny-paramount-1968-2/) Ebert observed that the film occupies the world of "real" cowboys, men in their mid-40s so long away from society that they hardly know how to react when treated as civilized beings.[10](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/will-penny-1968)
## References
1. [Will Penny (1968), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/18808)
2. [Will Penny, AFI Catalog production history](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/18808-WILL-PENNY?cp=1&pos=1&sid=618a99ff-9351-4c1e-b9d2-952df8267bcf&sr=0.10860489)
3. [Will Penny, Paramount Pictures](https://www.paramount.com/movies/will-penny)
4. [David Sterritt, "Will Penny," Turner Classic Movies (2007)](https://www.tcm.com/articles/176175/will-penny)
5. [Will Penny (1967), FilmAffinity](https://www.filmaffinity.com/us/film671924.html)
6. [Will Penny (1967) Full Movie Summary & Plot Explained](https://www.plotexplained.com/movie/willpenny-1967/)
7. [Will Penny (1967), Plot summaries, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063811/plotsummary/)
8. [Will Penny (1968), 366 Weird Movies](https://366weirdmovies.com/will-penny-1968/)
9. [Will Penny (1967), Once Upon a Time in a Western](https://onceuponatimeinawestern.com/will-penny-1967/)
10. [Roger Ebert, "Will Penny" review, Chicago Sun-Times (1968)](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/will-penny-1968)
11. ["Cinema: Will Penny," TIME (May 10, 1968)](https://time.com/archive/6638315/cinema-will-penny/)
12. [Will Penny, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/will_penny)
13. [Philip Brophy, "Rewritten Westerns" (1987)](https://philipbrophy.com/projects/essaysF/rewrittenwesterns/essay.html)
14. [Western RoundUp: Will Penny (1967), Classic Movie Hub](https://www.classicmoviehub.com/blog/western-roundup-will-penny-1967/)
15. [Will Penny (Paramount, 1968), Jeff Arnold's West](https://jeffarnoldswest.com/2022/01/will-penny-paramount-1968-2/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Action and adventure films (individual works) › Westerns before 1980 › Released 1961 to 1979*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license