High Plains Drifter

(1973)

PLOT | AUDIO | TRIVIA | CAST | CREDITS | PURCHASE

"They'll never forget the day he drifted into town!"

Eastwood directs his first Western, and it's a knockout. The story begins as a mysterious stranger (Eastwood) materializes out of the desert heat. He rides into the small town of Lago, where his presence is considered a threat by the mean but cowardly populace. Desperate to seek help against three recently released prisoners, the town's leaders cautiously approach Eastwood and plead with him to save their town from the criminals. Eastwood agrees to help them, while turning the town upside down in the process. An eerie, supernatural western, that takes the avenging man-with-no-name character created by Eastwood and Leone to its most logical extreme.

Listen as Clint Eastwood talks candidly about his thoughts on this film and explains who the 'Stranger' really is!

• Universal wanted the film to be shot on the studio lot. Instead Clint had a whole town built (and burned to the ground) in the desert near Lake Mono in the California Sierras. Many of the buildings were complete and three-dimensional, so that interiors could be shot on location.
• The screenplay was written by Ernest Tidyman, who had just won an Oscar for The French Connection.
• Among the graves in the cemetery are those of "Donald Siegel" and "S. Leone".
• Editing of the film took place in a log cabin on the shores of Lake Mono.
• The part of sheriff Jim Duncan is played by stuntman (and later director) Buddy Van Horn.
• Paul Brinegar (Wishbone from Rawhide) appears as the saloon barman.

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