Invitation to a Gunfighter (United Artists) (1964)

Publicity : : Material 7 ‘Killer’ Brynner Plays Newest Role By Wide Popular Demand Screen veteran Yul Brynner has been around for a long time and he’s played everything from Biblical kings and Siamese potentates to dope peddlers. He’s got a large, enthusiastic and very vocal world-wide following. But nobody knew just how large and vocal it was until he played his famous bad man in “The Magnificent Seven.” The film was a hit. A tremendous hit and it started the letters pouring into Hollywood. “Give us more of this Yul Brynner as a cold-blooded western killer,” these letters demanded, and Hollywood took notice. Among those who took particular notice was Producer Stanley Kramer who happened to be entertaining the notion of producing another adult western of the type which skyrocketed him to fame with his now historic “High Noon.” Kramer even had a story in mind. It was a thing he had seen on TV and which had impressed him. It was called “Invitation To A Gunfighter.” An adult story if ever there was one, and—quality. However, Kramer had been more impressed with the character d‘Estaing, the suave, urbane killer, than he was with the “hero,” a Confederate rebel whose reappearance in the frontier town of Pecos sets the drama in motion. Many New Faces Appear In ‘Invitation’ With the exception of the star, Yul Brynner, the majority of stellar players in Stanley Kramer’s “Invitation To A Gunfighter’ are New York stage actors who either make their movie debuts in this film or have previously appeared in only a few motion pictures. Richard Wilson, who directed the picture for United Artists release, has said that he prefers actors whose faces have not had too much movie exposure. The DeLuxe Color atathe os cies “When you recruit a cast of veteran Hollywood players, you not only have a line-up of familiar faces, but also type-casted ones. This robs a picture of expectancy, surprise and suspense, because an audience knows what they are going to see before the situation occurs,” Wilson said. “It can’t happen in our picture and yet, with Yul Brynner heading the cast in a different role than he has _ previously played, we have a _ box office name to sell tickets.” Wilson’s roster of new faces includes Janice Rule, only an occasional laborer in the movie vineyards; George Segal, Pat Hingle, Clifford David, Brad Dexter and Clarke Gordon, all of whom have appeared mostly in stage plays. Still ITG-12 ee ee en arte at the PAGE 8 Who better than Yul Brynner, the suave, urbane killer of “The Magnificent Seven”? And that, largely, is how it comes about that Stanley Kramer’s DeLuxe Color production “Invitation To A Gunfighter,’ comes to the Sects Theatre on under United Artists release. Kramer rounded out the cast with Janice Rule, Brad Dexter, Alfred Ryder, Mike Kellin, George Segal, Clifford David and Pat Hingle, assigned the famed writing team of Elizabeth and Richard Wilson to adapt the TV play for the screen, and the thing was done. Mr. Wilson also produced and directed the film. And Brynner is tickled with the role. For cosmopolitan and sophistication as his tastes may be, the famous star admits he is not only a western movie fan himself but a great admirer of the whole American-western tradition. “Westerns are a staple commodity and the favorite of people of all ages and in all walks of life all over the world,” he says, “because almost every human being alive—irrespective of his birth and environment — can always identify himself with the heroes of the American west. A Reminder Of ‘Magnificent Seven’ If you liked Yul Brynner as the cool, urbane and elegant killer of “The Magnificent Seven,” you'll love him in Stanley Kramer’s DeLuxe Color production for United Artists release, “Invitation To A Gunfighter,” opening ......... at thee. : coesere. Theatre. Adapted for the screen from the famous Playhouse 90 TV drama of the same name by Elizabeth and Richard Wilson, its killer role is said to have been hand-tailored written for Brynner in response to a public clamor for more of “The Magnificent Seven” type bad man which was a world-wide triumph for Yul. Screen Vet Wilson Produced ‘Gunfighter’ Richard Wilson, former and longtime associate of Orson Welles in every department of theatrical production, not only wrote the script (with his wife’s help) for Stanley Kramer’s DeLuxe Color production “Invitation To A Gunfighter,” OPENING eres Hie hatee aso Theatre, but he also produced and directed the United Artists release. The “adult” western from “the thinking man’s producer” as Kramer has come to be known, stars Yul Brynner as a cool, urbane and even elegant killer with a fatal fascination to women, and also. to Janice Rule. Mat 2E Hired gunfighter Dal Jenkins turns on the man who hired him, Clifford David, as banker Pat Hingle looks on in this tense scene from Stanley Kramer’s “Invitation To A Gunfighter,” in Color by DeLuxe and starring Yul Brynner and Janice Rule which opens ee a Theatre under United Artists release. Still ITG-20 Artists release opening 6 68 2 0 2 'e. 8 at the Mat 2C Yul Brynner and Janice Rule head the cast of Stanley Kramer’s DeLuxe Color production “Invitation To A Gunfighter,’? United eee eeee ees ee Theatre. ‘Invitation To A Gunfighter’ In Tradition of ‘High Noon’ Judging from the Hollywood and TV studio output, everybody likes a western. But what makes a few westerns “adult” and hundreds of others just plain shoot-’em-ups? Well, for the answer, let’s look at a good and therefore “adult” western. Let’s look at the film that’s generally regarded as the daddy of adult westerns, Stanley Kramer’s nowhistoric “High Noon.” Stripped of all its niceties, “High Noon” was simply the story of a couple of bad guys out to get the good guy but who don’t get him because he gets them. Virtue and justice triumphed to the accompaniment of plenty of shooting, hard riding, the ooh-oohing of a pretty gal (Grace Kelly) and even the snorts and shrieks of a wood-burning locomotive. So far, all the ingredients of a fast-moving, pulse-pounding, bangbang-bang and nothing more. But “High Noon” had more than that. “High Noon” was an indictment against the human tendency to try to compromise with evil so that business can go on as usual. It showed that somebody has to take a stand against evil even at the risk of his life simply because evil and the general good cannot co-exist. And now, a little more than a decade after his “High Noon,” Stanley Kramer comes up with another “adult” western. It’s his DeLuxe Color production “Invitation To A Gunfighter,” starring Yul Brynner and Janice Rule, the United Artists release which opens at the Theatre. On the surface, this too, is bangup, pulse-pounding western action and will thoroughly satisfy the most sanguine horse opera fan. But it also has an adult theme which will give the beholder something to take home and ponder. “Invitation To A Gunfighter” is the story of a Confederate veteran who returns to the frontier community where he had his roots only to find that it no longer wants him. More than that, the community wishes to destroy him and a professional gun is hired to do the dirty work. eeeevoe AL LIT weesese The professional “gun” is played by Yul Brynner in a role very similar to his triumph in the recent “The Magnificent Seven.” He is suave, cold, cultivated, even elegant and he has a fatal attraction to the ladies. One such, played by Miss Rule, is the former sweetheart of the returned vet, now married to one of the townsfolk who wish to destroy him. The eternal verity in “Invitation To A Gunfighter” has to do with a communal guilty conscience and undertakes to show that it cannot be wiped away with money. As in “High Noon,” the story proves that evil and the general welfare cannot co-exist and the beholder will take the problem home with him for private pondering. This is what makes it an “adult” western. “Invitation To A Gunfighter” was written by the celebrated husbandwife writing team of Elizabeth and Richard Wilson. MARS SCARE CREATOR WROTE ‘GUNFIGHTER’ If you’re old enough to remember the terrific scare Orson Welles created with a radio show in which an announcement that an invasion from Mars was imminent, it may interest you to know that the guy responsible for it is also largely responsible for Stanley Kramer’s DeLuxe Color production “Invitation To A Gunfighter,” opening at the Theatre. He’s Richard Wilson, writer, actor, producer and what-all-not, who was given the delicate task of transferring the famous Playhouse 90 TV drama “Invitation To A Gunfighter” to the screen by Kramer. He did it so well that Kramer also let him produce and direct the film, a United Artists release starring Yul Brynner and Janice Rule. eeoeccecene AL LIIG ~eeecces The famous scare came about when Wilson, fresh out of college, joined Welles’ Mercury Theatre away back in 1936. When Orson went on to radio he took Wilson along as producer. One of Orson’s radio shows was a thing called “Invasion From Mars” and Wilson produced it so realistically that a good three-quarters of the nation stood petrified with fear that famous night in 1938. Wilson went on to Hollywood, the Broadway stage and TV as producer and director, sometimes as a writer and even an actor. Somewhere along the line he married Elizabeth Vance, magazine writer, and the couple became the wellknown screen writing team. Mrs. Wilson helped her husband write the movie version of “Invitation To A Gunfighter” and gets screen credits for it. Others in the cast of this adult western include Brad Dexter, Alfred Ryder, Mike Kellin and Clifford David, plus almost a hundred bit players and extras. ‘Invitation To A Gunfighter’ From Kramer, Thinking Man‘s Producer’ After his first—and highly successful—venture into the world of comedy with his “It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” “the thinking man’s producer” is back at serious drama with what many regard as a worthy successor to his “High Noon,” generally conceded to be the “adult” western. The producer is Stanley Kramer and his serious drama is the DeLuxe Color production for United Artists release “Invitation To A Gunfichter:* It opens %../.....at the Theatre with Yul Brynner as the gunfighter, a role, many say, is similar to his triumphant one in the recent “The Magnificent Seven.” Janice Rule is costarred with Brynner. “Invitation To A Gunfighter” is billed as a “provocative” entertainment despite its cowboys, six-shooters, horses, bad men, good guys, pleasure palace habitues and all the rest of the standard background for a good western picture. see eee ener ee Provocative pictures are Kramer’s hallmark. In the last four years alone, he has examined such vital aspects of contemporary living as racial tolerance in both “The Defiant Ones” and “Pressure Point”; the danger of global nuclear suicide in “On The Beach”; the continuing battle against efforts to straitjacket man’s thinking in “Inherit The Wind,” and then turned the spotlight on one of the outstanding moral issues of our time in “Judgment At Nuremberg.” His “Invitation To A Gunfighter,” which centers around the moral obligations of an entire western community, is said to rank high among these cinematic giants as serious entertainment. Kramer is a native New Yorker who hails from a family long identified with film making and exhibition. Upon graduation from New York University he tried Hollywood as a writer and wound up as a studio sweeper. It did him no harm, he admits. It taught him everything a successful producer has to know about producing pictures, right where and when they were being produced. He then made the research department of MGM where he developed his meticulous insistence upon authenticity and detail, and from there he went to the cutting room where he learned editing and that mysterious something called “tempo” which gives a moving picture the proper movement. His first effort in producing was “So This Is New York,” a comedy starring radio’s Henry Morgan. This was followed by the widely discussed “Champion” and “Home of the Brave,” and Stanley Kramer was off to fame. “Cyrano De Bergerac”’ followed, and then came the now-historic “High Noon.” It won an Oscar for its star Gary Cooper, international fame for its leading lady Grace Kelly, and gave the world one of the all time high— and most enduring—song hits—the “High Noon Theme Song,” also known as “Don’t Foresake Me, Oh, My Darling.” Pat Hingle Has Key Role In Stan Kramer Film Pat Hingle, who needs no. introduction to stage buffs and movie and TV fans, plays the most important role in his movie career in Stanley Kramer’s DeLuxe Color production “Invitation To A Gunfighter,” starring Yul Brynner and Janice Rule, and opening EMRUNLC: <7. ota ers *,.. Theatre under United Artists release. It is that of the avaricious Sam Brewster, whose villainy impressed audiences so widely when the story was first told via the famous Playhouse 90 TV drama some years ago, and it’s as “meaty” a role as an aspiring star can ask for. Trained by the Actors Studio, Hingle broke into show biz by working as a waiter in New York’s Town Hall Club. Stage luminaries there got him into a stock company in Rockville Center, Long Island, and ultimately, a place at the famed Actors Studio. Still ITG-46 Mat IB Noted Broadway star Pat Hingle plays a role in Stanley Kramer’s “Invitation To A Gunfighter,” United Artists release in Color by DeLuxe starring Yul Brynner and Janice Rule opening..... at the .. Theatre. eee ee He has appeared on Broadway opposite Shelley Winters, Paul Henreid and Betty Field and his movies include “Splendor In the Grass,” “No Down Payment,” “All The Way Home” and “Death In The Family.” He has played leading roles on most of the top rated network TV shows and was starring in a revival] of Eugene O’Neill’s “Strange Interlude” when Kramer sent for him. The screen version of “Invitation To A Gunfighter” is by the writing team of Elizabeth and Richard Wilson with Mr. Wilson also earning screen credits for its production and also its direction. Stull ITG-18 Furious at a romantic entanglement. he discovers between Yul Brynner and Janice Rule, Clifford David offers to shoot it out with the killer in this climactic scene from Stanley Kramer’s “Invitation To A Gunfighter,” Color by DeLuxe United Artists release opening at the Mat 2D cower e we wee eee Theatre.