Inger stars as Emily Biddle in the 1967 western A Time for Killing, one of four westerns she would make within two years. Inger's status as
, to write, "You can tell it's a Hollywood Western because Inger Stevens lives in the boarding house..."
Despite the unimpressive quality of her westerns, Inger Stevens delivered four interesting performances and earned the distinction of one of the most original western leading ladies of the period.
Inger as Emily Biddle in A Time for Killing, 1967.
Originally titled The Long Ride Home and directed by Roger Corman (who "couldn't get out of his old ways. He was pushing the actors, they were upset, the crew was upset") but quickly taken over by director Phil Karlson, A Time for Killing was based on the 1961 novel A Southern Blade by Nelson and Shirley Wolford. The male leads are Glenn Ford and George Hamilton. Max Baer, Jr. and Paul Petersen also appear and a young Harrison Ford is seen briefly. Paul Petersen would later say that the dismissal of Roger Corman as director was unfair and that the film would've been "ultimately better served" if Corman had continued, because Corman "tried to compensate for the lack of character development in the story by incorporating the Utah landscape."
Filming took place in Utah and Arizona. Realty specialist Darwin Nelson wrote:
Last summer several scenes for The Long Ride Home were made on public domain near the Paria River, and for several weeks Kanab was 'home' for such stars as Glenn Ford, George Hamilton, Max Baer, Jr., Inger Stevens and Paul Petersen. It wasn't the first time Glenn Ford had been on location in Kenab; 25 years ago he spent some time off the set participating in a local rodeo.
Due to a drought that dried out a riverbed essential to filming, thousands of gallons of water had to be imported from Tucson.
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| Inger with actor Todd Armstrong |
Glenn Ford was newly married and his wife Kathryn Hayes (known for her decades-long work on As The World Turns plus many guest appearances on 1960's television) visited the set. Glenn's son Peter was happy to be cast in a small role opposite "beautiful Inger Stevens" and made friends with cast members Harrison Ford, Harry Dean Stanton, Timothy Carey, and Paul Petersen. George Hamilton's girlfriend Lynda, daughter of President Lyndon Johnson, also visited the set—with Secret Service agents.
According to author Patterson, Inger made a rare move and arrived on set with her husband Ike Jones on the first morning of filming. Patterson doesn't reveal the source of this story, but he writes that Inger, with Ike by her side, was confident as she greeted a cast and crew that reacted with "dead silence" and viewed it as an "awkward situation." Inger was seen crying later in the morning and Ike had left by the afternoon.
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| Inger waits for dress repairs. |
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| Inger observes a scene. |
The film begins with missionary nurse Emily Biddle (Inger) watching her fiance Major Wolcott (Glenn) enforce a death sentence on a Confederate soldier. Major Wolcott must follow the orders of a cruel Colonel, which mercilessly prolong the death of a soldier until Wolcott puts the man out of his misery with a single shot. The treatment of the man's sentence causes a fury among the imprisoned Confederate soldiers, led by Captain Dorrit Bentley (George Hamilton). When he returns to his cabin, Major Wolcott realizes his fiancé witnessed the killing.
Emily: I was watching.
Wolcott calls for a missionary wagon to take Emily to a safe place.
Emily: You're not sending me away?...Why? I've come most of the way across this country to see you.
Wolcott: You couldn't have picked a worse time or place.
Emily: I didn't pick it. The war did. Is it too much to want to share a few days with you?
Wolcott: There are a lot of things I wanted to share with you, Emily, but this was not one of them.
Emily: Couldn't you have done something to stop it? He was a child.
Wolcott: Child or man, he was a soldier and this is a war. And I don't like you seeing it.
Emily:...I've seen the war, Tom, and I hate what I've seen.
Wolcott: I know. I like to see things grow. I don't like to see things die.
The enraged soldiers watch a touching scene as Major Wolcott bids a loving goodbye to Emily and Captain Bentley visibly seethes at the sight of their embrace. After Emily departs, Captain Bentley confronts Wolcott about his sensitivity toward the soldiers.
Bentley: I can see you're frettin' all over their feelings, all leaky-eyed, lovin' them like a brother. Major, they don't have one damn bit of love for you. Whether you own up or not, you hate them.
Wolcott: I hate no man.
Bentley: Well, there's a little time yet.
Wolcott: Captain, what do you want?
Bentley: Well, for you to feel the way I do, that's all.
Wolcott: The war's nearly over.
Bentley: Major, this war will never be over.
The Confederate soldiers make a violent escape from the Union camp overnight. At daybreak, they meet the missionary wagon carrying Emily to safety and overtake it. They kill the Union soldiers protecting Emily and then Captain Bentley abducts her.
Warning: There are major plot spoilers in this paragraph. Please pick up reading after the two shots of Inger and Glenn below if you want to skip them. What follows is a long chase between Major Wolcott and his Union troops and Captain Bentley and his band of Confederate soldiers. Emily Biddle's safety is threatened throughout the film as Captain Bentley lewdly smiles at her. Emily watches as the men imprisoning her become more uncouth and violent toward one another. Emily never backs down. She threatens to kill Bentley several times and insults him many more. Eventually, after many spoken and unspoken suggestions that he will, Captain Bentley viciously rapes Emily—to cause her pain, to cause Major Wolcott pain, and because the ruthless, terrorizing man says "somehow, someplace we got to win before we lose." The build-up to the assault and the assault scene itself are extraordinarily difficult for me to watch.
Although Inger is exceptional in the scenes she's been given—adding poignancy to her limited lines and a strength of character to Emily—and her striking beauty absolutely glows in Panavision and Pathecolor, I've only been able to watch this movie two times. It's a major trial to sit through, and I'm not alone in this assessment.
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| Inger and Glenn on set |
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| Inger and Glenn on set |
Composer Van Alexander, in his autobiography, remembered that the the movie was "in deep trouble. Directors had been changed in the middle of filming, there were many rewrites on the script and the picture was still lousy...Jonie Taps called me in to save the picture with a good musical score." Alexander scored the film and wrote a main theme for Eddy Arnold to sing.
Alexander wrote that at the film's preview, "the audience laughed in all the wrong places. They laughed during the dramatic sequences. They hissed at the hero and applauded the villain. God, it was awful! Talk about embarrassing! I wanted to crawl under the table."
Later the film would be rescored by guitarist Mundell Lowe to the frustration of Alexander.
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| Inger and Glenn prepare for the wagon departure scene |
Promotion of the film was weak. The promotional materials suggested that exhibitors bring audiences in by focusing on the movie being Glenn Ford's 100th release. The also urged that Inger's character being a nurse from Massachusetts should attract New England women; if you've seen the film you know how ludicrous that tactic would prove. The movie is quite brutal and certainly not what would be termed a "women's picture" in the 1960's.
Peter Ford was right in his summary that the movie had "some strong scenes, but there was a choppy, unfinished feeling to it, perhaps a result of the directorial transference. A Time for Killing went virtually unnoticed on release."
Author Lee Pfeiffer wrote:
If Sigmund Freud had written a Western, the result would be something like A Time for Killing. Admittedly a B Western, the film has the distinction of at least attempting to be something more. However, the script suffers from making the only interesting characters the least important...the film is unremittingly grim and made even grimmer by the efficient but downbeat performances of the cast.
Halliwell's Film Guide called it a "savage" western about the "corruption of war" while Leonard Maltin kept his response brief by noting, "Director Karlson has made some good minor films in the past; this isn't one of them."
All photos in this post are scans of color transparencies in my collection. You can view more on set photos that are unfortunately not in my collection (including my favorite on set Inger shot—this one! and my second favorite shot—Inger singing) at this site here.
In 2021, A Time for Killing was released on Region 1 DVD as part of a Glenn Ford triple feature. The DVD can be found
here. The western had long been available on other region DVDs.
You can read about Inger's other westerns on the blog:
Firecreek,
5 Card Stud, and
Hang 'Em High.
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| Inger and Glenn |
Sources:
Alexander, Van. From Harlem to Hollywood. Bear Manor Media. 2009.
Ebert, Roger. "Hang 'Em High." https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/hang-em-high-1968
Ford, Peter. Glenn Ford: A Life. University of Wisconsin. 2011.
Hoffman, Henryk. 'A' Western Filmmakers. McFarland. 2008.
Joyner, C. Courtney. The Westerners. McFarland. 2009.
Maltin, Leonard. Leonard Maltin's 2015 Movie Guide. Penguin. 2004.
Nelson, Darwin. "Little Hollywood." Our Public Lands. 1967.
Pfieffer, Lee. The Films of Harrison Ford. Kensington Publishing. 2002.
Weaver, Tom. Science Fiction Stars and Horror Heroes. McFarland. 2006.
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