Paul Newman in Hombre (1967)

Elmore Leonard's Hombre Novel

Hombre is based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Elmore Leonard. Set in southern Arizona, the 190-page Hombre was published as a paperback original by Ballantine of New York.

Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr. wrote the screenplay for Hombre Productions and 20th Century-Fox. Martin Ritt (Hud, Conrack, Norma Rae) directed and David Rose created the original music score.

Paul Newman, Fredric March Head Hombre Cast

Paul Newman (John Russell) and Fredric March (Dr. Alex Favor) head the cast. Other players include Richard Boone (Cicero Grimes), Diane Cilento (Jessie), Cameron Mitchell (Frank Braden), Barbara Rush (Audra Favor), Peter Lazer (Billy Lee Blake), Margaret Blye (Doris Blake), Martin Balsam (Henry Mendez), Skip Ward (Steve Early), Frank Silvera (Mexican Bandit), David Canary (Lamar Dean), Val Avery (Delgado) and Larry Ward (Soldier).

Hombre Filmed in Arizona and California

Hombre, the final collaboration between Martin Ritt and Paul Newman, was filmed in Arizona and California. Used with great effect was the photograph in the closing credits, which pictures Jimmy “Santiago” McKinn, a white boy captured in 1885 by Geronimo’s Chiricahua Apaches and subsequently raised as one of their own.

Hombre Movie Review

John Russell, raised by the Apaches, returns to civilization to claim his white father's boardinghouse. Trading the property for a herd of horses, Russell journeys to his new home by stagecoach. Along the way, Russell and his fellow passengers run afoul of Cicero Grimes and his confederates, who relieve a crooked Indian Affairs agent of the $12,000 he had embezzled from the government.

Hombre is a western with a conscience. Martin Ritt's morality play travels through Paul Newman, a white man raised by Indians who eventually has to defend the lives of a group of bigots.

Newman excels as John Russell in one of his patented loner-hero roles. Sporting the long hair of the Apache, Newman demonstrates his grit early, ramming a rifle butt into the face of Indian-hating David Canary at a Mexican bar.

Fredric March, one of Hollywood's greatest actors, is excellent as the thieving Indian Affairs agent while Richard Boone delivers a superb performance as Hombre's resident heavy. Boone is at his vicious best at a way station, where he bullies a frightened soldier out of his stagecoach ticket.

The movie's climax, staged at the old Helvetia Mine in Pima County, Arizona, features a blazing gun battle that will satisfy even the most hardcore western movie fans.

Hombre Release, Reviews, Best Line, DVD

• Release date: March 21, 1967.
• "Ritt directs with a steady hand, and the dialog by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank bears listening to," reported Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times (4/21/67).
• "Take a large portion of Stagecoach, a small chunk of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, a dash of Broken Arrow for flavor and Paul Newman to play the leading role...What will you get? You'll get Hombre..." offered Bosley Crowther of The New York Times (3/22/67).
• "Paul Newman is excellent as the scorned (but only supposed) Apache...Richard Boone is very powerful, yet admirably restrained as the heavy," opined Variety.
• "My momma taught me to remove my hat and my cigar in the presence of a lady. Whatever else I take off depends on how lucky I get." - Richard Boone.
• Hombre DVD (20th Century-Fox, 2002).