Nevada Smith is a
1966 American Western film made by
Embassy Pictures and Solar Productions, in association with and released by
Paramount Pictures. It was produced and directed by
Henry Hathaway with
Joseph E. Levine as executive producer, from a story and screenplay by
John Michael Hayes based on a character from
Harold Robbins'
1961 novel
The Carpetbaggers. The music score was by
Alfred Newman and the cinematography by
Lucien Ballard. The movie is a
prequel to
The Carpetbaggers.
The film stars
Steve McQueen,
Karl Malden,
Brian Keith,
Arthur Kennedy,
Suzanne Pleshette,
Raf Vallone,
Janet Margolin,
Pat Hingle,
Howard Da Silva,
Martin Landau and
Paul Fix.
Plot
A gang of outlaws led by Tom Fitch robs and brutally kills the white father and Indian mother of young Max Sand. The other two bandits are Bill Bowdre and Jesse Coe. They first torture Max's mother, who is shown naked to the waist, in front of her husband's pulp-battered face, with Coe running his knife across her back and saying: "Last time I skinned a live
squaw, it was during the war, some 15 years ago...".
