Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif, Telly Savalas, Ted Cassidy, Camilla Sparv, and Julie Newmar starrer Mackenna’s Gold is a 1969 American Western film directed by J. Lee Thompson. Joseph MacDonald shot it in Super Panavision 70 and Technicolor, with original music by Quincy Jones.
Mackenna’s Riches is based on Heck Allen’s novel of the same name, written under the pen name Will Henry, about how the allure of gold corrupts a diverse group of characters. The tale was loosely inspired by the legend of the Lost Adams Diggings, with the author’s note citing Frank Dobie’s narrative (Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver).
The picture was a box office flop in North America, but it went on to become a great international hit in places like the Soviet Union, Central Asia, and India. Highroad Productions, the company of writer-producer Carl Foreman, who had a deal with Columbia, bought the film rights. Since High Noon, it was Foreman’s first Western.
The film is based on a novel written by Will Henry (a pseudonym for Heck Allen) and published in 1963. The Lost Adams Diggings mythology was the inspiration for the story. According to folklore, a Mexican Indian named Gotch Ear contacted a teamster named Adams and some prospectors in Arizona and offered to show them a gold-filled canyon. In both the novel and the film, the gang kidnaps a Marshal named MacKenna in order to get to the Canyon.
Omar Sharif, whose casting was announced in February 1967, was the first star to be signed. He was paid $400,000 for his services. Clint Eastwood, who was wanting to make an American Western picture after his success with the Dollars trilogy, was Thompson’s initial option for the character of MacKenna. He rejected down the film because he didn’t like the storyline and instead chose to play the lead in Hang ‘Em High (1968). The starring role was also considered for Steve McQueen.
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