I Walk the Line

"Sheriff Tawes walks the line between duty and desire, between law and violence, between honor and shame"

1970 1h 37m EN

😐

5.9

MID

★5.9TMDB · 52

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Henry Tawes, a middle-aged sheriff in a rural Tennessee town, is usually the first man to criticize others for their bad behavior. Miserable in his marriage, Henry falls in love with teenage seductress Alma, who is the daughter of local criminal and moonshiner Carl McCain. Henry's moral character comes further into question when he is tempted to conceal Carl's crimes in order to prolong his relationship with Alma.

“Sheriff Tawes walks the line between duty and desire, between law and violence, between honor and shame”

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Cast

Gregory Peck
Sheriff Henry Tawes
Tuesday Weld
Alma McCain
Estelle Parsons
Ellen Haney
Ralph Meeker
Carl McCain
Charles Durning
Wylie Hunnicutt
Jeff Dalton
Clay McCain
Freddie McCloud
Buddy McCain
Jane Rose
Elsie

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: John Frankenheimer
Writers: Alvin Sargent
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $4.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

56 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by John Frankenheimer, shot by David M. Walsh. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Johnny Cash. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Henry Berman shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Gregory Peck and Tuesday Weld and Estelle Parsons carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Sheriff Tawes walks the line between duty and desire, between law and violence, between honor and shame".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0065874 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

John Frankenheimer directs. David M. Walsh behind the camera. Johnny Cash scores. Henry Berman cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $4.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
256 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
3Directed by John Frankenheimer, shot by David M. Walsh. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Johnny Cash. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Henry Berman shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Gregory Peck and Tuesday Weld and Estelle Parsons carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "Sheriff Tawes walks the line between duty and desire, between law and violence, between honor and shame".
8IMDB entry: tt0065874 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Only 52 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
10Classified under 11 themes, including "small town", "based on novel or book", "forbidden love", "love".
11Released under 14 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: David M. Walsh
Original score: Johnny Cash
Editing: Henry Berman
Costume design: Lewis Brown
Makeup / hair: Ben Lane
Runtime: 97 min · 1h 37m
Status: Released
Budget: $4,000,000
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: I Walk the Line (1970)

Also by

John Frankenheimer

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Wuchak2020-10-19
★ 7/10
How a man becomes a loaf of bread Not to be confused with the 2005 biopic of Johnny Cash (although the soundtrack features several Cash songs), "I Walk the Line" (1970) stars Gregory Peck as a taciturn Appalachian sheriff who suffers a mid-life crisis and falls for some pretty young thang (Tuesday Weld), the daughter of a generational moonshiner. The sheriff turns a blind eye and everything's fine, but for how long? You can't go wrong with Gregory Peck. Although I've only seen about a dozen of his movies over the years he's always been an unvoiced favorite of mine. He's tall, (seemingly) noble, masculine, likable, determined and just has an unshowy star quality. Here he plays his usual self with the exception that, facing a mid-life crisis, he makes dubious choices and hurts those connected to him. Tuesday Weld was 26 years-old during filming and is easy on the eyes. Her character maintains a naive quality even though what she does is wrong. I suppose you could say she's more ignorantly amoral than malevolently immoral. The film was shot in the beautiful Appalachian hills of North-central Tennessee. The courthouse square scenes were shot in Gainesboro, but the dam scene that opens the movie (and is shown again later) was shot at Center Hill Dam. The Drive-In movie sequence where they are watching the 1969 Jerry Lewis movie "Hook, Line and Sinker" was shot at the Green Hills Drive-in in Carthage (hometown of Al Gore), about 45 minutes from Gainesboro. During the production Gregory, Tuesday, director John Frankenheimer and other cast & crew members stayed at the Holiday Inn in Cookeville, TN. All the buildings in Gainsboro are still there (including the pool hall) except the first store that was cattycorner to the courthouse (where the sheriff shops), which was torn down. A small portion of the film was also shot in Northern California, in a little town called Colusa, the seat of Colusa County, but I can't tell which specific scenes. Much of Colusa's architecture has a very Southern influence and has been featured in a number of movies. I like the moral of the story: One's actions have a ripple effect -- foolish choices will inevitably hurt not only you but those linked to you, just as right choices bless you and others. On that same note, the film effectively shows how a formidable upstanding man can be reduced to a loaf of bread simply by unwisely falling prey to the temptation of some young cutie. The story plays out in an ultra-realistic manner like other films of the 60s and 70s before the brainless "blockbuster" came into vogue. This isn't a negative to me because I actually prefer realism but others might not appreciate it, especially the flat vibe of of the first act, but the story picks up steam in the second act and holds till the end. Some don't like the film because the usually-noble Peck is playing a sad and lonely transgressor. This is against type and perhaps explains why Peck took the part; he was 53 at the time and likely saw the role as a challenge. Here was an opportunity to play a character who is neither a hero nor anti-hero, a character who feels trapped by routine and meaninglessness, who makes a desperate and ill-fated attempt to drag himself out by means of his lust for beauty, the one thing that makes him feel alive again. Peck rose to the challenge admirably but this naturally has the negative effect of stirring disrespect, even loathing, in the viewer. "I Walk the Line" is a good flick that was never acknowledged and seems to have been lost over time. It's along the lines of the contemporaneous "Deliverance" albeit without the sexual perversion and more on the dramatic & mundane side and less of a adventure. The film runs 1 hour, 37 minutes. GRADE: B

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