Movies and TV shows based on stories by Detroit’s Elmore Leonard [PHOTOS]

By Lee DeVito on Thu, May 11, 2023 at 5:10 pm

Known as “The Dickens of Detroit,” Elmore Leonard, who died 10 years ago this year at age 87, was a prolific author of short stories and novels. Mostly working in the genres of westerns and crime, more than 30 of his stories were adapted to the screen over the course of a writing career spanning 60 years. You can learn more about them in a new book called Paperback Celluloid: Elmore Leonard on Film by Andy Rohmer.

Some were bonafide smash hits, while others were duds. How many of these movies and TV shows based on Leonard’s stories have you seen? Take a look below.

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Valdez is Coming (1971)

Directed by Edwin Sherin. Written by Roland Kibbee and David Rayfiel. Produced by Ira Steiner.
Based on Leonard’s eighth novel, published in 1970, which marked a return to Westerns, the film stars Burt Lancaster, Susan Clark, Richard Jordan, and Jon Cypher. It tells the story of local constable Bob Valdez, who is tricked into killing an innocent Black man by the powerful rancher Frank Tanner and vows to get revenge. The film received generally negative reviews.

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3:10 to Yuma (1957)

Directed by Delmer Daves. Written by Halsted Welles. Produced by David Heilweil.
Based on a 1953 short story by Leonard about an impoverished rancher who takes on a risky job escorting a notorious outlaw to justice, the film was selected in 2012 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

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The Tall T (1957)

Directed by Budd Boetticher. Written by Burt Kennedy. Produced by Harry Joe Brown.
Based on Leonard’s 1955 short story The Captives, the film stars Randolph Scott, Richard Boone, and Maureen O’Sullivan, and tells the story of a former ranch foreman who is kidnapped along with an heiress, held for ransom by three outlaws. In 2000, it was selected for the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

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Hombre (1967)

Directed by Martin Ritt. Written by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr. Produced by Martin Ritt and Irving Ravetch.
Based on the fifth and final novel of Leonard’s early Western phase, published in 1961, the film stars Paul Newman as John Russell, a white man raised by Indigenous American who experiences racism because of his background. It received generally favorable reviews, thanks to portraying Indigenous Americans in a more positive light than typically seen in Westerns.

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The Big Bounce (1969)

Directed by Alex March. Written by Robert Dozier. Produced by William Dozier.
As Westerns faded from popularity, after an eight-year hiatus Leonard pivoted to a new style of crime stories. The Big Bounce, Leonard’s sixth novel, tells the story of Jack Ryan, a drifter and delinquent who has an affair with his boss’s girlfriend and must choose between a life of crime or an honest living. While the novel was set in Michigan’s Thumb, the film was set in and shot in California. It received generally bad reviews.

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The Moonshine War (1970)

Directed by Richard Quine. Written by Elmore Leonard. Produced by Martin Ransohoff.
Based on Leonard’s seventh novel, published in 1969, the story is set in Prohibition-era Kentucky and stars Patrick McGoohan, Richard Widmark, Alan Alda, and Will Geer. The film received generally negative reviews, and Leonard also reportedly did not like it.

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Joe Kidd (1972)

Directed by John Sturges. Written by Elmore Leonard. Produced by Sidney Beckerman and Robert Daley.
This film was actually not based on a previously published story by Leonard and was instead the first he wrote as a screenplay. It stars Clint Eastwood as an ex-bounty hunter hired by a wealthy landowner to track down Mexican revolutionary leader Luis Chama. While it earned mixed reviews from critics, it was one of the highest-grossing Westerns that year, pulling in $6.3 million.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.

Mr. Majestyk (1974)

Directed by Richard Fleischer. Written by Elmore Leonard. Produced by Walter Mirisch.
Another Leonard screenplay that was not based on a previously published story, although a character with the name “Mr. Majestyk” first appeared in The Big Bounce. Starring Charles Bronson as a melon farmer and Vietnam War veteran who comes into conflict with gangsters, the film received generally positive reviews.

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High Noon Part II: The Return of Will Kane (1980)

Directed by Jerry Jameson. Written by Elmore Leonard. Produced by Edward J Montagne.
This made for TV Western is a sequel to the classic 1952 film High Noon, based on a screenplay by Leonard that was not previously published as a story. (Leonard reportedly considered the original to be one of his favorite films, and the plot of 3:10 to Yuma seems clearly inspired by it.) It stars Lee Majors, David Carradine, and Pernell Roberts and first aired on CBS on November 15, 1980, in a two-hour time-slot.

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The Ambassador (1984)

Directed by J. Lee Thompson. Written by Max Jack. Produced by Yoram Goblus and Menahem Golan.
Only very loosely based on Leonard’s 1974 crime novel 52 Pick-Up, his first set in Detroit, the setting in this adaptation was changed to Tel Aviv and stars Robert Mitchum as the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, whose wife is caught on film having an affair with a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. It received generally negative reviews.