The Jayhawkers!
The Jayhawkers 1959 is an American movie set in preCivil War Kansas, starring Jeff Chandler and Fess Parker, and directed by Melvin Frank. Parker joins Chandlers gang, which seeks to take advantage of Bleeding Kansas. The Jeff Chandler character was loosely based on John Brown. The supporting cast features Henry Silva and Leo Gordon.
The world has change in eight years. This is no time to satirize western myth people wont stand for the making fun of something sacred. Actually, why The Jayhawkers is in the outdoor category and has outlaws and guns and horses, its a western only in that it takes place on the thenfrontier of 1859. Something frightening happened in Kansas on the eve of the Civil War... A man on horseback tried to become A Man on Horseback. He took over only a few towns but what wouldve happened if hed seized Kansas for his empire and the Civil War had allowed him to set up a kingdom in the West? The power mad character has always threatened freedom. We had long wanted to use this theme in a story about the American past and when we found this story... it clicked. Melvin Frank tried to interest Vivien Leigh in the female lead. Chandler made the film on loan out from Universal International. Filming startedDecember 1958 ........
Source: Wikipedia
