The Ox Bow Incident

“The Ox Bow Incident” is a sobering tale about crowd justice.

Upset about cattle rustlers, the townspeople are on edge.  When they are told that local rancher Larry Kincaid has been killed and his cattle stolen, they immediately form a posse to track down the culprits.

Gil Carter (Henry Fonda) and Art Croft (Harry Morgan) roll into town just before all of the events unfold and they join the posse. But will the mob frenzy result in real justice?

This classic western is based on a true story.

With great Black and White cinematography, and a heightened sense of drama, it is a sobering western not to be missed!

• The western movie “The Ox Bow Incident” is based on the novel named “The Ox Bow Incident” by Walter Van Tilburg Clark which was first published in 1940. The movie and the book are based on a true story.

• Henry Fonda made “The Ox Bow Incident” in between his starring roles in two other major classic movies – the classic film “The Grapes of Wrath” and the famous western “My Darling Clementine.”

• “The Ox Bow Incident” lost a fortune at the box office which is something that studio head Darryl F. Zanuck never tired of mentioning to actor Henry Fonda and director William Wellman.  But, the western movie has grown in popularity over the years and is now considered a classic of the genre.

•  The only reason why Darryl F. Zanuck agreed to make “The Ox Bow Incident” was because Henry Fonda and William Wellman agreed to do other, less popular movies for the studio in exchange for making this one.

• After completing the filming for “The Ox Bow Incident”, Henry Fonda reported for military duty in the United States Navy.  He served in the Navy for three years.

•  The Ox-Bow Incident was nominated for a 1944 Best Picture Academy Award.

•  “The Ox Bow Incident” was selected in 1998 to the U.S. Library of Congress, National Film Registry.