# "Head'em off at the Pass!" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 1, 2023, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518 "2023-03-01T00:46:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2023, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/1 "2023-03-01T00:46:18Z")
When I look for the origin of this phrase, all I get are claims that it’s from old western movies, but nobody ever givens an actual cite. I’m not a big fan of westerns, but I don’t recall anyone ever saying this in a western. (Unless you count **Blazing Saddles** , but it was already a cliche by then, and that’s the reason they used it there, as the script makes clear. That’s also why Telly Savalas as Ernst Stavro Blofeld says “We’ll head him off at the precipice” in the James Bond film **On Her Majesty’s Secret Service**. For that line alone Blofeld deserves to die.) Did anyone _ever_ say this is a western movie? A search online reveals one claim for its use in a western, by Tim McCoy as “Trigger” Tim Rand in the 1940 movie _Arizona Gangbusters_, but I can’t find corroboration for this, and have never seen the film myself. The same discussion board claims that William Boyd (playing “Hopalong Cassidy”) _must_ have said it in one of his films, which is a pretty weak claim. [https://groups.google.com/g/rec.arts.movies.past-films/c/m3Ig5gRRbjU?pli=1](https://groups.google.com/g/rec.arts.movies.past-films/c/m3Ig5gRRbjU?pli=1) Anybody got anything better? (The phrase makes sense, of course. If you want to set an ambush for someone, you go for the one place you’ll know they have to be. If a narrow pass is the only or by far the shortest way through, you can bet the party you want will be there. By that logic, the stand of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae is one of the places where this cliche would have been appropriate. But I can’t picture Leonidas saying “We’ll head the Spartans off at the Pass!” about the situation.). ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2023, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/2 "2023-03-01T01:37:31Z")
What I don’t get is, if you are in a chase, don’t you have to catch up to ‘em anyway to get to the pass before ‘em? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2023, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/3 "2023-03-01T01:38:25Z")
Not if you take a shortcut. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2023, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/4 "2023-03-01T01:41:40Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > But I can’t picture Leonidas saying “We’ll head the Spartans off at the Pass!” about the situation.). Nitpick: It was the Spartans heading off the Persians at Thermopylae. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2023, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/5 "2023-03-01T01:50:48Z")
“Gosh, dangit! I always forget about the shortcut!” Stranger ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2023, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/6 "2023-03-01T01:55:28Z")
Here’s an entire book on westerns entitled **Head 'em Off At The Pass** , but in the maqterial I can access online it doesn’t credit anyone with actualy saying that: > **[Head \`Em Off At the Pass!: 94 Westerns You Should Watch (Watchable Movies):...](https://www.amazon.com/Head-%60Em-Off-Pass-Watchable/dp/1460905016)** > > Head \`Em Off At the Pass!: 94 Westerns You Should Watch (Watchable Movies) \[Harrison, J. M., Harrison, J. M., Fisher, Mike M., O'Brian, Hugh\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Head \`Em Off At the Pass!: 94 Westerns You Should Watch... # Head `Em Off At the Pass!: 94 Westerns You Should Watch (Watchable Movies) Paperback – December 21, 2011 by [J. M. Harrison](https://www.amazon.com/J-M-Harrison/e/B005O7JDMU/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1) (Author), [Mike M. Fisher](https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_2?ie=UTF8&field-author=Mike+M.+Fisher&text=Mike+M.+Fisher&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books) (Editor), [& 1 more](https://www.amazon.com/Head-%60Em-Off-Pass-Watchable/dp/1460905016#) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2023, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/7 "2023-03-01T01:58:53Z")
Here’s an example from the TV show **Maverick**. It’s pretty clear from the dialogue that they consider this a cliche: > [@](#): > > [Johnny Rain](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0721999/?ref_=tt_ch): Come on, Mr. Maverick. I know a shortcut. We’ll head 'em off at the pass! > > [Bret Maverick](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001258/?ref_=tt_ch): What’d you say? > > [Johnny Rain](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0721999/?ref_=tt_ch): I said “We’ll head 'em off at the pass.” > > [Bret Maverick](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001258/?ref_=tt_ch): That’s what I thought you said. > **["Maverick" A Cure for Johnny Rain (TV Episode 1959) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0644418/characters/nm0721999)** > > "Maverick" A Cure for Johnny Rain (TV Episode 1959) William Reynolds as Johnny Rain ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2023, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/8 "2023-03-01T02:02:35Z")
And here’s a 1959 recording that sounds like the soundtrack to an old western entitled “Head 'em off at the Pass”. Again, they clearly knew this was a tired old line in 1959 [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/i-YISPAVvgk/maxresdefault.jpg "(instr.) JACK SHAINDLIN - Head'em Off At The Pass - 1959 - APEX FRANCAIS") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-YISPAVvgk) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2023, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/9 "2023-03-01T02:07:50Z")
Life Magazine from 1946 using the phrase as a cliche > **[LIFE](https://books.google.com/books?id=hk0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA98&dq=%22Head%2B%27em%2Boff%2Bat%2Bthe%2Bpass%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjz8-C90rn9AhUwEFkFHfSzACUQ6AF6BAgEEAI#v=onepage&q=%22Head%20'em%20off%20at%20the%20pass%22&f=false)** > > LIFE Magazine is the treasured photographic magazine that chronicled the 20th Century. It now lives on at LIFE.com, the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the internet. Users can browse, search and view photos of today’s... Life, October 7, 1946 page 98 Article – **Traditions that are Sacred to Western Fans** ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2023, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/10 "2023-03-01T02:13:29Z")
Evidently Leo Rosten used it in his 1941 book **Hollywood:The Movie Colony, the Movie Makers**. He was using it – you guessed it – as a typical Western cliche. [ ### Hollywood: The Movie Colony, the Movie Makers [books.google.com](http://books.google.com) › books ]([Google Books](https://books.google.com/books?id=1RAaAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Head+them+off+at+the+pass%22&dq=%22Head+them+off+at+the+pass%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=1&printsec=frontcover&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwil7uDN07n9AhUdElkFHcr7BU4Q6AF6BAgFEAI)) [Leo Rosten](https://www.google.com/search?biw=1280&bih=856&tbs=cdr:1,cd_min:1900,cd_max:1960&tbm=bks&sxsrf=AJOqlzVoujYyPVQcO0DfCtJww92y-WCzZA:1677636669037&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Leo+Rosten%22&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwil7uDN07n9AhUdElkFHcr7BU4Q9Ah6BAgFEAU) · 1941 · ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2023, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/11 "2023-03-01T03:29:03Z")
Here is apparently an actual case of the line being used in a western movie – The Oklahoma Cyclone from 1930 From the imdb “comments” page: > [@](#): > > One could argue that this film offered a couple of firsts given it’s 1930 vintage. In the opening chase scene, a sheriff’s posse decides against following Steele’s character down a steep, rugged hill, and the sheriff declares to his men - “We’ll head him off at the pass”. This is also the oldest Western in which I’ve seen the cowboy hero sing. > **[The Oklahoma Cyclone (1930) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021202/reviews)** > > The Oklahoma Cyclone (1930) on IMDb: Movies, TV, Celebs, and more... A very early 1930 “talkie”, where , according to comments, they had no idea how to make a talking movie. It’s six years older than the movie I cited above. > **[The Oklahoma Cyclone (1930) ⭐ 3.8 | Western](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021202/?ref_=tt_urv)** > > 1h 6m | Approved The “quotes” page agrees that the lines were spoken: > [@](#): > > [first lines] > > [the posse refuses to chase Henderson and his horse down the face of a steep hill] > > Sheriff Talbot: Go around! Head him off at the pass! > **[The Oklahoma Cyclone (1930) - Quotes - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021202/quotes/?ref_=tt_trv_qu)** > > The Oklahoma Cyclone: Directed by John P. McCarthy. With Bob Steele, Rita Rey, Al St. John, Charles King. A cowboy looking for his missing father, poses as an outlaw and joins the gang he thinks is responsible. You can watch the movie in all its glory here [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM9FK9AuSj0) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2023, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/12 "2023-03-01T03:37:04Z")
I don’t care what the haters say. I could not live without the Internet, even vicariously. That was fun to watch. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2023, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/13 "2023-03-01T03:52:50Z")
Come on, it _has_ to be older than 1930! I’ll bet it was first used in a silent film, like “No, no, a thousand times no!” and “Curses, foiled again!” ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2023, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/14 "2023-03-01T04:54:41Z")
Maybe it was used in books first. Weren’t there a lot of cowboy stories in pulp magazines or somesuch? ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2023, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/15 "2023-03-01T06:31:00Z")
Yes. Note, for example, the Richard Harris character in _Unforgiven,_ who travels with a biographer and thereby earns income from the pulpy stories the writer collects and sends back east. As soon as I saw the OP, I was willing to bet this comes from the tradition of Western storytelling that predates the movies. I don’t have a cite, but that was my hunch and it certainly looks like it’s drifting that direction. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2023, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/16 "2023-03-01T07:10:18Z")
yep, westerns were the first dime novels and they were written mostly by people who had never been west for the most part some of them interviewed people who went west and came back east and the like …heck “max brand” lived in what now would now be Germany > **[Dime novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dime_novel)** > > The dime novel is a form of late 19th-century and early 20th-century U.S. popular fiction issued in series of inexpensive paperbound editions. The term dime novel has been used as a catchall term for several different but related forms, referring to story papers, five- and ten-cent weeklies, "thick book" reprints, and sometimes early pulp magazines.\[notes 1\] The term was used as a title as late as 1940, in the short-lived pulp magazine Western Dime Novels. In the modern age, the term dime novel h... ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2023, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/17 "2023-03-01T07:18:16Z")
Comprehensively reached international cliche status by 1939. Two Antipodean examples, both referencing westerns. The [Timaru Herald, 28 Oct 1939](https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/THD19391028.2.63) on the South Island of New Zealand was saying that talkies weren’t taking advantage of the new medium to do anything different. Whether true or not, it implies the phrase was a standard of the silent movies. > _“Westerns Still Important”_ > _BONE AND SINEW OF MOVIE INDUSTRY Time and circumstances may change Hollywood, but they do not change the western film except in minor particulars. Since the introduction of sound, there has come about in them the inclusion of speech, the cloppety-clop of horses’ hooves, the explosion of six-guns, the twang of guitars, and the reedy tenor of the singin’-shootin’-ridin’ hero—but that is all._ > > _Speech has replaced titles for phrases such as:— “Bill, you an’ Ed go thataway. Sam an’ I’ll ride thisaway. We’ll head him off at the pass!” “Travers, I’ll give you just one hour j to get out of town. … etc etc._\* The [Daily News (Perth, Western Australia) of 22 August 1940](http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article78528416) refers to a thesaurus of cliches that film critic Frank Nugent could make reference to. > _‘Came The Dawn’ Dept_ > > _JUST before Frank Nugent, America’s most pungent and best-known > film critic, joined 20th Century-Fox recently as a screen writer, his ribald New York colleagues gave him a ‘Thesaurus’ to take with him to Hollywood._ > > _It provides him with ‘lines of sparkling dialogue to meet every situation’ in which his screen writings may land his characters._ > > _Here are the situations. You’ll probably recognise some of them: —_ > > _THE LAW_ > > _‘You’re coming down to headquarters with me. The D.A. wants to have a little talk with you.’_ > > _MEDICINE …_ > > _etc_ > > _THE SHORTEST DISTANCE_ > > _'Let’s take the short cut, Tex and head ‘em off at the pass.’_ > > _…_ This was boilerplate text from a news service. Its the sort of filler crap that would have appeared in dozens of newspapers at the time, so you could assume everyone, not just Frank Nugent’s hoity-toity friends, got the joke. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2023, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/18 "2023-03-01T07:45:12Z")
you know its funny but if they had illustrated the stories most dime novels wouldn’t be all that discernible from comic books …oh here’s an interting free website where they scan old dime novels > **[Nickels and Dimes](https://dimenovels.lib.niu.edu/)** > > Dime Novels from the Collections of Johannsen and LeBlanc ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2023, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/19 "2023-03-01T09:27:50Z")
We should have a whole thread devoted to this topic. Some of my favorites are: “Don’t worry, kid. She’ll wait for you. Not all broads are like Joey’s.” “I haven’t done anything to her … _yet_!” “It’s not me. I’m not crazy. It’s those fools down in the village. They don’t understand me!” “Don’t shoot! You might hit the girl!” “Do you mean to say that _thing_ in the lake is nothing more than a giant one of _these_?” “You are either very brave … or very foolish.” “Perhaps … a little of both.” 😏 ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2023, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518/20 "2023-03-01T12:46:38Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > What I don’t get is, if you are in a chase, don’t you have to catch up to ‘em anyway to get to the pass before ‘em? > [@RealityChuck](#): > > Not if you take a shortcut. So, is the shortcut to get to the pass, or is the pass itself the shortcut? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/headem-off-at-the-pass/980518.md?page=2)