You may be confusing George Kennedy and Walter Matthau. Matthau never got close enough to Douglas to identify him at the end.
Kennedy beat Douglas while he was in jail, and the two confronted each other later on the mountain.
And yeah, it is a great movie. I first saw it when I was 9 or 10, and I appreciated it even then.
Damn, how memory can trick you, or else there is another Walter Matthau/Kirk Douglas western in which they fight. I have a clear memory of the fight, involving Matthau using a whip against Douglas.
ETA: just read the synopsis on wiki for “Lonely Are The Brave”, and that’s definitely not the movie I saw, playing after the Korean War. The one I remember played in the old west.
Maybe this one?
Yeah, that’s the one, I just googled it myself. Sorry for the confusion. But that’s another good western, too!
Writers loved westerns because they could use nearly any dramatic plot. The costumes and horses were window dressing.
You could have the classic love triangle. Make the husband and wife the ranch owners. The illicit lover is the new ranch hand. It ends with a gunfight.
You could use the same basic script and the husband and wife own a large factory. The illicit lover could be a neighbor’s husband.It still ends with a gunshot with a snub nose revolver. Film it dark and call it film noir.
That’s how they churned out western movies and tv shows for over 20 years. Big Valley had very few scenes with cattle or ranch work. Most of the stories were dramatic conflicts between people and business interests.