own authority. Virtually nothing of Ford's footage was used, but Ford erroneously is described as an uncredited co-director. According to many people involved in the film, Wayne was an intelligent and gifted director despite a weakness for the long-winded dialogue of James Edward Grant, his favorite screenwriter. Roberts and Olson describe his direction as "competent, but not outstanding". Widmark complained that Wayne would try to tell him and other actors how to play their parts which sometimes went against their own interpretation of characters. Filming Filming began on September 9, 1959. Some actors, notably Frankie Avalon, were intimidated by rattlesnakes. Crickets were everywhere, often ruining shots by jumping on actors' shoulders or chirping loudly. A bit player, LeJean Ethridge, died in a domestic dispute during filming, and Wayne was called to testify at an inquest. Harvey forgot that a firing cannon has a recoil; during the scene in which, as Travis, he fires in response to a surrender demand, the cannon came down on his foot, breaking it. Because he did not scream in pain until after Wayne had called "Cut", Wayne praised his professionalism. Filming ended on December 15. A total of 560,000 feet of film was produced for 566 scenes. Despite the scope of the filming, it lasted only three weeks longer than scheduled. By the end of development, the film had been edited to three hours and 13 minutes. Music The score was composed by Dimitri Tiomkin, and most famously featured the song "The Green Leaves of Summer", with music by Tiomkin and lyrics by Paul Francis Webster. The song was performed on the soundtrack by The Brothers Four whose rendition reached #65 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart; it has been covered by many artists. Another well known song from this film is "Ballad of the Alamo" (with Paul Francis Webster), which was performed on the soundtrack by Marty Robbins. Frankie Avalon released a cover version as did the folk duo Bud & Travis whose rendition (with "The Green Leaves of Summer" on the flip side) reached #64 on the Billboard chart. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time. The original soundtrack album has been issued on Columbia Records, Varèse Sarabande, and Ryko Records. In 2010, a complete score containing recorded versions of Tiomkin's music was issued on Tadlow Music/Prometheus Records, as conducted