Brown originally cast as the leading man, replacing him with Clark Gable. This was Wallace Beery's first picture after The Big House rejuvenated his career. Irving Thalberg of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had chosen Beery for the role of "Butch" in The Big House after Lon Chaney, who had been previously cast in the part, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The Big House was a smash hit with Beery nominated for an Academy Award (which he would win the following year for The Champ). Beery was then cast by Thalberg in the lavish widescreen version of Billy the Kid, shot on location in the West similarly to Raoul Walsh's spectacular 1930 widescreen Western The Big Trail, John Wayne's amazing debut as the star of a picture. Parts of Billy the Kid were shot in Zion National Park, as well as in Gallup, New Mexico, the Grand Canyon, and in Porter Ranch and the San Fernando Valley. Remakes The film was remade in color in 1941 as Billy the Kid with Robert Taylor as Billy and Brian Donlevy as a fictionalized version of Pat Garrett. The Howard Hughes version two years later, called The Outlaw and mainly serving as an introductory vehicle for Jane Russell, owes at least as much to the 1930 film, particularly in the casting of Thomas Mitchell, who physically resembles Wallace Beery, as Garrett. Films and television revisited the Pat Garrett-Billy the Kid relationship almost continuously in subsequent decades. Paul Newman played Billy in the '50s in The Left Handed Gun (for many years after Billy's death it was thought he was left-handed. This assumption was based on a photo that had been inadvertently flipped when printed. Billy was right handed); a television series was filmed in 1960 with the same theme called The Tall Man, with Barry Sullivan as Garrett and Clu Gulager as Billy; Sam Peckinpah directed a movie version, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, in 1973 with James Coburn as Garrett and Kris Kristofferson as Billy; and Val Kilmer played Billy in Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid, a lavish television version written by Gore Vidal and televised in 1989. See also List of American films of 1930 References External links 1930 films American black-and-white films Films based on biographies Films directed by King Vidor Biographical films about Billy the Kid 1930s English-language films Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films 1930 Western (genre) films Films produced by Irving Thalberg Films with