William Bowers

Birth : 1916-01-17, Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA

Death : 1987-03-27

History

William Bowers (Las Cruces, 1916 - Woodland Hills, California, 1987) was a reporter in Long Beach, California before becoming a screenwriter and specializing in writing comedy westerns and also turned out several thrillers. His first credited screenplay was My Favorite Spy in 1942. His career noticeably picked up after his Oscar nomination for the gritty Gregory Peck Western The Gunfighter in 1950, leading to such assignments as the remake of My Man Godfrey in 1957 and The Sheepman in 1958 (a second Oscar nomination). Bowers produced the last film that he wrote, the superior Western parody Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969). He also had a bit part as an actor in The Godfather Part II (1974).

Movies

More Wild Wild West
Teleplay
Robert Conrad and Ross Martin reprise their roles as Secret Service agents of the 1890s.
The Wild Wild West Revisited
Writer
The intrepid team of Old West government intelligence agents are brought out of retirement after 10 years to hunt down a cunning new adversary, the son of their former archenemy, who is suspected of cloning imposters to be substituted for the crowned heads of Europe and perhaps even the President of the United States.
Kate Bliss and the Ticker Tape Kid
Writer
A turn-of-the-century investigator named Kate Bliss goes to the wide-open spaces of the wild west to capture a gang of outlaws led by a charming "Robin Hood of the plains," leading a band of dispossessed ranchers against a stuffy English land baron who has cheated them out of their property.
Mobile Two
Producer
A TV reporter whose career was ruined by his drinking gets another chance when he is hired by a TV news program.
The Gun and the Pulpit
Teleplay
In the days of the "Wild West," a gunslinger, with a price on his head, discovers the body of a traveling minister who has been killed in an ambush. Fearing those who are following him, he assumes the dead minister's identity.
Sidekicks
Writer
Travelling through the West right after the Civil War, two con men hatch a scheme to try to collect the fifteen thousand dollar bounty offered for the capture of an outlaw.
Support Your Local Sheriff!
Producer
A quick-witted drifter wanders into a lawless town in the midst of a gold rush. Shocked by the prices of food and meals he reluctantly takes the job of sheriff by amazing the Mayor with his lightning quick, dead eye pistol accuracy. He makes the town council know that he is really just passing through on his way to Australia and he will pull up and leave anytime he chooses (including at the first sign of real trouble). His first day on the job he takes on the biggest, meanest ranching family and meets his klutzy love interest.
Support Your Local Sheriff!
Screenplay
A quick-witted drifter wanders into a lawless town in the midst of a gold rush. Shocked by the prices of food and meals he reluctantly takes the job of sheriff by amazing the Mayor with his lightning quick, dead eye pistol accuracy. He makes the town council know that he is really just passing through on his way to Australia and he will pull up and leave anytime he chooses (including at the first sign of real trouble). His first day on the job he takes on the biggest, meanest ranching family and meets his klutzy love interest.
The Ride to Hangman's Tree
Screenplay
Three young outlaws try to stay together and keep one step ahead of the law.
Way... Way Out
Writer
A platonically wed American couple run a lunar weather station near an unwed Soviet couple.
The Last Time I Saw Archie
Screenplay
Two Air Force friends have fun during their enlistment.
-30-
Writer
A newspaper editor deals with a particularly stressful day in the newsroom.
Alias Jesse James
Writer
Insurance salesman Milford Farnsworth sells a man a life policy only to discover that the man in question is the outlaw Jesse James. Milford is sent to buy back the policy, but is robbed by Jesse. And when Jesse learns that Milford's boss is on the way out with more cash, he plans to rob him too and have Milford get killed in the robbery while dressed as Jesse, and collect on the policy.
Imitation General
Screenplay
An officer poses as a general after the death of his commanding officer and inspires his troops to victory.
The Law and Jake Wade
Screenplay
Jake Wade breaks Clint Hollister out of jail to pay off an old debt, though it's clear there is some pretty deep hostility between them. They part, and Jake returns to his small-town marshal's job and his fiancée only to find he has been tracked there by Hollister. It seems they were once in a gang together and Jake knows where the proceeds of a bank hold-up are hidden. Hollister and his sidekicks make off into the hills, taking along the trussed-up marshal and his kidnapped bride-to-be to force the lawman to show them where the loot is.
The Sheepman
Screenplay
A stranger in a Western cattle-town behaves with remarkable self-assurance, establishing himself as a man to be reckoned with. The reason appears with his stock: a herd of sheep, which he intends to graze on the range. The horrified inhabitants decide to run him out at all costs.
My Man Godfrey
Screenplay
The eccentric Bullock household again need a new butler. Daughter Irene encounters bedraggled Godfrey Godfrey at the docks and, fancying him and noticing his obviously good manners, gets him the job. He proves a great success, but keeps his past to himself. When an old flame turns up Irene's sister Cordelia starts making waves.
The Best Things in Life Are Free
Screenplay
Ray Henderson joins Buddy De Sylva and Lew Brown to form a successful 1920s musical show writing team. They soon have several hits on Broadway but De Sylva's personal ambition leads to friction as the other two increasingly feel left out of things.
5 Against the House
Screenplay
Former war-time Army buddies now students in college decide to rip off a Reno casino.
Tight Spot
Screenplay
A former model, serving time in prison, becomes a key witness in a trial against a notorious gangster. She is put under protective watch by the District Attorney in a posh hotel, but the crime kingpin makes attempts to get to her.
She Couldn't Say No
Screenplay
An heiress decides to pass out anonymous gifts in a small town.
Split Second
Screenplay
Escaped convicts hold hostages in a ghost town targeted for a nuclear bomb test.
Assignment: Paris
Screenplay
Paris-based New York Herald Tribune reporter Jimmy Race (Andrews) is sent by his boss (Sanders) behind the Iron Curtain in Budapest to investigate a meeting involving the Hungarian ambassador.
The San Francisco Story
Writer
After five years of being away, Rick Nelson (Joel McCrea) returns to San Francisco to find it filled with corruption - and crooked politicians. It isn't until he meets a beautiful San Franciscan (Yvonne De Carlo), that Nelson decides to get involved with bringing law-and-order to the city by the bay!
The Mob
Screenplay
An undercover officer tracks waterfront corruption from California to New Orleans and back.
Cry Danger
Screenplay
After serving five years of a life sentence, Rocky Mulloy hopes to clear his friend who's still in prison for the same crime.
Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone
Screenplay
Harriet O'Malley tries to solve a murder aboard a train en route to New York.
Convicted
Screenplay
A prison warden fights to prove one of his inmates was wrongly convicted.
The Gunfighter
Story
The fastest gun in the West tries to escape his reputation.
The Gunfighter
Screenplay
The fastest gun in the West tries to escape his reputation.
The Gal Who Took the West
Story
In order to gain passage to the West, a woman poses as an opera singer, and causes a feud between two cousins.
The Gal Who Took the West
Screenplay
In order to gain passage to the West, a woman poses as an opera singer, and causes a feud between two cousins.
Criss Cross
Writer
Burt Lancaster plays Steve Thompson, a man who seals his dark fate when he returns to Los Angeles to find his ex-wife Anna Dundee (Yvonne DeCarlo) eager to rekindle their love against all better judgement. She encourages their affair but then quickly marries mobster Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea). To deflect suspicion of the affair, Steve Thompson leads Dundee into a daylight armored-truck robbery.
The Countess of Monte Cristo
Writer
This musical tells the tales of two movie extras who abscond to an expensive resort with their costumes and pretend to be aristocrats. Included in the film are ice skating numbers and songs.
Larceny
Screenplay
John Payne is the no-good lowdown rat who tries to capitalize on postwar patriotism and grief. He finagles a war widow (Joan Caulfied) into giving up her savings for a nonexistent memorial. When Payne falls in love with the widow he has pangs of conscience, but he reckons without his con-artist boss (Dan Duryea), who tends to bolster his arguments with muscle and bullets.
Pitfall
Screenplay
An insurance man's affair with a blonde leads to guilt, murder and a confession to his wife.
River Lady
Screenplay
In the 1850s, in a logging town on the Mississippi River, a conflict between the people of a mill town and the lumberjacks who work downriver. Romance and deceit are catalyzed by the arrival of the gambling river boat, River Lady, owned by the beautiful Sequin. Bauvais, a representative of the local lumber syndicate and Sequin's business partner, is trying to convince H.L. Morrison, the mill owner, to sell his business.
Black Bart
Screenplay
Cheerful outlaw Charlie Boles leaves former partners Lance and Jersey and heads for California, where the Gold Rush is beginning. Soon, a lone gunman in black is robbing Wells Fargo gold shipments. One fateful day, the stage he robs carries old friends Lance and Jersey...and notorious dancer Lola Montez, coming to perform in Sacramento. Black Bart and Lance become rivals for both Lola's favors and Wells Fargo's gold.
Jungle Patrol
Story
Eight fighter pilots hold off constant Japanese attacks during the construction of an airstrip in New Guinea.
The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap
Story
Chester Wooley and Duke Egan are travelling salesmen who make a stopover in Wagon Gap, Montana while enroute to California. During the stopover, a notorious criminal is murdered, and the two are charged with the crime.
Something in the Wind
Screenplay
A grandson of a recently deceased millionaire mistakes a beautiful female disc jockey for her aunt, who once dated the grandfather.
The Web
Screenplay
A brash young lawyer takes a short-term but high-paid job as bodyguard for a slick business exec being threatened by a former partner, and quickly realizes he may be in over his head.
Ladies' Man
Story
A boy from the country inherits $10 million, and decides to go to New York City to live it up.
The Fabulous Suzanne
Story
Suzanne, a waitress, comes up with a sure-fire method for winning at the racetrack and, later, when she inherits a fortune from a customer of the restaurant, she use the same system for investing her money. Her stock broker tries to dissuade her, but she persists and her investments increases her wealth.
Night and Day
Screenplay
Swellegant and elegant. Delux and delovely. Cole Porter was the most sophisticated name in 20th-century songwriting. And to play him on screen, Hollywood chose debonair icon Cary Grant. Grant stars for the first time in color in this fanciful biopic. Alexis Smith plays Linda, whose serendipitous meetings with Porter lead to a meeting at the alter. More than 20 of his songs grace this tail of triumph and tragedy, with Grant lending is amiable voice to "You're the Top", "Night and Day" and more. Monty Woolley, a Yale contemporary of Porter, portrays himself. And Jane Wyman, Mary Martin, Eve Arden and others provide vocals and verve. Lights down. Curtain up. Showtune standards embraced by generations are yours to enjoy in "Night and Day."
The Notorious Lone Wolf
Story
Ex-thief Lone Wolf and his valet don turbans to solve a museum jewel theft.
Sing Your Way Home
Screenplay
In this musical comedy, an arrogant war journalist is sailing back to the Big Apple after the end of WW II. En route, he has been assigned to watch over a band of teenagers who were trapped in Europe four years ago while entertaining the troops. Their entrapment has done nothing to dim their enthusiasm for performing and while waiting for passage the crews entertain everyone at every opportunity. Songs include: "I'll Buy That Dream" (sung by Anne Jeffreys), "Heaven Is a Place Called Home," "Seven O'Clock in the Morning (Waking up Boogie)," "Somebody Stole My Poor Little Heart" (Herb Magidson, Allie Wrubel), and "The Lord's Prayer" (arranged by Albert Hay Malotte).
The Adventures of a Rookie
Story
Two bumbling GIs manage to get themselves invited to a dinner party at a boarding house "for women only". When the cook comes down with scarlet fever, the authorities quarantine the house and the pair find themselves locked up in a house full of attractive women.
Seven Days' Leave
Screenplay
Soldier Johnny Grey is engaged to marry singer Mapy Cortes, but his plans go awry when he learns that he is the heir to $100,000 from his great-grandfather -- a bequest that comes with a catch: before claiming the money, Johnny must marry a descendant of his great-grandfather's Civil War enemy, General Havelock-Allen. Not wanting to disrupt his planned marriage to Mapy, Johnny must figure out how to concoct a temporary marriage-of-convenience with the descendant -- who turns out to be the beautiful Terry Havelock-Allen.