The Peacemaker

The Peacemaker (1956) is a western film directed by Ted Post and starring James Mitchell, Rosemarie Bowe, and Jan Merlin. Hal Richards based the script on the novel of the same name by Richard Poole. Producer Hal R. Makelim intended The Peacemaker to be the first of a series of low-budget productions. According to Merlin, who played the villain, shooting took only "seven or ten days." Although the film featured some successful character actors like Hugh Sanders in supporting roles, none of the performers qualified as marquee names; in fact, at this point in his career, star James Mitchell was known only as a dancer (despite some dramatic roles at MGM). While Makelim tried to compensate for these problems by marketing the film to a religious audience—the local clergymen were invited to the film's premiere in Wichita--The Peacemaker enjoyed only sporadic distribution and was not widely reviewed. Makelim managed to produce only one more film, Valerie (1957), and Mitchell would not make another film appearance until The Turning Point (1977).