The Cimarron Kid

The Cimarron Kid is a 1952 American Technicolor Western film directed by Budd Boetticher starring Audie Murphy, Beverly Tyler and James Best.

Bill Doolan (Audie Murphy) is released from jail and is going home on the train when it is held up by his boyhood friends, the Dalton Gang. Doolin finds himself accused of helping the crime and winds up an outlaw.

The film was based on a story by Louis Stevens. It was assigned to producer Ted Richmond at Universal for Audie Murphy in April 1951.

It was the first Western from Budd Boetticher, who later became famous for his work in the genre. “I became a western director because they thought I looked like one and they thought I rode better than anyone else," said Boetticher later. "And I didn’t know anything about the west.” It was also the director's first film in color and his first under a long term contract with Universal Pictures.

In the original script, Murphy's character died at the end of the movie. However, the studio decided to change it to reflect the actor's rising popularity.