Il cavaliere della valle solitaria

Principal photography had been completed in October, 1951, but the amount of coverage shot by George Stevens resulted in such an extremely protracted editing process that the film wasn't released until August, 1953. All this drove up the costs of what should have been a simple, straightforward Western; in fact, they spiraled so much that Paramount approached Howard Hughes about taking on the property, but he declined. He changed his mind when he saw a rough cut and offered to buy the film on the spot. This made Paramount rethink its strategy--originally it was going to release it as a "B" picture but then decided it should be one of the studio's flagship films of the year. This proved to be a good decision, as the film was a major success and easily recouped its inflated budget.

At the beginning, when Shane rides a horse down the hill, Teton Pass Highway is visible in the background.

Introducing Brandon De Wilde

The film was shot in Academy Ratio (1.33:1 or 4:3), but this was done around the time widescreen filmmaking was coming around. As such, many theatres cropped the film into a widescreen ratio to take advantage of this, with many DVDs being cropped as well. The 2013 Blu-ray Disc release is in the proper Academy Ratio.

Edited into Go West, Young Man! (2003)