The Peacemaker (1956 film)

{{Short description|1956 film by Ted Post}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2021}}

{{Use American English|date=October 2021}}

{{Infobox film

| name = The Peacemaker

| image = File:The Peacemaker (1956 film).jpg

| caption =

| director = Ted Post

| producer = Hal R. Makelim

| screenplay = Hal Richards
Jay Ingram

| based_on = {{Based on|The Peacemaker|Richard Poole}}

| starring = James Mitchell
Rosemarie Bowe
Jan Merlin
Jess Barker
Hugh Sanders
Taylor Holmes
Philip Tonge
Dorothy Patrick

| music = George Greeley

| cinematography = Les Shorr

| editing = William Shea

| color_process = Black and white

| studio = Hal R. Makelim Productions

| distributor = United Artists

| released = {{film date|1956|11||}}

| runtime = 82 minutes

| country = United States

| language = English

| budget =

| gross =

}}

The Peacemaker is a 1956 American Western film directed by Ted Post and starring James Mitchell and Rosemarie Bowe. 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."{{cite web|title=2006 Williamsburg Film Festival--Thursday: Jan Merlin on the Peacemaker|accessdate=2007-07-05|url=http://thethunderchild.com/Conventions/Virginia/Williamsburg/MerlinPeacemaker.html}}

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{{cite journal| title= Makelim First Film, 'The Peacemaker,' in Successful Premiere in Wichita| journal=Boxoffice|date=1956-02-11|volume=68|issue=16|page=27}}--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).

Tommy Kirk says he appeared in the film although he thought the star was Sterling Hayden.{{cite journal |last=Valley |first=Richard|year=1993 |title=Just an Average Joe (Hardy): An Interview with Tommy Kirk|trans-title= |journal=Scarlet Street |issue=10 |pages=60–69 at p62 |access-date=October 12, 2021|url=https://archive.org/details/27_20240920/10%20/page/62/mode/1up? |archive-url= |archive-date= }}