William Bowers

Writing

William Bowers

Born — Died

1916-01-17 — 1987-03-27

Place of birth

Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA

Known for

Writing

Credits

42 titles

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…

Known for

Starsky & Hutch poster
7.4

Streetwise Detective David Starsky partners up with a more intellectual partner, Kenneth 'Hutch' Hutchinson, to protect citizens and patrol the streets of Bay City.

Starsky & Hutch

1975

The Godfather Part II poster
8.6

In the continuing saga of the Corleone crime family, a young Vito Corleone grows up in Sicily and in 1910s New York. In the 1950s, Michael Corleone attempts to expand the family business into Las Vegas, Hollywood and Cuba.

The Godfather Part II

1974

Support Your Local Sheriff! poster
6.9

In the old west, a man becomes a Sheriff just for the pay, figuring he can decamp if things get tough.

Support Your Local Sheriff!

1969

The Law and Jake Wade poster
6.6

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 Law and Jake Wade

1958

My Man Godfrey poster
6.5

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.

My Man Godfrey

1957

Alias Jesse James poster
6.1

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.

Alias Jesse James

1959

Film credits

Series credits

Behind the camera

Support Your Local Sheriff! poster
6.9

In the old west, a man becomes a Sheriff just for the pay, figuring he can decamp if things get tough.

Support Your Local Sheriff!

1969

Support Your Local Sheriff! poster
6.9

In the old west, a man becomes a Sheriff just for the pay, figuring he can decamp if things get tough.

Support Your Local Sheriff!

1969

The Law and Jake Wade poster
6.6

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 Law and Jake Wade

1958

My Man Godfrey poster
6.5

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.

My Man Godfrey

1957

Alias Jesse James poster
6.1

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.

Alias Jesse James

1959

The Sheepman poster
6.9

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.

The Sheepman

1958

Criss Cross poster
7.1

An armored-car guard must join a robbery after being caught with his ex-wife by her gangster husband.

Criss Cross

1949

Night and Day poster
6.0

When his first stage show fails, songwriter Cole Porter goes off to fight in WWI until, injured, he lands in a hospital. He impresses nurse Linda Lee with his creativity, but their budding romance must wait as Cole heads home. Back in New York, he mounts a series of popular shows, and when his work brings him back to Europe, he eventually marries Linda. But success doesn't spare him from marital complications or bad news about a beloved relative.

Night and Day

1946

Advance to the Rear poster
5.2

As punishment for their incompetence in battle, disgraced Union soldier Capt. Jared Heath and his apathetic commanding officer, Col. Claude Brackenbury, are reassigned away from the front lines. The hapless Heath and Brackenbury must now lead a ragtag group on a classified mission to protect a transport for the U.S. Treasury. Complicating matters is Martha Lou Williams, a Confederate agent posing as a lady of the evening.

Advance to the Rear

1964

Way... Way Out poster
5.9

A platonically wed American couple run a lunar weather station near an unwed Soviet couple.

Way... Way Out

1966

Pitfall poster
6.9

An insurance man wishing for a more exciting life becomes wrapped up in the affairs of an imprisoned embezzler, his model girlfriend, and a violent private investigator.

Pitfall

1948

The Gunfighter poster
7.4

The fastest gun in the West tries to escape his reputation.

The Gunfighter

1950

Black Bart poster
4.9

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.

Black Bart

1948

The Mob poster
6.7

An undercover officer tracks waterfront corruption from California to New Orleans and back.

The Mob

1951

5 Against the House poster
5.9

Former war-time Army buddies now students in college decide to rip off a Reno casino.

5 Against the House

1955

Tight Spot poster
6.5

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.

Tight Spot

1955

The San Francisco Story poster
4.9

After five years of being away, Rick Nelson returns to San Francisco to find it filled with corruption - and crooked politicians. It isn't until he meets a beautiful San Franciscan, that Nelson decides to get involved with bringing law-and-order to the city by the bay!

The San Francisco Story

1952

She Couldn't Say No poster
5.7

An heiress decides to pass out anonymous gifts in a small town.

She Couldn't Say No

1954

The Wild Wild West Revisited poster
5.4

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.

The Wild Wild West Revisited

1979

-30- poster
6.0

A newspaper editor deals with a particularly stressful day in the newsroom.

-30-

1959

The Countess of Monte Cristo poster
7.0

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.

The Countess of Monte Cristo

1948

Assignment: Paris poster
5.9

Paris-based New York Herald Tribune reporter Jimmy Race is sent by his boss behind the Iron Curtain in Budapest to investigate a meeting involving the Hungarian ambassador.

Assignment: Paris

1952

The Gal Who Took the West poster
6.0

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

1949

The Web poster
7.1

A brash young lawyer takes a short-term, high-paying job as bodyguard for a slick business exec being threatened by a former partner, and quickly realizes he may be in over his head.

The Web

1947

The Ride to Hangman's Tree poster
4.9

Three young outlaws try to stay together and keep one step ahead of the law.

The Ride to Hangman's Tree

1967

Sing Your Way Home poster
5.6

A war journalist escorts a spirited teen band back to NYC post-WWII, turning the journey into a musical comedy filled with memorable performances.

Sing Your Way Home

1945

River Lady poster
5.8

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.

River Lady

1948

The Best Things in Life Are Free poster
5.7

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.

The Best Things in Life Are Free

1956

Cry Danger poster
6.7

After serving five years of a life sentence, Rocky Mulloy hopes to clear his friend who's still in prison for the same crime.

Cry Danger

1951

Convicted poster
6.2

A prison warden fights to prove one of his inmates was wrongly convicted.

Convicted

1950

Larceny poster
5.9

Rick Mason is the no-good lowdown rat who tries to capitalize on postwar patriotism and grief. He finagles a war widow into giving up her savings for a nonexistent memorial. When Mason falls in love with the widow he has pangs of conscience, but he reckons without his con-artist boss, who tends to bolster his arguments with muscle and bullets.

Larceny

1948

Split Second poster
6.4

Escaped convicts hold hostages in a ghost town targeted for a nuclear bomb test.

Split Second

1953

Sidekicks poster
6.5

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.

Sidekicks

1974

Something in the Wind poster
7.0

A grandson of a recently deceased millionaire mistakes a beautiful female disc jockey for her aunt, who once dated the grandfather.

Something in the Wind

1947

The Last Time I Saw Archie poster
6.0

Two Air Force friends have fun during their enlistment.

The Last Time I Saw Archie

1961

Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone poster
7.0

Harriet O'Malley tries to solve a murder aboard a train en route to New York.

Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone

1950

Kate Bliss and the Ticker Tape Kid poster
7.0

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.

Kate Bliss and the Ticker Tape Kid

1978

Mobile Two poster
7.0

A TV reporter whose career was ruined by his drinking gets another chance when he is hired by a TV news program.

Mobile Two

1975

Imitation General poster
6.6

An officer poses as a general after the death of his commanding officer and inspires his troops to victory.

Imitation General

1958

Seven Days' Leave poster
7.3

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.

Seven Days' Leave

1942