The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw hours of Westerns per week, and Walsh felt that a spoof of the genre would be a good choice for the studio, especially with the new CinemaScope process to properly display the desolate background of a lawless town in the American West. Fox decided to make the film and decided to give Walsh majority of the control over the movie's production. The studio still wanted Clifton Webb to play Jonathan Tibbs, the lead character, but Walsh preferred British actor Kenneth More. Moore had become popular in films such as "Genevieve" (1953) and "The Admirable Crichton" (1957), and Walsh felt he
James Crichton collection "The Haunted House". The "Admirable Crichton" was mentioned as an exemplar in W. M. Thackeray's "Vanity Fair" (1847) and referenced in chapter 3 of Anthony Trollope's "The Prime Minister" (1876). James Crichton's sobriquet was later employed by fellow Scot Sir James Barrie as the title of his 1902 satirical play, "The Admirable Crichton", about a butler whose "savoir-faire" far exceeds that of his aristocratic employers. A memorial to Crichton can be found in the church of St. Bride's in Sanquhar and in the church of San Simone in Mantua. He is also the namesake of the James Crichton Society