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
Charles Crichton better directors than I. But Harold Hecht, the credited producer, had assured me that there would be no interference from Lancaster. This did not prove to be the case." Crichton was also planning another film project with Sammy Davis, Jr., but it never came to fruition due to the death of a producer involved with it. "The Third Secret" (1964) and "He Who Rides a Tiger" (1965), the last two films Crichton directed during the 1960s, were not successful. The latter film was the last film he directed in 23 years. Crichton moved to directing television shows, then corporate videos.