The plot for "Cat Ballou" evolves around a young woman coming back to her homestead only to find her father's farm terrorized by local gunmen. She hires the legendary Kid Shelleen to defend the farm but soon realizes that he's a washout, more interested in getting drunk. The film went through a series of screenwriters from its inception in 1956, starting with Roy Chanselor who adapted his own novel, then William Bowers, William Ludwig, Burt Kennedy, Walter Newman, Mitchell Lindemann, Frank Pierson, and finally Walter Bernstein, who agreed to write the script "to Hecht's satisfaction". That no time limit clause in his contract caused him to work for two years until Hecht said, okay, that's it. Bernstein said he would never agree to such a contract clause again.