The fairly straightforward love/betrayal/sacrifice theme of the Noyes poem is expanded to fill out the demands of an 82-minute-long film. The Highwayman himself is an aristocrat who leads a party of associates to hold up the well-to-do and distribute their takings to the needy. This campaign is broadened when they discover that innocents are being kidnapped and sold into slavery in the colonies. The finale however follows the poem more closely as the Highwayman is betrayed to the authorities, soldiers march to set an ambush, his lover Bess sacrifices herself to give warning and the hero is shot down on the highway as he gallops to take revenge.
The film was based on a poem by Alfred Noyes which had been written in 1906. Film rights were owned by James Burkett who in 1946 sold them to Monogram Pictures. Monogram announced that Noyes would collaborate on the script with Jack De Witt and Renautt Duncan and the budget was to be a million dollars. James Burkett would still produce. Noyes said the poem would be the last act, and that there would be a parallel storyline set in the present day about a woman who works at the tavern and has problems with her love life. Noyes wanted to do this to keep the tragic ending of the poem but also have a happy ending in the present day. Noyes arrived in Hollywood in April 1947 to inspect the script. In July the film was officially put on the schedule for Monogram then also known as Allied Artists. Burkett went on to buy the film rights to several other Noyes titles: Midnight Express, The Walking Shadows, Beyond the Desert, River of Stars and The Last Voyage. Filming was delayed. In April 1950 Allied announced they would likely film in June with Florence Marley and Rory Calhoun starring. In July 1950Louis Hayward said he would star in Dick Turpin's Ride based on the poem and a script by Robert Libot and Frank Burt with Harry Joe Brown to produce. Filming was to start in September. Filming continued to be pushed back. In January 1951 Allied said Hal Chester and Bernard Burton would produce and Charles Coburn star from a script by Henry Blankfort; filming would start on February 19 under the direction of Lesley Selander at the Motion Picture Center. Wanda Hendrix then joined the cast. Philip Friend's casting was announced shortly before rehearsals and filming started. Noyes wrote in his autobiography that he was pleasantly surprised by "the fact that in this picture, produced in Hollywood, the poem itself is used and followed with the most artistic care". Released by Allied Artists, which acquired the rights to Noyes' poem, the film was released in the same year as Columbia Pictures' Dick Turpin's Ride/The Lady and the Bandit, also based on a poem by Noyes. Portions of the film were shot at Corriganvillemovie ranch.
Reception
The Los Angeles Times called it "competent but undistinguished."
