The Sons of Katie Elder
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40 free The Sons of Katie Elder trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Sons of Katie Elder is one of John Wayne's best-loved 1960s westerns. Four estranged brothers ride home to Texas, find the family ranch in another man's hands, and start asking questions the town would rather leave alone. Wayne made it straight after the most serious health scare of his life, with Dean Martin at his side. This quiz covers the whole picture: the plot and its showdowns, the Elder brothers and the men who want them gone, the supporting cast of future stars, the long road from first script to finished film, the Mexican locations, the music, and the real events and the modern remake tied to it. It is written for western fans and John Wayne completists, but the opening questions are friendly to anyone who has caught the film once on a Sunday afternoon. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Sons of Katie Elder was delayed for months after John Wayne was diagnosed with which illness?
Lung cancer
Lung cancer cost Wayne his left lung in 1964, yet when the cameras finally rolled in January he insisted on doing some of his own stunts.
Q 02Which future Easy Rider director plays Dave Hastings, the villain's son, in The Sons of Katie Elder?
Dennis Hopper
Dennis Hopper said John Wayne hired him as the son-in-law of Wayne's friend Margaret Sullavan, a break that restarted his stalled film career.
Q 03Which country star recorded a title song for The Sons of Katie Elder that was never used in the film?
Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash's single was left out of the picture but placed on the soundtrack LP, and it still climbed into the country top ten in 1965.
Q 04Which actor led Four Brothers, the 2005 Detroit-set action film loosely based on The Sons of Katie Elder?
Mark Wahlberg
Mark Wahlberg heads a quartet of adopted sons out for revenge, a story director John Singleton moved from the Old West to modern Michigan.
Q 05Big Nose Kate, who also went by Kate Elder, was the longtime companion of which Old West figure?
Doc Holliday
Doc Holliday's partner lived until 1940, far too late to be the Katie Elder of the film, whose story unfolds in 1898.
Q 06Before The Sons of Katie Elder, John Wayne and Dean Martin co-starred in which 1959 Howard Hawks western?
Rio Bravo
Rio Bravo gave Martin one of his first serious parts after his split from comedy partner Jerry Lewis; six years later the pair were cast as siblings.
Q 07Which 1969 western reunited John Wayne with the Katie Elder director and won Wayne his only Oscar?
True Grit
True Grit cast Wayne as Marshal Rooster Cogburn four years later, and three of his Katie Elder castmates turned up in supporting roles.
Q 08The son of which Mexican revolutionary worked as a stunt double on The Sons of Katie Elder?
Pancho Villa
Pancho Villa's son Jose doubled for one of the screen brothers during the shoot in Mexico, where the production hired more than a hundred local workers.
Q 09In The Sons of Katie Elder, what occasion brings the four Elder sons back to Clearwater, Texas?
Their mother's funeral
Their mother's funeral reunites the brothers in 1898, each regretting that he never lived up to Katie's high hopes for him.
Q 10Which future Oscar winner for Cool Hand Luke plays the hired gun Curley in The Sons of Katie Elder?
George Kennedy
George Kennedy also joined John Wayne in the war film In Harm's Way before winning his Academy Award as the chain-gang convict Dragline.
Q 11In The Sons of Katie Elder, what trade has made John Wayne's character, John Elder, notorious?
Gunslinger
Gunslinger John is so feared that Clearwater's new deputy treats his homecoming as trouble, while youngest brother Bud longs to copy him.
Q 12How does Tom Elder, the brother played by Dean Martin in The Sons of Katie Elder, make his living?
As a gambler
As a gambler, Tom supplies the film's lighter moments; Variety noted that Martin played the part with a little more humor than the others.
Q 13How does Morgan Hastings claim he came to own the Elder family ranch in The Sons of Katie Elder?
Won it at cards
Q 21Which actress, who married producer Hal B. Wallis a year later, plays Mary Gordon in The Sons of Katie Elder?
Martha Hyer
Martha Hyer, an Oscar nominee for Some Came Running, took the female lead and stayed married to the film's producer until his death in 1986.
Q 22Which Police Woman co-star plays Matt, the brother killed in the bridge ambush, in The Sons of Katie Elder?
Earl Holliman
Earl Holliman had already won a Golden Globe for The Rainmaker, a part he landed ahead of Elvis Presley.
Q 23Which Disney star of Old Yeller lost the role of Bud Elder in The Sons of Katie Elder after an arrest?
Tommy Kirk
Tommy Kirk was arrested at a party where marijuana was being used and fired from the production, so the part of the youngest brother was recast.
Won it at cards is his story, but Pa Elder was shot in the back that same night by an unknown killer, so the brothers smell a swindle.
Q 14What does hired gun Curley plant under a bridge to ambush the Elder brothers in The Sons of Katie Elder?
Dynamite
Dynamite turns the prisoner escort into a death trap: the blast kills one brother with a flying splinter and badly wounds the youngest.
Q 15In The Sons of Katie Elder, whose murder does Morgan Hastings pin on the Elder brothers?
The sheriff
The sheriff, kindly Billy Wilson, is shot by Hastings for asking pointed questions and dies before he can name his killer, so a lynch mob gathers.
Q 16To which Texas city does the judge order the Elder brothers moved for their safety in The Sons of Katie Elder?
Laredo
Laredo is never reached: the escort is packed with Hastings men, and the journey ends in an ambush at a bridge.
Q 17The Sons of Katie Elder closes on which of Katie's belongings, set moving by a brush from John?
Her rocking chair
Her rocking chair sways back and forth as the film ends, a quiet sign that her boys finally did some good.
Q 18Who shoots Dave Hastings shortly before his dying confession clears the Elders in The Sons of Katie Elder?
His own father
His own father fires the shot, but Dave lives long enough to confess Morgan's crimes in front of John and the judge.
Q 19An argument over what purchase in Katie's memory ends in a brawl among her sons in The Sons of Katie Elder?
A marble monument
A marble monument sets the brothers swinging at each other, and the New York Times review singled out their tombstone squabble as wonderfully funny.
Q 20How does John Elder finally kill Morgan Hastings at the climax of The Sons of Katie Elder?
Blows up his shop
Blows up his shop: after a gun battle, John fires into a cask of gunpowder and the whole building goes up with Hastings inside.
Q 24Which Shane star was set to lead The Sons of Katie Elder in 1955 before buying out his studio contract?
Alan Ladd
Alan Ladd paid a six-figure sum to walk away, and the project then sat on the shelf for nearly a decade before the cameras rolled.
Q 25Which veteran director of Niagara and North to Alaska made The Sons of Katie Elder with John Wayne?
Henry Hathaway
Henry Hathaway bounced back with it: his previous John Wayne picture, Circus World, had been a box-office disappointment.
Q 26Which composer of The Magnificent Seven theme wrote the score for The Sons of Katie Elder?
Elmer Bernstein
Elmer Bernstein also wrote the music for the title song, with words by Ernie Sheldon, though that number was left off the film itself.
Q 27Which Mexican state, a favourite of John Wayne, hosted outdoor filming for The Sons of Katie Elder?
Durango
Durango drew Wayne back again and again: between 1965 and 1973 he worked on seven films there.
Q 28Which essayist visited the set of The Sons of Katie Elder and wrote the profile John Wayne: A Love Song?
Joan Didion
Joan Didion's profile ran in The Saturday Evening Post in 1965 and was later collected in Slouching Towards Bethlehem.
Q 29The Sons of Katie Elder was loosely inspired by the 1888 ordeal of which real family of five brothers?
The Marlows
The Marlows fought off an ambush while shackled together as prisoners; two were killed there, a third was poisoned in hiding, and the two survivors were later acquitted.
Q 30Which Hollywood studio, where producer Hal B. Wallis had his deal, released The Sons of Katie Elder?
Paramount
Paramount first bought the story in 1955 and spent ten years on scripts, stars and delays before it finally reached the screen.