The Cimarron Kid is a 1952 American western film directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Audie Murphy, Beverly Tyler and Yvette Duguay.^[2] It was produced and distributed by Universal Pictures.

Bill Doolin (Audie Murphy) is released from jail and is going home on the train when it is held up by his boyhood friends, the Dalton Gang. Doolin finds himself accused of helping the crime and winds up an outlaw.

• Audie Murphy as Bill Doolin / the Cimarron Kid
• Beverly Tyler as Carrie Roberts
• James Best as Bitter Creek Dalton
• Yvette Duguay as Rose (as Yvette Dugay)
• John Hudson as Dynamite Dick Dalton
• Hugh O'Brian as Red Buck
• Roy Roberts as Pat Roberts
• David Bauer as Sam Swanson (as David Wolfe)
• Noah Beery Jr. as Bob Dalton
• Leif Erickson as Marshal John Sutton
• John Hubbard as George Weber
• Frank Silvera as Stacey Marshall

The film was based on a story by Louis Stevens. It was assigned to producer Ted Richmond at Universal for Audie Murphy in April 1951.^[3]

It was the first Western from Budd Boetticher, who later became famous for his work in the genre.^[4] “I became a Western director because they thought I looked like one and they thought I rode better than anyone else," said Boetticher later. "And I didn’t know anything about the West.” It was also the director's first film in color and his first under a long term contract with Universal Pictures.^[5]

In the original script, Murphy's character died at the end of the movie, but the studio decided to change it to reflect the actor's rising popularity.^[6]

The railroad scenes were filmed on the Sierra Railroad in Tuolumne County, California.^[7]

• List of American films of 1952