A Gunsmoke Actor Starred In Steven Spielberg’s Forgotten First Movie

It’s a well-known fact that, in life, things are not always what they seem, and sometimes that which seems unassuming can contain a surprisingly deep well of power and resilience. There isn’t a better way to sum up director Steven Spielberg’s early works, especially the TV movie “Duel,” its plot, and its star, Dennis Weaver. In 1971, when “Duel” was released, Weaver was still best known for his recurring role on the long-running Western series “Gunsmoke.” Meanwhile, Spielberg was only barely known, having gained a bit of a reputation as the protege of then-Universal president Sidney “Sid” Sheinberg, after the precocious young Spielberg had directed a short film that impressed Sheinberg, 1968’s “Amblin'” (a film which Spielberg would later homage by naming his production company after it). On the strength of that short, Spielberg was given the opportunity to become part of MCA/Universal’s burgeoning television division, directing episodes of several popular series for the company that included “Night Gallery,” “Marcus Welby, M.D.,” and “Columbo.”

Though he was given enough freedom to bring some creative flourishes to these for-hire gigs, Spielberg the cinephile was desperate to make his first feature-length film. He finally found a perfect project to bridge the gap between television and features when his secretary, Nona Tyson, informed him that a script by genre luminary Richard Matheson had recently been acquired by “ABC Movie of the Week” producer George Eckstein entitled “Duel.” Based on Matheson’s own short story that had been first published in Playboy magazine in March of 1971, “Duel” concerns a lone man driving to an appointment through barren California desert highways who happens to encounter a tanker truck that inexplicably begins to torment and attack him. Upon reading the script, Spielberg instantly knew he could use the project as a calling card for his innate ability to use the camera to build suspense, and had only one choice for who would play the leading role: Dennis Weaver. Together, the two would make one of the best debut films ever made, one that still feels overlooked only due to the fact that it was released on television first.

The ABC folks were probably happy when Spielberg chose Weaver to be his lead for “Duel” based on the actor’s popularity from his years on “Gunsmoke.” On that show, the actor portrayed Chester Goode, and the character was essentially the perpetual Everyman sidekick to the macho hero, Marshall Matt Dillon (played by James Arness). Weaver excelled at playing meek Everymen throughout his career, however. Chester was simply the most well-known and readily available example of this archetype and Weaver’s prowess with it.

The performance that made Spielberg leap at casting Weaver wasn’t Chester from “Gunsmoke” (which was the point of reference that Eckstein and ABC liked) but rather Weaver’s turn as a hotel Night Manager in Orson Welles’ 1958 noir “Touch of Evil.” According to an interview found on the home media special features for “Duel,” Spielberg spoke about how he was far more admiring of Weaver’s character actor roles, particularly the Night Manager:

“I was a big fan of his from that one film. He reached a level of anxiety and panic in ‘Touch of Evil,’ and paranoia, that I envisioned David Mann, the character he was playing in ‘Duel,’ arriving at in the last act of the story. That’s where I wanted him to get to, was that character he played in ‘Touch of Evil.’ And so when Dennis Weaver said yes, that was like one of the happiest days of my life.”

Spielberg’s vision of David Mann and Weaver in that role perfectly encapsulates his genius when it comes to approaching “Duel” altogether. This wasn’t merely to be a surface-level exercise in tension with an innocent man being chased through the desert, but rather a more primal, elemental, horrifying battle of wills, one which leaves Mann as drained and twisted as it does the evil tanker truck by the finale.

Pinpointing the exact work where a director’s filmography begins is tricky, if only because it’s very rare for a filmmaker to jump directly into making their first feature. The majority of filmmakers get what amounts to a sort of cinematic rolling start: either they make one or several short films, or they start in television, or they gain experience through years of commercials and/or music videos, or some combination of all of the above before they get the chance at a proper full-length feature. Most filmographies tend to overlook a TV movie as a proper feature debut, and in 2025 terms this is a glaring oversight, particularly as film and television production have now reached a flattening point where they resemble each other very closely. This wasn’t necessarily the case, however, in a pre-“prestige TV” era. Television, unlike film, was generally considered to be a more disposable medium, and that’s why television (including TV movies) was considered not to be a true director’s showcase.

However, while Spielberg’s first expressly made-for-cinemas feature would be 1974’s “The Sugarland Express,” “Duel” earns its spot as his very first movie for two important reasons. One is that Spielberg insisted on bringing a maximum of creativity and production value to the film, and insisted on shooting the movie completely on location even though the budget was small and the shoot time allotted was just 13 days. Even though the young director indeed needed three additional days to complete principal photography, he so impressed the crew and producers by his efforts to make “Duel” all that it could be (as opposed to lazily shooting it via a combination of plate photography and studio-based rear projection) that they didn’t shut him down.

The other reason “Duel” deserves credit as Spielberg’s first movie is that, at least in Europe, Australia, and some areas of the US, it technically is. The success of the 74-minute TV movie broadcast version granted Spielberg another two days of shooting to expand the film to 90 minutes, and that version was released in theaters in the aforementioned territories. It’s also the version that has endured on home media ever since (though the latest 4K UHD release includes the notably different and shorter broadcast cut as an extra). That’s only fitting, because in every way, from the tone to the innovative camerawork and sound design to Weaver’s character being the first in a long line of Spielberg’s absentee father figures, “Duel” is where Spielberg the movie maker begins.