Lawsuit
Shortly after the film aired, Philip Morris sued Thames Television, successfully obtaining a court order to prevent the film from being shown until its suit could be heard and preventing the filmmakers from publicly discussing the film. Philip Morris' suit accused Thames of both deception and breach of copyright, stating the firm was "sandbagged and double-crossed" into allowing Marlboro commercials to be used in the film, as they thought the film would depict cigarettes in a more favourable manner. Both Mother Jones magazine and The Glasgow Herald doubted this claim, since Peter Taylor had previously made three films for television which portrayed cigarette use in a negative manner.[1][2] Philip Morris also spent "considerable money" in an attempt to prove the six individuals in the film were not genuine cowboys.[1]
"'They sent a couple of lawyers from Kansas City to see me. They just showed up on my doorstep [...] They wanted to prove that maybe other things than cigarettes had caused my emphysema. They were very sly in their questions. [...] They wanted to know how long I had been in the cattle business, was it my vocation or avocation? I've had this ranch 20 years, but they tried to make a big thing of the fact that some of that time I was also teaching school.'"
Palmer Williams, then senior producer for 60 Minutes in the US, had expressed interest in airing part of the documentary, and the American Cancer Society had plans to use the film in their anti-smoking campaigns. The court order, however, prevented Thames from selling them the film.[1]
Philip Morris stated they would settle out of court, if Thames returned all the footage of the commercials and Phillip Morris employees, thereby effectively destroying the majority of the film.[1] Although Thames' chances of winning the lawsuit were described as good,[1] the filmmakers did not mount a lawsuit to recover the film, as a defence was estimated to cost £100,000, far greater than the amount of money the company could make by recovering and selling the film.[2] Thames eventually settled out of court, signing a confidential agreement that stated they would destroy all their copies of the film.[2] In January 1979, the original film was reported to be sealed in a London court vault.[1]
