Seven Sanurai

I've been told (I don't know for a fact) that Kurosawa made "The Seven Samurai" from the plot of a poor American western. I also forgot which western.

There is a story here in the LSF called "The Maiden" where the heroine gathers together Seven fearsome companions to 'rid the land of egregious evil'. Can't quite recall who the author was (cough cough).

Seems unlikely. According to AK's chief screenwriter on SS, Shinobu Hashimoto, in his memoir 'Compound Cinematics: Akira Kurosawa and I', the screenplay started as a not too brilliant-sounding outline called The Lives of Japanese Swordsmen, drawing on a classic 19th-century book on the subject.

But of course Kurosawa always readily admitted he was strongly influenced by the films of John Ford.