Across the Wide Missouri (1951)

Director:

William A. Wellman

Writers:

Talbot Jennings (story) and
Frank Cavett (story) ...

Release Date:

23 October 1951 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Western

Plot:

In the 1830's beaver trapper Flint Mitchell and other white men hunt and trap in the then unnamed territories of Montana and Idaho...

Plot Keywords:

Mountain Man | Missouri River | Beaver | Native American Attack | Native American

Cast

Clark Gable	...	Flint Mitchell
Ricardo Montalban	...	Ironshirt (Blackfoot war chief)
John Hodiak	...	Brecan
Adolphe Menjou	...	Pierre (French trapper)
J. Carrol Naish	...	Looking Glass (Nez Perce chief)
Jack Holt	...	Bear Ghost (Blackfoot medicine man)
Alan Napier	...	Capt. Humberstone Lyon
George Chandler	...	Gowie (Capt. Lyon's assistant)
Richard Anderson	...	Dick
María Elena Marqués	...	Kamiah (Blackfoot princess [Mitchell's wife])

Runtime:

78 min | Argentina:82 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (certificate #14912)

Filming Locations:

Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, Durango, Colorado, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Most of the "Native Americans" in this movie are all portrayed by Hispanic or Caucasian actors, because there was a noticeable lack of Native American actors at MGM at the time this movie was made.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the horse with Gable’s son runs away. the child is originally on the right side of the horse. The succeeding shot shows him on the left side of the horse. Later shots show him back on the right side.

Quotes:

Narrator: My father told me that for the first time, he saw these Indians as he had never seen them before - as people with homes and traditions and ways of their own. Suddenly they were no longer savages. They were people who laughed and loved and dreamed.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Story (1951)

Soundtrack:

Across The Wide Missouri

Missed It By THAT much!!

They were so close to having a good film here, but it is another case of a poor script destroying the quality work of all involved. Gable looks great...tan, fit, and masculine as hell. Speaking of masculine, Ricardo Montalban is the bare-chested Native American antagonist...this man has an over-powering charisma that makes it impossible to take your eyes off him. And another special mention must be made: Adolphe Menjou...he was absolutely fantastic as Gable's friend and translator. Truth be told, the whole cast is really wonderful, but as usual, the script gives them hokey garbage to utter to one another. And not just in English! The producers went to the trouble of having much of the script in French and various Native American languages, yet the script was dopey in all those languages. The storyline had great potential, but it wasn't realized well.

The best part of the movie? The scenery. It was, by far, the most unbelievably gorgeous scenery ever put on film. Yes, there have been myriad other films with beautiful scenery, but they had beautiful SHOTS, whereas this movie has the scenery all the way through, behind every actor, in nearly every scene, and it is breathtaking. If this movie doesn't make you want to throw on a backpack and hiking boots and plan a trip to Colorado, then you need to make an appointment with a doctor...either an eye doctor, a psychiatrist, or both.

There are a few nice moments throughout, but overall the film is pretty mediocre. The actors all look fantastic, and do the best with the script they've been given, but what speaks the loudest and makes the biggest impression is the scenery. They had all the parts, but couldn't make the whole...as they said on "Get Smart": "Missed it by THAT much!!"