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The Big Sky (1952) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
7.1/10   1,194 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 2% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Writers:
A.B. Guthrie Jr. (novel)
Dudley Nichols (screenplay)
Contact:
View company contact information for The Big Sky on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
19 August 1952 (USA) more
Genre:
Tagline:
Theirs the great adventure...
Plot:
Jim Deakins is a frontiersman and Indian trader who is making a perilous journey with a group of other... more | add synopsis
Awards:
Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 nomination more
User Comments:
All That's Missing is Color more (31 total)

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Kirk Douglas ... Jim Deakins
Dewey Martin ... Boone Caudill
Elizabeth Threatt ... Teal Eye (Blackfoot princess)
Arthur Hunnicutt ... Zeb Calloway / Narrator
Buddy Baer ... Romaine
Steven Geray ... 'Frenchy' Jourdonnais (riverboat captain)
Henri Letondal ... La Badie

Hank Worden ... Poordevil
Jim Davis ... Streak
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Additional Details

Runtime:
140 min | 122 min (edited version)
Country:
Language:
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (RCA Sound System)

Fun Stuff

Goofs:
Anachronisms: Story takes place in 1832. Automobiles are visible during prologue. more
Quotes:
[while Jim was unconscious, Zeb and Boone amputated Jim's mangled finger]
Jim Deakins: Who's got it?
Boone Cardell: Got what?
Jim Deakins: My finger! What's a man going to do without his finger?
Zeb Calloway: What do you want your finger for?
Jim Deakins: Zeb Calloway, didn't you tell me an injun can't go to heaven unless he's whole? Didn't ya?
Zeb Calloway: That's right, I did.
Boone Cardell: You sure did.
Jim Deakins: That's what I heard. It sounds right, too, don't it?
Zeb Calloway: Sounds right.
[...]
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Ghosts of Mars (2001) more
Soundtrack:
Brandy Leave Me Alone more

FAQ

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8 out of 8 people found the following comment useful.
All That's Missing is Color, 6 August 2007
9/10
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

One of my favorite Kirk Douglas films is The Big Sky where he plays mountain man/trapper Jim Deakins. It's a great part for Douglas with his incredible charm and quick burn when someone does him wrong.

The Big Sky was RKO Pictures big production for 1952. I'd like to say that Howard Hughes spared no expense in making this film, shooting a good deal of it in the Grand Tetons, the actual location for the adventures of many fur trappers. But for the life of me I don't understand why Hughes and RKO after doing that, didn't spring for color.

Possibly because director Howard Hawks wanted black and white. His last epic film Red River had done well in black and white. Still I really think something was missed. RKO did use color on films with a lot less budget.

There's a lot of similarity between The Big Sky and Red River. Both films involve a group of men on an epic journey into the unknown for business reasons. In Red River, John Wayne has to get that huge herd to market and has to use a trail few have used. In The Big Sky a group of independent trappers basically want to land a nice fur contract with the Blackfeet Indians where few whites have gone up the Missouri River. Going against them is a fur trading consortium kind of like the one John Jacob Astor put together.

The trappers are mostly French Canadian Metis headed by Steven Geray, but also along is Arthur Hunnicutt who speaks the Indian language. Their ace in the hole is Elizabeth Threatt, a Blackfoot princess the trappers have rescued and are bringing back to her people in the hopes that her old man will be grateful. Hunnicutt is also the narrator of the film.

Douglas and Dewey Martin join up with the group in St. Louis and the trappers have the usual adventures as they take the flatboat up into the Missouri River country. The scenes showing journey upriver are nicely photographed.

Two others in the cast merit attention. Hank Worden does a nice job as a lost Blackfoot Indian who the trappers pick up. He may not be playing with a full deck, but he does come in handy. Jim Davis is one lean and mean villain as the company troubleshooter who wants to keep the independents out.

Arthur Hunnicutt got an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role, The Big Sky proved to be his career film. Unfortunately he lost to Anthony Quinn for Viva Zapata. Still Hunnicutt's folksy charm was always something to look forward to in any film he was ever in.

The Big Sky is one of the best films ever done about the mountain man era of the American frontier. If they'd only spent for color.

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Underrated Western! matooriyan
DVD for The Big Sky? danmartin1979
Is the long version shown by TCM the original version? danielj_old999
dewey martin erik_le67
when, WHEN, **WHEN** will we get this film on DVD???? ben-thayer
what about the bad guys? sandymetz
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