Ten Who Dared (1960)

Major John Wesley Powell leads an expedition through the Grand Canyon to chart the Colorado River.

Director:

William Beaudine

Writers:

John Wesley Powell (journal) (as Major John Wesley Powell), Lawrence Edward Watkin

Stars:

Brian Keith, John Beal, James Drury

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Brian Keith	...	William 'Bill' Dunn
John Beal	...	Maj. John Wesley Powell
James Drury	...	Walter Powell
R.G. Armstrong	...	Oramel Howland
Ben Johnson	...	George Bradley
L.Q. Jones	...	Billy 'Missouri' Hawkins
Dan Sheridan	...	Jack Sumner
David Stollery	...	Andrew 'Andy' Hall
Stan Jones	...	Seneca Howland
David Frankham	...	Frank Goodman

Storyline

By 1869, most of the USA had already been mapped and charted with the exception of the Colorado River region. Therefore, the U.S. government sends geologist and ex-Union Army Major John Wesley Powell to map it. Major Powell, who's missing a hand since the Civil War, needs assistants but trustworthy skilled men are hard to find after the war. The Major has to accept any volunteer he can find and he assembles a team of nine men. The team departs from Green River, Wyoming, in four rowboats and is made up of men of different ages, backgrounds, personalities and motivations for joining up. In one rowboat there are two former army officers who fought on opposing sides during the Civil War. In another rowboat, one man is a recovering alcoholic and the other is a boozing Englishman who constantly taunts the abstinent. Second-in-command is Major Powell's brother, Walter, whose abrasive personality constantly offends the team. The Major excuses his brother's frequent violent outbursts by ...

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Plot Keywords:

canyon | chart | expedition | river | colorado river | 

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Taglines:

Fearless, reckless, adventurers who gambled their lives against a raging force of destruction !

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Genres:

Adventure | Family | Western

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 November 1960 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Colorado Experiment

Filming Locations:

Dead Horse Point State Park, Utah, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Walt Disney Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.75: 1

User Reviews

Exploring the Colorado River

Ten Who Dared is a purportedly factual account of the John Wesley Powell expedition of 1869 exploring the Colorado River and its tributaries. In the course of that trip Powell became if not the first white man to see the Grand Canyon, the first to plot its exact location on our globe.

Now how much license the Disney Studios took with the expedition is open to interpretation. I suspect there was some license taken to make it an interesting story for the juvenile audience it was primarily marketed for.

John Beal plays the one armed former major in the union army who was with its topographical corps and who spent the Civil War surveying and map making for the top Union brass. It's where he lost his right arm. James Drury plays his younger brother Walter who has his own set of issues regarding the late war where he was in Andersonville prison. He and former Confederate Ben Johnson have their conflict which is one of the subplots.

Brian Keith plays one of his patented frontier characters who leads a mutiny among the men who are not sure when or if they'll come to the end of the Colorado gorge. Keith is always interesting in any film and right about now he was in about every other Disney film out there, or at least every one that Fred MacMurray wasn't or so it seemed back when I was a lad.

Nice location cinematography is the most distinguishing feature of Ten Who Dared. I think more than a juvenile audience will appreciate this film.