User Reviews

One of the most frustrating things in cinema is that of the interfering studio. Too many films, since cinema became the medium so massively loved by so many, have fallen victim to this most poisonous fly in the cinematic ointment. One such film to suffer greatly is the William A. Welman directed Western, Across The Wide Missouri. All the elements were in place, a fine story written by Talbot Jennings & Frank Cavett, which is worked from Bernard DeVoto's historical study of the American fur trade in the 1830s. Wellman (The Call Of The Wild/Beau Geste/Battleground) at the helm, Hollywood's golden boy Clark Gable in the lead, and a sumptuous location shoot around the San Juan Mountains to be photographed by William Mellor. With all the talk coming out of MGM that they wanted to make an "epic" picture, hopes were high for the early 1950s to have a Western classic on its hands. Enter studio boss Dore Schary who promptly cut the piece to ribbons. So much so that the film, where once it was epic, is now a choppy and episodic 78 minute experience. With a narration by Howard Keel tacked on by Schary just so we can try to make sense of what is (has) gone on. Wellman was rightly miffed and tried to get his name taken off the credits.

Amazingly, what remains is still a recommended piece of film for the discerning Western fan. The locations are just breath taking, expertly shot in Technicolor by Mellor, at times rugged and biting, at others simply looking like God's garden. This part of the world is the perfect back drop for the story as the white man's greed brings them into conflict with the Native Americans. The film also boasts an array of interesting characters, we got the Scots and the French represented alongside the usual suspects, while the tracking and fighting sequences are expertly filmed by the astute Wellman. It was a tough shoot all told as well. Ricardo Montalban {Blackfoot Indian Ironshirt} was involved in a horse riding accident, the consequence of which would severely affect him later in his life, while stunt man Fred Kennedy suffered a broken neck when his intentional fall from a horse did not go as planned. The horses too you can see really earned their oats, trekking up hill across sharp jagged rocks and ploughing through snow drifts, magnificent beasts they be. Joining Gable and Montalban in the cast are John Hodiak, James Whitmore, María Elena Marqués, Adolphe Menjou and Alan Napier. David Raskin provides a suitably at one with the atmosphere score. With Gable on form mixing with the high points that Schary left alone, Across The Wide Missouri is more than just a time filler. But the problems do exist and it's impossible not to be affected by the annoyance that comes with the old "what might have been" that gnaws away at the viewer at every other turn. 6/10

This film does a good job of portraying the story of the mountain men who trapped beaver in the Rocky Mountains and played a significant role in winning the West. Clark Gable is the star of this film. He plays a trapper who falls in love with a Blackfoot maiden (Maria Elena Marquez). He buys her from a Nez Perce chief hoping to use her to get into the good graces of her grandfather, a Blackfoot leader. Ultimately, he falls in love with her.

The romance between Gable and Marquez is the real story of this film. It is much more believable than the relationship between James Stewart and Debra Paget in "Broken Arrow". In the first place, the two of them can't talk to each other. Gable needs an interpreter to talk to his wife. The relationship compares to the forced marriage between Robert Redford and a Flathead girl in "Jeremiah Johnson". Gable's affection for his Blackfoot wife is obvious throughout the film.

The film paints a much kinder picture of Native American life than many Westerns. Like Dewey Martin's character in "The Big Sky" Gable returns in the end to the Blackfeet. He has learned to value Indian life and wants to raise his son with her mother's people.

The film portrays the real life capture of fur trapper John Colter by the Blackfeet. Captured by a young chief named Iron Shirt Gable must run for his life. The film should have taken more time with this exciting scene. It is far too short and not nearly as exciting as it should have been. I enjoyed Henry Fonda's run for his life in "Drums Along the Mohawk", but it was very poorly done here. Colter's successful escape from his Blackfeet captors deserves a better rendering.

This film is worth watching for the beautiful high mountain scenery and the romance between Gable and Marques. The soundtrack is not particularly original, giving us constant variation on the old standard "Shenandoah", but it is pleasant listening. Enjoy it.

This is a lyric Western about trappers , it's a homage to integration between human being and Nature , being inspired by the book by Bernard De Voton with screenplay by Talbot Jennings . The story of a tough trapper , titan of a woman and her love for dashing Indian girl . Created by a a great picture maker at incalculable cost with a superb cast of thousands in especially recreated old Rocky Mountains . Turbulent adventure set against the rich ,romantic tapestry of early Colorado state . Trapper Flint Mitchell (Clark Gable) and other mountain men from the Rendezvous join forces to enter virgin trapping territory but must contend with a resentful Blackfoot chief . Flint marries an Indian woman (Maria Elena Marques) so he can trap beaver pelts on her people's rich land . On the trip to the Indian territory however , he falls in in love with his bride .

This colorful film contains beautiful scenery , tempestuous Indian attacks , war , lawless raids , a love story , intrepid men and women ; at last , in all its wild , brave magnificence , the motion picture of valiant trappers . Deliberately paced , elegiac Western , including marvelous landscapes from Rocky Mountains . Interesting historical/drama/Western is slightly marred by the continuous use of narration provided by Howard Keel . This poetic film focuses the insertion of human being into nature . 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. When the original version of the finished film was submitted to MGM executives, they didn't like it. The film went through heavy editing, and a producer had the idea of tying together the surviving pieces by adding voice-over narration from Mitchell's grown up son, as if he is telling his father's life story. Howard Keel, who had just finished making Magnolia, was brought in for this purpose as voice in off . The changes led to director William A. Wellman effectively disowning the film. When asked about it in an interview, he said "I've not seen it, and I never will" . Gable gives a good acting as a rugged fur trapper who marries an Indian woman , Clark along with Maria Elena Marques form a memorable couple . Clark Gable personally chose William A. Wellman to direct because he admired ¨Battlegroud¨. Lively acting from support cast as Adolphe Menjou as a French tippler , J Carrol Naish as quirky Indian Chief , and John Hodiak , Alan Napier as two Scottish men . Furthermore, debut of Timothy Carey and final film of Jack Holt .Evocative cinematography shot with heavy Technicolor cameras by William Mellor , filmed on location in Durango, Colorado,La Plata Canyon, San Juan National Forest, Durango, Molas Lake, Silverton, Colorado,Ouray County, Haviland Dam, San Juan National Forest, Little Boyce Lake, San Juan National Forest,Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, Durango, Colorado . Sensitive as well as enjoyable musical score by David Raskin , including an agreeable leitmotif .

The motion picture was stunningly directed by William A Wellman , a veteran professional from silent cinema . Wellman has directed all kind of genres as Wartime : ¨Alas¨ , ¨Battleground¨ , ¨The story of GI Joe¨ , ¨Lafayette Escadrilla¨ , Drama : ¨Nothing sacred¨, ¨Blood Alley¨ , ¨Good my lady¨ , ¨Magic Town and the Oscarized ¨A Star is born¨ , his greatest success , Adventure : ¨Beau Geste¨ , Gangster movie : ¨Public enemy ¨, and Western : ¨Buffalo Bill¨ , ¨The Ox-Box incident¨ , ¨Westerward the woman¨ and this A¨cross the wide Missouri¨. rating : Above average , worthwhile watching .

Honesty seems the first quality of this Wellmann work:it uses no less than three different languages:English,Indian language and French:it's really great fun to hear the cast sing on Xmas day the Canadian "Alouette gentille alouette" en Français dans le texte...even if the words have nothing to do with Christ's birth.

The second strong point is scenery:the landscapes are breathtakingly beautiful and the color is splendid indeed.Mountains and forest are lovingly filmed .

A lot of people will probably note similarities with Delmer Daves's famous "Broken arrow" which was released the precedent year .It's almost the same ending.I would favor Daves's work over Wellmann's because his characters are more endearing , his story more absorbing and the relationship characters/nature more convincing.But "Across the wide Missouri" is worth watching :the story is told by Gable's son who appears as a baby in the movie and shortly as a child .One scene is particularly touching,even if we realize it only afterward:Gable and his Indian wife are kissing each other while the small child is watching.There are a lot of deaths in this often cruel story,but neither the White nor the Indians are demeaned.

"Across the Wide Missouri" was planned as a sprawling saga of early 19th Century Americana, so there are questions as to how and why it ended up in its present truncated 78 minute form, not much longer than a "B" picture. There shouldn't be any argument that director William A. 'Wild Bill' Wellman's original vision was grander in scope, even epic. Evidence of the cutting can be clearly seen in the cover of the DVD, which duplicates the original one sheet poster. Actor James Whitmore, a big favorite of Wellman's, is given co-star billing and is listed fourth overall in the cast behind MGM leading men Clark Gable, Ricardo Montalban, and John Hodiak and ahead of such venerable character actors as Adolphe Menjou, J. Carrol Naish, and Jack Holt.

Whitmore had starred in the director's previous film, "The Next Voice You Hear" in 1951 and had earned an Oscar nomination for his scene-stealing performance in Wellman's iconic 1949 WWII actioner "Battleground." In the released version Whitmore is not billed in the opening credits and does not appear in the 78 minute film until some 33 minutes into the movie. He cannot be spotted with the mountain men in the sizable "Rendezvous" sequence early in the picture and is not seen on the trek over the Rockies until they're halfway there when he suddenly appears out of nowhere on top of a snow-covered mountain. For the remainder of the film he has only a handful of unimportant lines, which makes one wonder why one of Hollywood's most respected character actors would be squandered in what is essentially a bit role. Among the many ironies associated with this film is that, according to studio records, his character's name is "Bit."

Wellman's MGM contract had concluded with the completion of "The Next Voice You Hear," but when Metro found themselves without a director for their scheduled epic, they asked Wellman to helm the film. 'Wild Bill' agreed on the condition that he be allowed to bring his family along with him on location - at the studio's expense, an offer he couldn't refuse when MGM agreed to his request. With three A-list stars, an exceptional supporting class of character actors, and breathtakingly beautiful locations, it should have been a blockbuster. It wasn't.

The blame, if any, can be laid at the feet of studio boss, Dore Schary, who undoubtedly panicked after attending a preview when he found that the audience that had cheered the opening credits "lost interest" about halfway through. Producer Sam Zimbalist, who wasn't involved with the picture, suggested drastic cuts to be bridged by an afterthought narration by Howard Keel. Although scripted by Talbot Jennings, one of the film's co-writers, the narration is leadenly heavy-handed and overly literal and drowns the director's visual subtleties. An embittered Wellman remarked, " They cut out all the action and put in a narration to fill the holes. This was a good, long picture the way I made it. I've never seen it and I never will." Ironically Wellman re-signed with MGM, and his next picture, "Westward the Women," covered some of the same territory as "Missouri," albeit more successfully.

An added irony is that the same Dore Schary, supposedly the most literate and tasteful of all studio heads in Golden Age Hollywoosd, was a serial offender. Only a few months earlier he butchered John Huston's brilliant adaptation of "The Red Badge of Courage" down to "B" picture length of a mere 69 minutes with bridging narration spoken by non-other than... James Whitmore!

One last sad irony... as I write this review, news that Judy Lewis, age 76, passed away today is on the Web. She was the secret love child of Clark Gable and Loretta Young, conceived during the filming of another Wellman Western epic, "The Call of the Wild" in 1935. Miss Young never acknowledged that Lewis was her biological daughter and claimed she was adopted. Lewis' memoir "Uncommon Knowledge" was published in 1995.

Realism and attention to detail highlight this otherwise routine tale of the opening of the west by mountain-men. Gable's performance is somewhat subdued in his portrayal of a trapper that takes on an Indian wife in hostile territory. The scenery is pretty and the story moves at a good clip with an exciting finale.

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!!"

This is one of Clark Gable's better films of the 1950s, though it never really got that much attention and many have unjustly written it off as "just another Western". However, if you watch it you'll find that the film has two major points that make it unique and a very beautiful film. First, the film is about the period BEFORE that shown in most Westerns. The typical Hollywood Western occurs between 1866-1880, though there are a few exceptions before and after. However, very few deal with life in the West circa 1829 when the only White men were fur trappers. Since I am a history teacher, I admire this about ACROSS THE WIDE MISSOURI. Second, the film humanizes the Native Americans much more than most films and there are no "black and white" groups in the film. Many of the Indians are quite decent but they also are not uniformly good either--and the same goes for the trappers. I particularly loved the relationship that developed between Clark Gable and his Indian bride. It did a lot to build sympathy for the characters and once again truly humanized both characters. The only real negative about this is that three of the key Indian roles are played by non-Indians (J. Carrol Naish, María Elena Marqués and Ricardo Montalban)--a standard practice in the time it was made.

While these two points make this a memorable film, it sure doesn't hurt that this film has some of the most vivid and beautiful scenery of any film of the 1950s. It's obvious that this wasn't filmed on some sound stage or filmed in the outskirts of Los Angeles! So overall, what's not to like about this film?! Excellent acting, a great script and a uniqueness make this a film worth seeking.

By the way, this film is highly reminiscent of the wonderful Robert Redford film, JEREMIAH JOHNSON--another film well worth your time.

I see that some commenters really panned this film. I, however, am in that nearly two-to-one majority who rates it in the upper half of the scale. Maybe it was the mood I was in when I watched it, but here is a western devoid of that frenetic gunplay. Subdued and restrained are good adjectives. Nice scenery. Perhaps there IS an unrealistic emphasis on good-timin'-it, but could it also be an attempt to balance out the rigors? (A balance which is necessary for some of us.) I actually found some of the humor kind of simplistically appealing, which, too, is how I regard the plot: Flint Mitchell thinks that his marrying a squaw will enhance his trapping efforts. Initially a union of convenience, the relationship eventually deepens and produces a son. When a white-man-caused death results in a Blackfoot leadership change, tension increases. The Mrs.-Mitchell-role, portrayed by a no-name (but quite capable) actress, is deserving of higher billing. In my opinion, this, among other alternatives, is likely to be the better selection.

Fur-trapper in 1829 Colorado marries a Blackfoot Indian chief's beautiful, headstrong daughter, but runs afoul of her people. Adaptation of historian Bernard DeVoto's book was a peculiar choice for both MGM and its resident star, Clark Gable. Gable was probably too old for such an athletic role, although he gazes at María Elena Marqués with convincing adoration and gives the proceedings some charismatic panache. Otherwise, the usual western-genre elements are firmly in place, including a "Skip to My Lou" refrain on the soundtrack and the old jest of men dancing 'round the campfire with other men when the females become scarce (of course this lively, joshing scene breaks out into a fight to show us in the audience that these guys are 'real men'). William A. Wellman directed, and he seems to have been saddled with setting the narrative in quasi-flashback, complete with a narration (by Howard Keel!) of Gable's grown son telling us the story in elemental terms. William Mellor's Technicolor cinematography and the Rocky Mountain locales are stunning--more so than the plot--and yet, after awhile the landscapes begin to resemble color portraits adopted for effect for our benefit. ** from ****

When one watches western films of the latter half of the 19th century, the settlement of the west was on a course that was nothing but bad for the American Indian. As good as some westerns are, always lingering in the back of any viewer's mind is the thought that no matter what the predicament of a given hero/heroine in any film is the fact that the might and power of the United States Cavalry will ultimately tip the balance towards the white man.

But the fur trappers of the early half of that century faced a far different situation. They were few and the Indians at that point outnumbered them. These people as typified by Clark Gable and the rest of the cast in Across the Wide Missouri were the really brave ones in our history. They wanted to trap their beaver and sell their pelts and the last thing they wanted was wholesale immigration of settlers. It took a lot of nerve to live in that lonely existence, days and weeks at a time where you couldn't count on a troop of soldiers to bail you out of trouble.

I'm a big old sucker for films about the earlier west and two good ones came out at this time, this one and the following year from RKO, The Big Sky. I give the nod to this one thought because it was done in color and on location.

Gable gets one of his best post World War II parts as the sturdy Flint Mitchell, mountain man who falls big time for Indian princess Maris Elena Marques. While grandfather Jack Holt approves of a white husband for his granddaughter, the match don't sit well at all with Ricardo Montalban his successor. The climatic duel between Gable and Montalban is staged very well indeed and quite thrilling.

Playing various fur trapper roles are Alan Napier, James Whitmore, John Hodiak and most of all Adolphe Menjou. Though one normally expects the debonair Mr. Menjou in tuxedo, he's really quite good as the French Canadian trapper and sidekick to Gable.

Maria Elena Marquess got her first of two chances in Hollywood and did well as the Indian princess. She was already a name in Mexican cinema and became an even bigger star down there due to this film with Clark Gable.

This film marked the farewell performance of Jack Holt who died soon after it was completed. His career spanned all the way back to the earliest years of Hollywood. He makes a very impressive chief of the Blackfeet.

Gable was a rugged outdoors-man in real life, he liked to fish and hunt and brought his fourth wife, Lady Sylvia Ashley on location. Unfortunately Lady Sylvia was not a big fan of the great outdoors and her experiences roughing it contributed to the Gables getting unhitched.

Director William Wellman kept things going at a good clip and though Across the Wide Missouri is slightly over 75 minutes for an A film, it's still a great item and rates being an A film for its cast and its production values.

"Across the Wide Missouri":

1951: The setting for 'Across the Wide Missouri' is the state of Montana, however the majority of the film was shot in the San Juan Mountains, and north of Durango, Colorado. The movie included Clark Gable in it's cast of characters, as well as Ricardo Montalban and Maria Elena Marques. In the movie, stunt man Fred Kennedy suffered a broken neck when his intentional fall from a horse did not go as smoothly as he had intended. The whole incident was caught on film and used in the movie. Thanks to http://www.communigate.co.uk/ne/filmguyernie/page8.phtml

Most Westerns are set during the period 1865-1890, the quarter-century immediately following the Civil War. The settlement of the Midwest during the first half of the 19th century has never been a popular subject, allegedly because the Hollywood-based studios did not want to send film crews so far from home. "Across the Wide Missouri" is one of the minority of Westerns set before 1850; like "The Mountain Men" and the more recent "The Revenant" it is set against the background of the fur trade in the Rocky Mountains during the 1820s and 1830s, long before white Americans began to settle the area.

There is a curious disconnect between the film we actually have and the film which seems to have been planned. Many features of the film are the sort of thing one would expect to find in a major epic- the spectacular Technicolor photography of the Rocky Mountain scenery shot entirely on location, the presence of a major star (no less a personage than Clark Gable, His Majesty the King of Hollywood), the grandiose musical score based upon the folksong "Oh Shenandoah". (The film's title is taken from a line in this song). Yet the film we actually have is far from being an epic. It is little more than an hour and a quarter long, B-movie length, although this was officially an A-movie, and tells a simple story about the romance between Flint Mitchell, a fur trapper, and Kamiah, an Indian princess from the Blackfoot tribe. (The story is narrated by their son).

At this period the Production Code officially forbade depictions of "miscegenation", but an exception was made for Westerns which were allowed to show romances between white men and Native American women. Such romances were common in the Old West, especially among fur trappers who worked in areas where there were few, if any, white women. The actresses involved, however, were not normally Native Americans themselves; Kamiah is played by the Mexican actress María Elena Marqués.

The director William Wellman does seem to have had the ambition to make a large-scale epic, but his footage was severely recut by the studio to produce something much more small-scale to what he had envisaged. Wellman, apparently, was not happy with the way in which his film had been treated and always refused to watch the finished product, saying that it was not his work.

We cannot, of course, know what Wellman's "director's cut" would have looked like, but the film that we actually have is not particularly interesting, with a rather dull story and a star not at his best. The most one can say about it is that it is a small film with a big one trying to get out. The Rocky Mountains have laboured and brought forth a little mouse of a movie. 5/10

This movie, for me, is just plain fun and it invokes a lot of memories at 68 years old. My grandfather, 1879-1966, used to speak the Chinook Trading Jargon. The Jargon was a trade language made up of English, French and Indian. It was primarily used on the west coast and as far east as Montana as a common language for trading etc. When I was a little boy my granddad and I used to talk back and forth in Chinook. What we hear in the movie is quite accurate, although they speak too fast for me to keep up with. Needless to say, that with the passage of time, the language has all but disappeared from everyday use. There are, however, people dedicated to keeping it alive and they sometimes have a yearly "rendezvous" where it is spoken and lessons are taught.

Thank you very one for your time. Klahowya Sikhs. (Goodbye friends).

This story about the rough and tumble fur trappers who traversed Indian lands to ply their trade stars Clark Gable, supported by a strong cast. With a voice over that was added in post-production to add more depth to this film, it fairly realistically portrays existence in the western territories before the invasion of white civilization.

The scenery is beautiful, with vistas that show winding rivers stretching to the horizon and majestic mountains towering over forests and plains. The natives and their society are portrayed with respect, though one scene shows a scalping. This was undoubtedly added to help delineate the Indians who were aligned with Iron Shirt, who is effectively the villain of the story.

Though Gable was not feeling or looking his best for this film, the story is charming enough to be enjoyable. It includes moments of humor and a love story that is unique and touching. I particularly enjoyed the use of language in this film--English, French and Indian tongues combined.

Gable still had other noteworthy films ahead of him when this film was released, including "Mogambo" (1953), "Teacher's Pet" (1958), and "The Misfits" (1961).

It's the 1830's. Flint Mitchell (Clark Gable) is a fur trapper in the wilderness who grew up with the Indians and mountain men who walked the Indian trails. Blackfoot maiden Kamiah takes a liking to him. Brecan is his old partner who has turned to living with the Indians. They both want Kamiah and she chooses Flint although Flint sees it more as a trading opportunity. Blackfoot prince Ironshirt (Ricardo Montalban) is unwilling to surrender the land to the white hunters.

I like that the Indian characters are fully fleshed out even if the times force them to be played by non-native actors. I actually like that Clark Gable is not a woke character. The only problem is the light tone. It's an old Hollywood film which isn't able to be gritty. The movie is a little short. It feels like the third act got cut back by half. There is a big-ish battle and a final confrontation. Nevertheless, it feels short. Otherwise, I am surprised at how good this is and that the Indian characters have actual agency.

The movie begins with much voice-over, a bad sign. Then it just slides downhill with silly and intelligence-insulting scenes involving trappers and Indians. But, it reaches new and impressive lows when all the merry mountain men square dance with each other in a high alpine meadow. Meanwhile, the happy-go-lucky Indians sit around watching them. It's a better scene than the dancing cowboys in "Blazing Saddles". There is a minor flaw in this comparison; "Across the Wide Missouri" is not a comedy.

Bernard DeVoto won a Pulitzer Prize for history in 1948 for his 1947 book, "Across the Wide Missouri." Some sources say that after MGM bought the film rights, the studio threw away everything except the title. That's hardly the case, because this film does a very good job of showing life in the early days of the American Northwest. DeVoto's book, and this film are mostly about the native Indians and the white trappers known as mountain men. The latter were a breed of early pioneers that flourished in the 19th century from about 1810 to the early 1880s.

The stage was set for all of this in 1803 when the U.S. acquired the Louisiana Territory from France. The 828,000 square miles doubled the size of the young nation. The purchase brought in all the lands west that drained into the Mississippi River. But most of the lands west of the Missouri River had not yet been explored. President Thomas Jefferson got Congress to approve an expedition to explore the Northwest to the Pacific Ocean.

After the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-1806, written accounts of it aroused great interest in the East. The mountain men became the first Americans of European descent to migrate to the region. They went first as trappers and explorers who made their living in the lucrative fur- trade. The mountain men peaked in numbers around 1840, at the time the largest U.S. migration began over the 2,200-mile Oregon Trail.

The mountain men helped open the emigrant trails. They explored and lived and dealt mostly at peace with the various Indian tribes. This movie shows all of this very well. MGM filmed the movie in Southwest Colorado, from Durango to Silverton. The spectacular scenery adds to the value and enjoyment of the film.

I am a history buff and during the years leading up to and through the 2004-2006 bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, I spent most of my summer vacations traveling and visiting sites along the Lewis and Clark route. One of my guides for these trips was "The Journals of Lewis and Clark," written by Bernard DeVoto in 1953. DeVoto and Lewis and Clark give excellent accounts of the Indians of the time. This movie covers two groups that are prominent in the journals – the Blackfeet and the Nez Perce.

I wonder how familiar the playwrights might have been with the journals. Their story of the young Indian maiden in the movie is similar to that of a real person with Lewis and Clark. Here, Kamiah is of the Blackfeet tribe. She was captured and raised by the Nez Perce. In the Lewis and Clark Expedition, a young Indian wife of a French Canadian trapper, Toussaint Charbonneau, became an invaluable guide across the Indian lands of the Northwest. She was Sacagawea, a Shoshone Indian from the Snake River country of Idaho. She had been captured by the Hidatsa and taken to their village along the Missouri River in what is now North Dakota. At age 13, she was sold to Charbonneau as a wife.

This movie has a large cast of first-rate actors. Clark Gable is excellent as Flint Mitchell. Adolphe Menjou excels as Pierre. Maria Elena Marques is dazzling as Kamiah. All the actors who played major Indian parts were very good. Ricardo Montalban plays Ironshirt, John Hodiak is Brecan, J. Carrol Naish is Looking Glass, and Jack Holt is Bear Ghost. The rest of the mountain men and the supporting cast of Indians add to the historical feel and enjoyment of the film.

There was an apparent controversy that arose over this film. From the various accounts I've read, it's not even clear what it was all about. The studio head at the time apparently chopped quite a lot out of the film. Enough, that director William Wellman disowned the movie and said he would never watch it. He alluded to the best action parts being taken out. Apparently, James Whitmore, who plays a mountain man, Old Bill, had much more of a part, and most of his film time was cut out. It would be nice to see a director's cut, which probably no longer exists.

But that aside, I think this is still a first-rate film. It has action, scenery and a beautiful story told about a very interesting time and place in America's history. From that standpoint alone, it is much more valuable than the two popular mountain men pictures that were made, "Jeremiah Johnson" (1972) and "The Mountain Men" (1980).

"Across the Wide Missouri" is a film that most should enjoy. It's an excellent snapshot of a pioneer period of the American West.

Clark Gable plays "Flint Mitchell", a fur trapper living out west on the edge of Blackfoot territory. After discovering that an Indian maiden named "Kamiah" (played Marie Elena Marques) is the granddaughter of Blackfoot chief "Bear Ghost" (Jack Holt), he decides to acquire her in a trade from the Nez Pierce chief, "Looking Glass" (J. Carrol Naish) who stole her from the Blackfoot and raised her as his own daughter. The only way this will happen though is if Flint Mitchell decides to marry her. So, since Blackfoot territory has an abundance of beaver, he decides to take her as his wife. Love between them eventually develops. Even so, the relationship between the white fur trappers and the Blackfoot remains somewhat hostile. As a result, a group of fur trappers decide to take a secret route into Blackfoot territory and set up a fort. Bear Ghost is delighted to see his granddaughter but another Blackfoot warrior named "Ironshirt" (Ricardo Montalban) has no intention of making peace. Trouble results and both sides suffer tragedy. Anyway, filmed in color in 1951, this picture does a decent job of capturing the cold (but beautiful) wilderness the fur trappers had to endure. And while the language barrier between Flint Mitchell and Kamiah was annoying at times, I suppose it added to the realism. Most of the acting was adequate but I thought Clark Gable stood out with an excellent performance. In short, this was a pretty good movie which was probably well-received in its time.

20 min into this thing I realized I had absolutely no idea of what was going on nor did I care that I was in such ignorance. Not a good sign. D plus. PS...When John Hodiak plays an Indian apparently his looks disappear along with his ethnicity.