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Across the Wide Missouri Overview:

Across the Wide Missouri (1951) was a Western - Adventure Film directed by William A. Wellman and produced by Robert Sisk.

SYNOPSIS

Native American relations with white settlers in early 19th century America provide the dramatic focus here. The time is 1829 and trapper Flint Mitchell heads into the wilderness in search of valuable beaver pelts. In order to get a foothold in the hostile Blackfoot Indian territory, Mitchell marries a Blackfoot squaw, and then finds himself truly in love. Accompanied by a band of intrepid trappers, the newlyweds press deep into the untamed land despite persistent aggression from its angry native inhabitants. Spectacular Rocky Mountain photography makes this one a visual treat.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

Across the Wide Missouri BlogHub Articles:

Across the Wide Missouri ( 1951 )

By The Metzinger Sisters on Sep 19, 2018 From Silver Scenes - A Blog for Classic Film Lovers

Bernard de Voto's book "Across the Wide Missouri" became a surprise best-seller in 1947, earning the Pulitzer Prize for History. The brass at MGM quickly purchased the rights to the book in order to use the title and then pondered, 'what are we going to do with this?' For, you see, "Across the Wide ... Read full article

Pic of the Day: “Across the Wide Missouri” revisited

By Marisa on Dec 1, 2015 From The Timothy Carey Experience

Our “Timothy in color” theme this week continues with another look at his first verifiable film role (the jury is still out regarding his supposed appearance in Billy Wilder‘s Ace in the Hole, aka The Big Carnival), that of a corpse in William Wellman‘s Across the Wide Missou... Read full article

Video of the Week: “Across the Wide Missouri”

By Marisa on Aug 19, 2015 From The Timothy Carey Experience

This week’s video provides a look – a really quick look – at Timothy’s first official film appearance. It’s Across the Wide Missouri (1951), directed by William Wellman. Fast-forward to 35:06 and you’ll see Tim’s grand film debut – as a corpse. But lik... Read full article

Classic Films in Focus: ACROSS THE WIDE MISSOURI (1951)

By Jennifer Garlen on May 29, 2014 From Virtual Virago

Hollywood churned out Westerns during the 1950s, but only a few of them became true classics on the level of Winchester ‘73 (1950) and The Searchers (1956). The rest, like William Wellman’s Across the Wide Missouri (1951), amused the Saturday matinee crowd well enough, and today they are... Read full article

Classic Films in Focus: ACROSS THE WIDE MISSOURI (1951)

By Jennifer Garlen on May 29, 2014 From Virtual Virago

Hollywood churned out Westerns during the 1950s, but only a few of them became true classics on the level of Winchester ‘73 (1950) and The Searchers (1956). The rest, like William Wellman’s Across the Wide Missouri (1951), amused the Saturday matinee crowd well enough, and today they are... Read full article

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Across the Wide Missouri 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.
Narrator: My dad wasn't just one man named Flint Mitchell. He was a breed of men... mountain men who lived and died in America. He used to tell me about these men he knew. Men who walked the Indian trails and blazed new ones where no man had ever been before. Men who found lakes and rivers and meadows. Men who found paths to the west and the western sea; who roamed prairies and mountains and plateaus that are now states. Men who searched for beaver and found glory. Men who died unnamed and found immortality. My father always began his story by telling me about the summer rendezvous of the mountain men. This is where they met every July after a year of trapping in the Rockies. Here they cashed in their furs, caught up on their drinking and the fighting and the gambling and the fun... and the girls. They lived hard and they played hard.
Narrator: Trees lie where they fall, and men were buried where they died.
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Across the Wide Missouri Facts
During the filming, Ricardo Montalban received a spinal injury which required a 9-1/2 hour operation and which left him in constant pain for the remainder of his life.
Debut of Timothy Carey.
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.
Clark Gable personally chose William A. Wellman to direct because he admired Battleground.
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 Show Boat, was brought in for this purpose. 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."
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