Themes: Lone Wolves, White People Among Indians, Marriages of Convenience
Main Cast: Clark Gable, Ricardo Montalban, John Hodiak, Adolphe Menjou, Maria Elena Marques
Release Year: 1951
Country: US
Run Time: 78 minutes
Plot
Clark Gable is the largely nonheroic hero of the sprawling western Across the Wide Missouri. A cunning trapper who lives purely by his wits, Gable avoids being scalped by the Blackfoot Indians by marrying Maria Elena Marques, the chief's daughter. This marriage of convenience also allows Gable to trap to his heart's content in Blackfoot territory. After bearing a child, Marques is killed by a warring tribe; the opportunistic Gable at first considers abandoning the child, but at long last does right by the boy. Adolphe Menjou steals the show as an eternally inebriated French trapper, while Ricardo Montalban and J. Carroll Naish are convincing (and noncondescending) in their Native American characterizations. Evidently, Across the Wide Missouri tested poorly when it was first previewed: the final release version runs a surprisingly brief 78 minutes, with narrator Howard Keel (who otherwise does not appear) filling in the continuity gaps. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Across the Wide Missouri (1951) is a film based on the historical work Across the Wide Missouri. The film dramatizes an account of several fur traders and their interaction with the Native Americans.
During filming, Ricardo Montalbán was reportedly thrown off a horse, knocked out, and walked on by another horse, leaving him with a spinal injury. This injury recurred in 1993, which forced him into a wheelchair.[citation needed]
The score for the film was composed and conducted by David Raksin and incorporated the song "Oh Shenandoah" in its main title and end title. Additional music was composed and/or adapted (from Raksin's material) by Al Sendrey, and conducted by Johnny Green.[1] The complete score was issued on cd in 2009, on Film Score Monthly records.
^Kendall, Lukas (2009). Release notes for David Raksin at MGM (1950-1957) by David Raksin (CD online notes). Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.: Film Score Monthly (Vol. 12, No. 2).
