Movies:
The Big Sky
DVD Release
- Includes both the rare original 136-minute version and the standard 122-minute edition
- 28-minute discussion about Howard Hawks by Todd McCarthy
- Five-minute interview excerpt of Hawks from 1973
- 2001 audio interview with Kirk Douglas
- Production booklet
- Rating:
- Genre: Adventure
- Movie Type: Costume Adventure, Road Movie
- Themes: White People Among Indians
- Director: Howard Hawks
- Main Cast: Kirk Douglas, Dewey Martin, Elizabeth Threatt, Arthur Hunnicutt, Buddy Baer, Hank Worden
- Release Year: 1952
- Country: US
- Run Time: 122 minutes
- MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
The Big Sky is based on a popular novel by A.B. Guthrie. Kirk Douglas and Dewey Martin play a pair of Kentucky frontiersmen who embark upon the first keelboat trip up the Missouri River way back in 1830. Joining Douglas and Martin are Martin's grizzled old uncle Arthur Hunnicutt and garrulous Frenchman Steven Geray. Running afoul of various Indian tribes, Douglas nonetheless romances Sioux princess Elizabeth Threatt (their off-screen relationship was on the kinky side, as an embarrassed Douglas reveals in his autobiography). Director Howard Hawks leavens the Boys' Own Adventure atmosphere of the film with a few isolated comic sequences, including a sidesplitting scene in which Douglas' gangrenous finger is cut off. Produced for RKO Radio by Hawks' own Winchester Pictures, The Big Sky was released at 141 minutes, though the TV print runs 122 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideCast
- Kirk Douglas - Jim Deakins
- Dewey Martin - Boone Caudell
- Elizabeth Threatt - Teal Eye
- Arthur Hunnicutt - Zeb
- Buddy Baer - Romaine
- Hank Worden - Poordevil
Jim Davis - Streak; Steven Geray - Jourdonnais; Henri Letondal - Labadie; Robert Hunter - Chouquette; Booth Colman - Pascal; Paul H. Frees - McMasters; Frank de Kova - Moleface; Guy Wilkerson - Longface; Sam Ash; Don Beddoe - Horse Trader; Barbara Hawks - Indian Girl; Frank Lackteen; Jay Novello; Bill Self; Max Wagner; George Wallace
