NOTES: Nominated for an Academy Award for Special Effects, but lost to the only other nominee, Green Dolphin Street. Negative cost: around $5 million.
Location exteriors filmed near Pittsburgh (the forest scenes) and by Arthur Rosson's unit on the Snake River, Idaho (the canoe sequence).
COMMENT: No survey of Hollywood's treatment of big-budget westerns would be complete without a Cecil B. De Mille epic. What is curious about this one though is that it wasn't particularly popular at the boxoffice and actually lost money. This seems strange as most of the ingredients for popular success are here. True, the movie is overlong, but most cash-paying patrons will hardly object to this extra value for their money. (I thought the film would be improved if three or four of the long and rather pointless dialogue scenes between Cooper and Goddard were cut. My impression is that these scenes merely pad out the film as a sop to the two principals).
True, the script is somewhat naive and juvenile. It reduces historical figures to pasteboard cut-outs and then hands them verbose dialogue of appropriate banality. (It says much for the players that most are able to rise above their material). But the plot does allow for plenty of incident and spectacle, including shooting the rapids on the Snake which anticipates The River Wild.
It's a pity that the "peg" on which all this drama is hung, namely the conflict between hero Cooper and heavy Da Silva, is so disappointingly resolved with the villain receiving very cursory if just desserts from Cooper's faster pistol. It's true too that neither Cooper nor Miss Goddard seem entirely comfortable in their roles. The script forces Coop to do some remarkably stupid things, so it's probably no cause for wonder that he often appears to be acting half-heartedly at half-steam.
Miss Goddard seems far too elegant for a maid-of-all-work. Her make-up is too heavy. Her performance on the other hand seems too lightweight. Many of the support players also seem somewhat ill-at-ease. Fortunately, Da Silva makes his villain really mean and nasty.
Technically, the film's tension is a bit undermined by some obvious process screen effects. Director De Mille's hand is most in evidence in the crowd and action scenes. Rennahan's fine Technicolor photography is also a major asset.
P.S. When asked about Fredric (or is it Frederic?) M. Frank, his co-screenwriter Charles Bennett said in an interview with Pat McGilligan, "A lovely guy, but he couldn't write his own name." Well, that last comment was literally true anyway.
COMMENT: No survey of Hollywood's treatment of big-budget westerns would be complete without a Cecil B. De Mille epic. What is curious about this one though is that it wasn't particularly popular at the boxoffice and actually lost money. This seems strange as most of the ingredients for popular success are here. True, the movie is overlong, but most cash-paying patrons will hardly object to this extra value for their money. (I thought the film would be improved if three or four of the long and rather pointless dialogue scenes between Cooper and Goddard were cut. My impression is that these scenes merely pad out the film as a sop to the two principals).
True, the script is somewhat naive and juvenile. It reduces historical figures to pasteboard cut-outs and then hands them verbose dialogue of appropriate banality. (It says much for the players that most are able to rise above their material). But the plot does allow for plenty of incident and spectacle, including shooting the rapids on the Snake which anticipates The River Wild.
It's a pity that the "peg" on which all this drama is hung, namely the conflict between hero Cooper and heavy Da Silva, is so disappointingly resolved with the villain receiving very cursory if just desserts from Cooper's faster pistol. It's true too that neither Cooper nor Miss Goddard seem entirely comfortable in their roles. The script forces Coop to do some remarkably stupid things, so it's probably no cause for wonder that he often appears to be acting half-heartedly at half-steam.
Miss Goddard seems far too elegant for a maid-of-all-work. Her make-up is too heavy. Her performance on the other hand seems too lightweight. Many of the support players also seem somewhat ill-at-ease. Fortunately, Da Silva makes his villain really mean and nasty.
Technically, the film's tension is a bit undermined by some obvious process screen effects. Director De Mille's hand is most in evidence in the crowd and action scenes. Rennahan's fine Technicolor photography is also a major asset.
P.S. When asked about Fredric (or is it Frederic?) M. Frank, his co-screenwriter Charles Bennett said in an interview with Pat McGilligan, "A lovely guy, but he couldn't write his own name." Well, that last comment was literally true anyway.