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Many Rivers to Cross (film)
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Wikipedia article
'Many Rivers to Cross' is a 1955 American colonial Western film shot in CinemaScope directed by Roy Rowland and starring Robert Taylor and Eleanor Parker.
Plot
Kentucky, the late 1700s: A traveling preacher's coming to town, but Miles Henderson is upset because Cissie Crawford seems reluctant to marry him. She seems more interested in a handsome trapper who has just arrived in the territory, Bushrod Gentry.
Cissie's life is saved by Bushrod after she is attacked by Shawnee tribesmen, but he is a confirmed bachelor who lets her down gently. While traveling on his own, Bushrod is wounded by the Indians and in danger until another woman, Mary Stuart Cherne, saves his life.
Feeling love at first sight, Mary takes him home to her Scottish-born father, Cadmus, and their Indian servant, Sandak, to heal. Her longtime suitor Luke Radford is unhappy about this interloper.
Bushrod again declines a chance to settle down, whereupon an angry Mary ends up keeping him there against his will. With her four brothers keeping a gun on him, Bushrod is forced to marry Mary.
He punches a justice of the peace and gets 30 days in jail. Another trapper, Esau Hamilton, has a sick child whose life Bushrod ends up saving. He slips away and intends to be on his own again, but Bushrod comes across Indians who are trying to scalp Mary. He saves her life this time, then accepts his fate as a man in love...
Cast
*Robert Taylor as Bushrod Gentry
*Eleanor Parker as Mary Stuart Cherne
*'with' Victor McLaglen as Cadmus Cherne
*Jeff Richards as Fremont
*Russ Tamblyn as Shields
*James Arness as Esau Hamilton
*Alan Hale, Jr. as Luke Radford
*John Hudson as Hugh
*Rhys Williams as Lige Blake
*Josephine Hutchinson as Mrs. Cherne
*Sig Ruman as Spectacle man
*Rosemary DeCamp as Lucy Hamilton
*Russell Johnson as Banks
*Ralph Moody as Sandak
*Abel Fernandez as Slangoh
Opening dedication
"We respectfully dedicate our story
to the frontier women of America
who helped their men settle the
Kentucky wilderness. They were
gallant and courageous, and without
their aggressive cooperation few of
us would be around to see this picture."
Production
MGM bought the rights to a story by Steve Frazee published in 'Argosy' magazine. Jack Cummings was assigned to produce. Janet Leigh was originally intended to be the female lead.
Reception
According to MGM records the film earned $2,084,000 in the US and Canada and $1,748,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $533,000.
See also
*List of American films of 1955
References
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