The Big Sky (1952)
The Big Sky (1952)
DVD9 | ISO | PAL | 4:3 | 720x576 | 7000 kbps | 7.9Gb
Audio: #1 English AC3 5.1 @ 448 Kbps, #2 English AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps, #3 French AC3 5.1 @ 448 Kbps, #4 French AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subtitles: French
02:01:00 | USA | Drama, Western
DVD9 | ISO | PAL | 4:3 | 720x576 | 7000 kbps | 7.9Gb
Audio: #1 English AC3 5.1 @ 448 Kbps, #2 English AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps, #3 French AC3 5.1 @ 448 Kbps, #4 French AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subtitles: French
02:01:00 | USA | Drama, Western
In 1832, trapper Jim Deakins leaves his Kentucky home to look for work in St. Louis. En route, Jim meets Boone Claudel, a quick-fisted fugitive who has been falsely accused of a crime. Boone and Jim become fast friends, and Boone joins Jim on his journey.
Director: Howard Hawks
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Dewey Martin, Elizabeth Threatt, Arthur Hunnicutt, Buddy Baer, Steven Geray, Henri Letondal, Hank Worden, Jim Davis, Beulah Archuletta, Sam Ash, Don Beddoe, Eugene Borden, Cliff Clark, Iron Eyes Cody, Booth Colman, Victor Cox, Mae Old Coyote, Frank DeKova, Abe Dinovitch, Paul Frees, John George, Fred Graham, Barbara Hawks, Jim Hayward, Robert Hunter, Ray Hyke, Michael Jeffers, Anthony Joaquin, Frank Lackteen
IMDb
Jim Deakins is a frontiersman and Indian trader who is making a perilous journey with a group of other men up the Missouri River to get a large haul of furs from friendly Blackfoot Indians. The problem is that they have to get through hostile Indian territory first and they find that they have seriously underestimated the difficulties they will undergo. The large body of men who started the journey are gradually whittled down until only a hardy few, like Deakins, are left.
The Big Sky (1952)
The Big Sky (1952)
One of my favorite Kirk Douglas films is The Big Sky where he plays mountain man/trapper Jim Deakins. It's a great part for Douglas with his incredible charm and quick burn when someone does him wrong.
The Big Sky was RKO Pictures big production for 1952. I'd like to say that Howard Hughes spared no expense in making this film, shooting a good deal of it in the Grand Tetons, the actual location for the adventures of many fur trappers. But for the life of me I don't understand why Hughes and RKO after doing that, didn't spring for color.
Possibly because director Howard Hawks wanted black and white. His last epic film Red River had done well in black and white. Still I really think something was missed. RKO did use color on films with a lot less budget.
There's a lot of similarity between The Big Sky and Red River. Both films involve a group of men on an epic journey into the unknown for business reasons. In Red River, John Wayne has to get that huge herd to market and has to use a trail few have used. In The Big Sky a group of independent trappers basically want to land a nice fur contract with the Blackfeet Indians where few whites have gone up the Missouri River. Going against them is a fur trading consortium kind of like the one John Jacob Astor put together.
The trappers are mostly French Canadian Metis headed by Steven Geray, but also along is Arthur Hunnicutt who speaks the Indian language. Their ace in the hole is Elizabeth Threatt, a Blackfoot princess the trappers have rescued and are bringing back to her people in the hopes that her old man will be grateful. Hunnicutt is also the narrator of the film.
Douglas and Dewey Martin join up with the group in St. Louis and the trappers have the usual adventures as they take the flatboat up into the Missouri River country. The scenes showing journey upriver are nicely photographed.
Two others in the cast merit attention. Hank Worden does a nice job as a lost Blackfoot Indian who the trappers pick up. He may not be playing with a full deck, but he does come in handy. Jim Davis is one lean and mean villain as the company troubleshooter who wants to keep the independents out.
Arthur Hunnicutt got an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role, The Big Sky proved to be his career film. Unfortunately he lost to Anthony Quinn for Viva Zapata. Still Hunnicutt's folksy charm was always something to look forward to in any film he was ever in.
The Big Sky is one of the best films ever done about the mountain man era of the American frontier. If they'd only spent for color.
~ bkoganbing
The Big Sky (1952)
The Big Sky (1952)
