Film Stories From The Book:
Hollywood of the Rockies
By: Frederic B. Wildfang
Across the Wide Missouri
1951 — Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer — produced by Robert Sisk, written by Talbot Jennings, directed by William Wellman, photography by William C. Mellor, music by David Raskin — starring Clark Gable, Maria Elena Marques, Ricardo Montalban, John Hodiak, Adolphe Menjou, J. Carrol Naish, Jack Holt, and Alan Napier, with Howard Keel (narrator)
This movie begins at the site of a “rendezvous” high in the mountains of Montana — a rough gathering of mountain men, fur trappers and Indians whooping it up before scattering into “the territory.” Among the revelers is Flint Mitchell (Clark Gable), intent upon opening up new trails into beaver country — marrying a young Indian maiden (Maria Elena Marques) just for that purpose. Mid-journey, though, Flint truly falls in love with the girl — gaining a new respect for her and her people (and at the same time, dividing her people) — in the end giving her a son, who survives a series of violent complications to tell this story.
Although Across the Wide Missouri is set in Montana, the action really takes place high in the San Juans — just outside Durango. As reported in the Durango Herald-Democrat:
The Durango region is wild and primitive and is dotted with lakes and streams, made to order for the color cameras. The studio has launched the biggest outdoor building project ever, including the tent city for the cast and crew, an early-day wilderness fortress, a huge trading post, and a sprawling Indian village.
The Indian village was constructed on the east side of Molas Lake, the wilderness fortress just below Haviland Dam, and the tent city for the cast 30 miles south at Pinkerton Springs.
The MGM people were wonderful to work for, said local contractor Garland Neel:
...but when they want something done, they want it done fast. He cited the unexpected arrival of the Oglala Sioux band a day ahead of schedule.
They were supposed to arrive Saturday afternoon — they arrived Friday afternoon. Neel was called in to put up tents for the band before nightfall.
But just before the Sioux arrived, there was a sewer break at the studio camp at Pinkerton Springs...and most of the crew had been rushed there to repair the damage.
Neel estimated he had used “1800 aspen poles, two to three inches in diameter and 22 to 26 feet long fir teepee ridge poles” in the construction of the Indian village. As also reported by the Herald-Democrat:
At Little Boyce Lake another village has been staked out by Neel’s crew. Only a few ridge poles now mark the site, but as soon as shooting has been completed at Molas Lake, the village there will be moved to the location.
As far as the wilderness fortress was concerned:
...over 1000 aspen logs, averaging eight inches in diameter, went into the construction of Haviland stockade. It boasts a guard tower on the west side, a studio-prop log cabin, and east and west gates which roll on two-foot diameter rollers.
Neel’s gang built the stockade as studio camouflage experts painted the Haviland dam into obscurity and set up a framework along the highway for nets to mask the highway.
As the stockade neared completion during the weekend, studio men were setting up the canvas and plastic log hut inside the fort and painting knots on metal objects that were to appear as wood in the film.
Neel and his crew also constructed the tent city at Pinkerton Springs — “complete with portable ice boxes, rubber bath tubs and the like.”
Not all the cast, however, chose to rough it at Pinkerton Springs; Clark Gable and wife Sylvia stayed at a nearby dude ranch. Mrs. Gable, in fact, was not exactly enamored with the entire affair. Mr. Gable had to grow a beard for early scenes in the movie, says the Herald-Democrat, and Mrs. Gable “has been telling intimates that the usually suave and well-dressed Gable ‘looks like the very devil.’” Later in the shooting — around August 19 — the script calls for Gable to shave his beard for a big wedding scene with Maria Elena Marques.
‘I’ll just keep my fingers crossed until August 19,’ says Mrs. Gable. Heavens, you have no idea how that beard scratches. ‘I hope this is his last cowboy and Indian picture.’
Perhaps Mrs. Gable added that last thought for good reason. Both MGM star Ricardo Montalban and stunt-man Fred Kennedy were sent to Mercy Hospital during the filming — Kennedy with a broken neck. As the Herald-Democrat explains:
Kennedy took the spill deliberately for the benefit of cameras grinding away on the location at Little Boyce Lake north of Durango.... However, Kennedy’s horse ran into a stump, and the stunt man hit a little harder than he intended....
The cameras were turning during the accident and movie fans who watch the tumble...will be witnessing the real thing.
One year after the filming, in the summer of 1951, Across the Wide Missouri actually premiered at the Kiva Theater in downtown Durango. “Now Showing...Our Own Movie...The Big Technicolor Spectacle is Here!” ran the announcement:
A Year in the Making! Thousands in the Cast!
A thousand difficulties to overcome...to bring to the screen the breath-taking drama of heroes in buckskin...blazing the wilderness trail...taking life and love as they found it!
She Fought Like a Tigress on Their Wedding Day! The love story of this primitive lady’s beauty and the white trapper is one of the screen’s most exciting romances!
Gable...as you like him best...rough, rugged, romantic in one of his greatest roles! Handsome, devil-may-care frontiersman and Indian fighter...finding tempestuous romance amidst the dangers of the tomahawk and flaming arrow!
The price of a movie in those days: 65 cents for adults, 25 cents for children.
