This story about the rough and tumble fur trappers who traversed Indian lands to ply their trade stars Clark Gable, supported by a strong cast. With a voice over that was added in post-production to add more depth to this film, it fairly realistically portrays existence in the western territories before the invasion of white civilization.The scenery is beautiful, with vistas that show winding rivers stretching to the horizon and majestic mountains towering over forests and plains. The natives and their society are portrayed with respect, though one scene shows a scalping. This was undoubtedly added to help delineate the Indians who were aligned with Iron Shirt, who is effectively the villain of the story.Though Gable was not feeling or looking his best for this film, the story is charming enough to be enjoyable. It includes moments of humor and a love story that is unique and touching. I particularly enjoyed the use of language in this film--English, French and Indian tongues combined.Gable still had other noteworthy films ahead of him when this film was released, including "Mogambo" (1953), "Teacher's Pet" (1958), and "The Misfits" (1961).

Clark Gable plays "Flint Mitchell", a fur trapper living out west on the edge of Blackfoot territory. After discovering that an Indian maiden named "Kamiah" (played Marie Elena Marques) is the granddaughter of Blackfoot chief "Bear Ghost" (Jack Holt), he decides to acquire her in a trade from the Nez Pierce chief, "Looking Glass" (J. Carrol Naish) who stole her from the Blackfoot and raised her as his own daughter. The only way this will happen though is if Flint Mitchell decides to marry her. So, since Blackfoot territory has an abundance of beaver, he decides to take her as his wife. Love between them eventually develops. Even so, the relationship between the white fur trappers and the Blackfoot remains somewhat hostile. As a result, a group of fur trappers decide to take a secret route into Blackfoot territory and set up a fort. Bear Ghost is delighted to see his granddaughter but another Blackfoot warrior named "Ironshirt" (Ricardo Montalban) has no intention of making peace. Trouble results and both sides suffer tragedy. Anyway, filmed in color in 1951, this picture does a decent job of capturing the cold (but beautiful) wilderness the fur trappers had to endure. And while the language barrier between Flint Mitchell and Kamiah was annoying at times, I suppose it added to the realism. Most of the acting was adequate but I thought Clark Gable stood out with an excellent performance. In short, this was a pretty good movie which was probably well-received in its time.

I hadn't heard of this film until I saw it listed in the TV guide and as it was only an hour and a half long I thought I'd check it out. I'm pleased that I did as it is quite different to most westerns I'd seen. Set when much of what is now the United States was still controlled by the native population and any European heading into there territory had to make friends quickly or risk being killed. The story follows group of trappers led by Flint Mitchell who head into Blackfoot territory to hunt beavers and elk; in order to be welcome Mitchell buys and marries the Blackfoot chief's granddaughter who had been kidnapped by a Nez Perce chief and adopted as his daughter. His new wife Kamiah leads them into Blackfoot territory via a route that avoids the aggressive warrior Iron Shirt. Once there they set about trapping and hunting, they also make friends with the Blackfoot chief Bear Ghost. There are still dangers though and Iron Shirt's band poses a danger. When one of the trappers is killed his brother takes revenge by killing Grey Wolf, this leaves Iron Shirt as the new chief and the trappers are in real danger; a danger that many of them will not survive.At first I though this might be a comedy as the opening scenes contained such sights as a brawl involving all of the trappers and an Indian chief who was wearing a suit of armour and Mitchell's new wife throwing pots and pans at him when he enters her tepee in a drunken state! As the film progresses things get more serious though as the trappers get in real danger and several are killed frequently without warning. One of the deaths, I won't spoil it by saying whose, was one of the most surprising I've seen in any film. The acting was pretty solid; Clark Gable was good in the lead role as was María Elena Marqués as his wife Kamiah. Surprisingly much of the dialogue wasn't in English; some was in French and much was in the Indian's language, this wasn't subtitled which puts the viewer in the same position of not understanding that Mitchell was in; of course he had a native speaker in his group who could translate for him (and the audience). While I don't think this is a must see film I'd certainly recommend checking it out if you are a western fan and it is on television.

"Across the Wide Missouri":1951: The setting for 'Across the Wide Missouri' is the state of Montana, however the majority of the film was shot in the San Juan Mountains, and north of Durango, Colorado. The movie included Clark Gable in it's cast of characters, as well as Ricardo Montalban and Maria Elena Marques. In the movie, stunt man Fred Kennedy suffered a broken neck when his intentional fall from a horse did not go as smoothly as he had intended. The whole incident was caught on film and used in the movie. Thanks to http://www.communigate.co.uk/ne/filmguyernie/page8.phtml