Though a natural for movie development, bio-pics on the Lewis & Clark Expedition aren’t exactly thick on the ground.* So this highly fictionalized account, ginned up with a romantic rivalry between Fred MacMurray’s Capt. Meriwether Lewis & Charlton Heston’s Lt. William Clark as they plough West across the continent for President Jefferson, is a painfully wasted opportunity. The ladies in question are society gal Barbara Hale (in stiff low-cut gowns) & Donna Reed’s Native American gal guide (darkening her FROM HERE TO ETERNITY Hawaiian tan), each turning in turn from bland MacMurray to dashing Heston. (And who could blame them?) Cinematographer-turned-director Rudolph Maté settles for efficiency rather than sweep, rarely letting us know where we are in the journey. (Ironic that a film about map-makers could have used a few on-screen maps to keep us dramatically informed.) Some outdoor location shots make a mark, helped by the double-sized negative of the famed VistaVision process; and film buffs will get a kick seeing MacMurray, Paramount’s he-man from the mid-‘30s to the mid-‘40s, fuming at Heston, Paramount’s 1950s he-man. But it’s hardly worth the bother.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: Instead, try King Vidor’s problematic, but fully engaged NORTHWEST PASSAGE/’40 with Spencer Tracy & Robert Young.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Old Hollywood maxim holds that period pics with men in wigs (think Revolutionary War) die at the box-office. Perhaps this explains no one taking on another Lewis & Clark bio even though most of the story happens in wig-free wilderness.
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