If there's some lost Frontier genre--not a Western, because there aren't horses or cowboy hats--but a Frontier genre, with trappers and woods and... I don't know, some other stuff, Many Rivers to Cross is probably not the ideal example of its potential. I realize now, mentioning it, Michael Mann's The Last of the Mohicans is probably the ideal. Regardless, Many Rivers to Cross is unfortunately not the ideal of much anything. Any film co-starring Alan Hale Jr. and Russell Johnson long before "Gilligan's Island" ought to offer some comedic value along absurd lines, but this one doesn't. Many Rivers to Cross is a comedy, however. It's just not a funny one. Everything in the film--with the exception of a dying baby--is for a laugh. Given the story, with Eleanor Parker's frontier-woman (the film is dedicated the frontier-women no less) chasing Robert Taylor's bachelor trapper, it's a lot like a Road Runner cartoon--except one with really offensive portrayals of American Indians.
The Indian thing bugged me a little bit because it was played so much for laughs. Hollywood had known since, what, 1939, playing Indians as villains was lame and Many Rivers is from 1955. It was so lame, the first mohawked Indian I saw, I thought it was all a joke, like Taylor had this Indian running cons with him or something. I was rather disappointed it turned out to be otherwise; not just because it would have been less offensive, but because it might have been interesting.
The movie's short--ninety-five or so--and it's split evenly in two parts. One part has Victor McLaglen as Parker's father, the other part has Taylor mostly alone (though James Arness shows up for a bit). Both McLaglen and Arness are good. Both Parker and Taylor are good. The film's just not any good. Without the Indian element, I'd call it inoffensive fare (and I doubt it was intended to be anything more). A programmer, actually--yep, it's a programmer.
CREDITS
Directed by Roy Rowland; screenplay by Harry Brown and Guy Trosper, from a story by Steve Frazee; director of photography, Cyril J. Mockridge; edited by Ben Lewis; music by Cyril J. Mockridge; produced by Jack Cummings; released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Starring Robert Taylor (Bushrod Gentry), Eleanor Parker (Mary Stuart Cherne), Victor McLaglen (Cadmus Cherne), Jeff Richards (Fremont Cherne), Russ Tamblyn (Shields Cherne), James Arness (Esau Hamilton), Alan Hale Jr. (Luke Radford), John Hudson (Hugh Cherne), Sig Ruman (Spectacle Man) and Russell Johnson (Banks Cherne).
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