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Stylish but barely mediocre overall

best movie i've ever seen.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Clark Gable's career was not the same after WWII, and he was not really "The King" any longer. But in "Across The Wide Missouri", Gable still shows some of the old magic. Although approaching 50, he still appears trim and athletic and flashes the toothy grin which was so appealing to his female fans. Here he is a fur trapper in a glossy Technicolor MGM western directed by Veteran William Wellman, who here seemed to copy John Ford's style of adding a third dimension by adding depth to the characters. Several reviewers have noted that the film was hacked up by studio heads and several action scenes were cut, to the detriment of the final product.I guess nowadays a western has to have a gritty, realistic look but this one is old-fashioned in that respect and has a clean and fresh aspect in the appearance of the characters and sets. I also thought the film was unevenly paced and with protracted stretches of inaction (perhaps due to the aforementioned editing). I'm not a film critic of a historian, just a moviegoer, but I can rate the overall entertainment value. I would recommend it on that basis, but I can't help thinking it could have been so much better.

I've seen this several times and warm to it the more often I see it. The nostalgic narration is not too obtrusive and works well to knit everything together.Gable growls his way through a usual tough guy that melts gradually through the film, a fine vigorous performance as pioneer man, even singing and dancing (of sorts!). Montalban has an interesting role (virtually without dialogue) at the beginning of his career. Whitmore has a small part and looks every part the mountain man. Menjou is a revelation if you saw him in Paths of Glory, as a fine second fiddle who you would want as your friend. Hodiak is good as an impassive, proud and upright Indian. Napier (West's Batman's butler) as an aristocratic survivor of Waterloo! And Maria Marques a comely and well acted female lead.The music is sweeping and fits fine, the photography absolutely superb, the Technicolour very very very beautiful, the native Americans portrayed as human beings with a history. Some nice comedy moments at the marriage. A romance virtually a silent movie with man and wife not speaking each others languages. The savagery and danger of early life not skimped. The final showdown is thrilling and realistic.Old Hollywood showmanship but the ending brings a lump to my throat as the son describes his father's life and the wisdom he passed on.

Honesty seems the first quality of this Wellmann work:it uses no less than three different languages:English,Indian language and French:it's really great fun to hear the cast sing on Xmas day the Canadian "Alouette gentille alouette" en Français dans le texte...even if the words have nothing to do with Christ's birth.The second strong point is scenery:the landscapes are breathtakingly beautiful and the color is splendid indeed.Mountains and forest are lovingly filmed .A lot of people will probably note similarities with Delmer Daves's famous "Broken arrow" which was released the precedent year .It's almost the same ending.I would favor Daves's work over Wellmann's because his characters are more endearing , his story more absorbing and the relationship characters/nature more convincing.But "Across the wide Missouri" is worth watching :the story is told by Gable's son who appears as a baby in the movie and shortly as a child .One scene is particularly touching,even if we realize it only afterward:Gable and his Indian wife are kissing each other while the small child is watching.There are a lot of deaths in this often cruel story,but neither the White nor the Indians are demeaned.

I see that some commenters really panned this film. I, however, am in that nearly two-to-one majority who rates it in the upper half of the scale. Maybe it was the mood I was in when I watched it, but here is a western devoid of that frenetic gunplay. Subdued and restrained are good adjectives. Nice scenery. Perhaps there IS an unrealistic emphasis on good-timin'-it, but could it also be an attempt to balance out the rigors? (A balance which is necessary for some of us.) I actually found some of the humor kind of simplistically appealing, which, too, is how I regard the plot: Flint Mitchell thinks that his marrying a squaw will enhance his trapping efforts. Initially a union of convenience, the relationship eventually deepens and produces a son. When a white-man-caused death results in a Blackfoot leadership change, tension increases. The Mrs.-Mitchell-role, portrayed by a no-name (but quite capable) actress, is deserving of higher billing. In my opinion, this, among other alternatives, is likely to be the better selection.