Many Rivers to Cross

This is an excellent movie. It may be too slow paced for those of you who are only looking for whiz-bang, but for others with a little more spirit it is a classic. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this movie several times. It captures a long lost frontier spirit and accurately portrays it on the screen. The music is good, but not overwhelming. It matches the pace of the story very well.

Robert Taylor is the freelance fur trapper who is passing through. On his way he is rescued by Eleanor Parker and her sidekick Sandak.

Following this, the battle of the sexes begins. It is frontier wits versus feminine charm, and guile.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

This wonderful rollicking comedy set in the early days of the republic, roughly sometime in the Federalist era had to take its inspiration from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers from the year before. In fact two of the brothers, Jeff Richards and Russ Tamblyn are featured in Many Rivers to Cross.

The surprise to me in this film is Robert Taylor. At the time he did this film Taylor had been doing dramatic parts for many years. He did some comedy roles in his early days at MGM, but they were the modern sophisticated sort of stuff.

Robert Taylor is Bushrod Gentry, a frontier trapper who's a pretty fancy free and footloose sort of character very much like Adam Pontipee in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. But while it was Howard Keel who was looking for a wife in that film, here it's the woman who does the chasing and it's the woman who comes from a pretty frisky frontier family herself. Eleanor Parker is Federalist era Calamity Jane who takes a real shine to Taylor.

Of course she pursues Taylor through out the film, try as he may to get back to his trapping. Their last escape from some pursuing Shawnee Indians is an absolute comic riot.

Good as Taylor and Parker are, Many Rivers to Cross almost cries for a song or two other than the theme about the Berry Tree. In a musical I could have seen Howard Keel and Doris Day doing it easily.

In any event I'm sure that when Taylor and Parker settle down and commence to having children that they were the ancestors a hundred years later of that Pontipee clan in the Pacific Northwest.

It is a film reflecting a period, more than a genre. because it is western and comedy and love story and beautiful eulogy to the people of frontier. and occasion for Robert Taylor to be seductive at whole. its virtue - to translate, in right manner, the atmosphere of "50. and to use , in inspired manner, the humor , remembering, in other context, same spiced, the couple Hepburn - Tracy. and, maybe, it is the axis of a story with old flavour and a lot of fun, mixed with tension, in package of old fashion sweat moral lesson.

This movie is one that I have watched (over the last forty years) with my mom and then later my daughter many times. It is one of our favorites. In it you will discover that Robert Taylor (best known for his beautiful face and romantic roles) has a flair for comedy and makes good use of a wonderful supporting cast.

Victor McLaughlin is himself (but that's just fine by me), James Arness plays straight man and a young Alan Hale Jr. (before Gilligan's Island) combine with the perennially juvenile antics of Russ Tamblin to provide and hour and a half plus of escapist entertainment and downright good old fashioned laughter.

The beautiful Eleanor Parker plays a tomboy like no other we've seen but that's okay, too. This one's for fun and for the trivia purists, too. There are many connections to television shows that some of the cast will appear in years later. See how many you can find. Hint...check out the director, etc.

The higher up the berry tree, the sweeter grow the berries, the more you hug and kiss a girl, the more they want to marry!

This is simply a charming , funny movie . Robert Taylor is exceptionally good - as is the supporting cast in general. Well-made Western comedies seem few and far between .

The movie was not well publicized upon its release as I recall , nor was it rated as top flight . It's hardly ever seen on television.

The film can easily be described as wholesome - a rarity more today than back in the 50's . Its tone and style reflect the mood of the times.

By all means , catch it if you can .