Davy Crockett and the River Pirates

'Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier' may not be a masterpiece, and there are better Disney live-action films and Disney films overall. It is a however impossible to dislike film and it was easy to see why anything to do with Davy Crockett was such a phenomenon in the 50s.

The same goes for its sequel 'Davy Crockett and the River Pirates'. Sequels don't always match their predecessors and even more rarely even better, with numerous examples of vastly inferior (polar opposite in quality) ones. 'Davy Crockett and the River Pirates' is every bit as good, with two improvements over its predecessors, it is not quite as episodic (while still feeling like a film of two halves) and it flows a little.

It is not perfect. The dialogue is even sillier and more childish in places than in 'Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier', and a couple of the action sequences in the second half are still exaggerated and more cartoonish than epic.

As hoped though, 'Davy Crockett and the River Pirates' has a lot to like and is very difficult to hate. It is a good-looking film, with gorgeously epic scenery and evocative production design that looks like a lot of care and homework went into it, all handsomely filmed. The music is rousing, especially the timeless theme song that is one of Disney's and childhood's best and most memorable theme songs.

There is some endearingly-good natured dialogue, and as said the story is eventful and often exciting. A lot happens, especially in the first half, and never does it lull. The characters are a lot of fun, with a charismatic and likable hero in Davy Crockett, and direction is breezy and bright.

Fess Parker is jovial, charismatic and immensely likable in the title role and Buddy Ebsen counteracts with him very nicely. The acting may not be "great" but hardly bad, more than competent. A splendidly hammy Jeff York stands out in support.

Overall, a very enjoyable sequel with a huge amount of appeal. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Wow.

Sometimes a film is powerful because it WAS powerful.

This is an amazingly dumb movie but perhaps no dumber in extremes than today's. The reason it might be on your radar is because of how influential it was.

It was the first movie with multimedia tie-ins. You could buy Davey Crockett hats and weapons. And lunchboxes — stuff like that. That wasn't all that extraordinary then. But this was also the first movie that was also a theme park ride. So it is the beginning of a food chain that leads us to the Depp pirate projects. That Davey Crockett ride lasted 40 years! (Incidentally, students of film will see blocking similarities between Depp's boat ride in the bayou and Parker's.)

Its also one of the movies most obviously designed for boys. Here you have guys pretending to be Indians and dying by falling down. You have water play. You have racing. You have tricksters.

And most of all, you have a juvenile version of that John Ford/ John Wayne meme: real men achieve honor through recreational fighting.

Seeing it again fifty years later is very strange. Young people watch movies more closely than adults I think. I remembered the smallest details, like the lettering on barrels, which incidentally was inspired by the Our Gang/Little Rascals cosmology that things become props by labelling them.

There are no "girls;" this is strictly boy's play. The only time girlie stuff appears is when the pirates try to attract Mike Fink's crew to an ambush. They do this by dressing up as floozies, which of course he cannot resist.

And its also an influential film in melding a certain collection of values to a certain collection of cultural carriers.

The values are honesty, plainspokenness, insight outside of book-larnin', loyalty (at least among men). The cultural carriers today are what's been labelled as "country" music (and its advertising affiliate, NASCAR).

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

This was a theatrical compilation of two episodes of Davy Crocket series that were aired on ABC TV Disneyland , 55-56 years , taking footage here and there . In this adventure and comical Western movie is narrated myths and legends in hilarious style of the famed American frontiersman and explorer . I deals with Davy and his colleague Georgie Russell , Buddy Ebsen, vying a boastful fatty called Mike Frank , Jeff York, nicknamed " the King of the river" in a boat race to city of New Orleans and along the way they encounter some nasty river pirates .After that , once the competition is finished , Crockett and Georgie supported by Mike take on the river pirates who are attempting to rob the sailors of their possessions .

The plot is is simple, the first part concerns about a fun race in which our friends compete against "The King of the River" and fight off each other to win the risked competition ; second part deals with the three allied friends battling pirates who disguising as Native American to take earthly supplies from naive boat passengers ; this plot bears remarkable resemblance to the classic film" How the West was won" by Ford , Marshall and Hathaway, in which mountain man James Stewart was robbed by river pirates In Cave-in-Rock , the same place where was shot this Davy Crockett and River Pirates . As usual, Fess Parker and and his sidekick Buddy Ebsen give sympathetic performances . They are accompanied by Jeff York as the sly , boastful Mike providing a lot of laughters and mayhem .York starred various chapters of Disneyland and "The great locomotive chase" along with Fess Parker .And an enjoyable support cast as Mort Mills, Kenneth Tobey , Clem Bevans, Douglas Dumbrielle and Hank Worden .This movie was actually 2 episodes of Disney TV show spliced together and released as feature movie .Walt Disney shot this show in color in spite of few color TV's were being sold, yet . As a result , these two Crockett episodes could be turned into an amusing picture by stitching them together .

This one contains agreeable musical score by George Bruns , Disney's regular ,including classic song "The ballad of Davy Crockett" sung by singer Bill Hayes , lyrics Thomas Blackburn , it had number 1 billboard pop hit in 1955 .Colorful cinematography by Bert Glennon , shot on location in Cave In Rock , Illinois and New Orleans, though is urgent necessary a perfect remastering .The motion picture was well directed by Norman Foster who directed various Disneyland episodes , adventure movies ,and numerous Western series and films such as Tombstone territory , Bat Masterson, Viva Cisco Kid , The sign of Zorro , Navajo , Crazy and Custer the untold story and Rachel and the stranger. Rating : 6.5/10 essential and indispensable watching for adventure fans and Davy Crockett series enthusiasts . Well worth seeing.

"Davy Crockett And The River Pirates" was originally produced for television and was broadcast on ABC as two episodes of the "Disneyland" series in 1955.

It is very easy to see why there was a Crockett phenomenon at the time. Fess Parker is perfect as Davy, and his sidekick, Georgie Russel, is played by Buddy Ebson, a few years before "Beverly Hillbillies". They play off of each other like a perfectly matched pair of shoes.

This film is wonderful and makes me wish that Disney had made more of them back in the 1950's. Unfortunately, however, the interest in Crockett was winding down by the time this one played in the theaters, and Disney used Fess Parker in other movies, like "Old Yeller" and "Westward Ho! The Wagons"

Still, this is a great film that is a lot of fun. The boats were later taken to Disneyland and utilized as the Mike Fink Keelboats ride.

-- One sidenote here: the keelboats were removed from Disneyland in 1996 following an accident that dumped a load of passengers into the water! --

As with most of the old Disney titles, I greatly recommend this film.

Capitalizing on the popularity of the Davy Crockett phenomenon, Disney produced a story that had to take place at an earlier time. Mike Fink is a keel boater (boats that are pushed with poles), the best around. Georgie Russell (Buddy Ebsen) makes a bet with Fink, banking on the ingenuity of Crockett who has never pushed a keel boat. If they don't win the race, they will lose several month's work. The race is fun with Fink using every method he can to take away Davy and Georgie's chances of winning. The two manage to endure and the first half ends. What the heck. But what happens is an alliance among the three men. River pirates have been robbing the hard working people who depend on the waterway for their business. They must find a way to stop them for everyone's benefit. If this phenomenon had been in more recent times, we would have had a series, starring Fess Parker, that would have lasted a long time. It was a different time, obviously.