Un napoletano nel Far West

The producers respectfully dedIcate this story to the frontier woman of America who helped their men settle the Kentucky wilderness . They were gallant and courageous and without their agressive cooperation few of us would be around to see this picture . During 1798 , handsome Bushrod Gentry (Robert Taylor) is a Kentucky backwoodsman who sometimes staying with settler families for a night or two before moving on , until he meets a beautiful girl . One day, after being attacked from an Indian raid carried out by the Shawnes , being saved by a young Scotish woman, Mary Stuart Cherne (Eleanor Parker) , as the mountain man takes shelter with her family (father played by Victor MacLagen and sons : John Hudson , Russ Tamblyn , Jeff Richards ..) until his broken arm can heal . Then , Mary falls for him and she wished to marry him , leading to an obstinate proposal of marriage . But trapper Gentry delivers his usual speech about why he cannot marry or settle down , using the standard insinuations, and evasive motives and shortly after , he departs in a hurry . But stubborn Mary Stuart is not so easily dissuaded. She's the most impatient maiden in the virgin West...but he's not the marrying kind...It's an uproarious adventure!

Enjoyable Western comedy with action , shooting contests ,a shotgun wedding, broken promises , fist fights , a charming love story and thrilling Indian pursuits . This Kentucky adventure in CinemaScope results to be an extremely humorous and amusing romantic adventure through the American Frontier of 1798. This is a really spectacular and peculiar ¨Western¨version of Shakespeare's comedy ¨Taming of the Shrew¨, but here changing roles . As a freelance trapper and an obsessive woman who will not let anything interfere with her plans to marry him . As in this one explorer Robert Taylor plays the ¨Shrew¨ and independient scoutman who frequently breaks the hearts of the unmarried young daughters , while Eleanor Parker performs the ¨Tamer¨ , obstinate woman to take him as husband and asks him to marry her . Scout Robert Taylor gives a sympathetic acting as a Kentucky trapper who travels from place to place , using a few tricks up his sleeve to follow as a single man .Taylor and Parker are at their best in the extraordinarily funny fights scenes , giving an attractive and brilliant pairing . They added their inner fire to their performances . Being 3º and last movie they performed get together , in fact they played lovers in all three movies . This really splendid couple standing out similar to Douglas Fairbanks/Mary Pickford in 1929 version of ¨Taming of the Shrew ¨and Richard Burton-Elizabeth Taylor 1967 version playing Petruchio and Katherine respectively . These boxoffice actors sent the interested moviegoers to the theatres in droves , as getting 300.00 dollars approx . at the cinemas . The film owes much of its impact to fizzing filmmaking and the dazzing color camerawork of John Seitz , being shot on location in Wyoming, Cloverdale, California , Russian River, Sonoma County, California, and Metro Goldwyn Mayer studios . As well as jolly and atmospheric musical score by Cryl Mockridge and uncredited Miklós Rózsa .

The flick was decent and professionally directed by Roy Rowland . Veteran MGM B director Roy Rowland ended his career with three cheap westerns co-produced with MGM and shot in Spain . The motion picture was professional but middlingly directed by Roy Rowland . Roy sharpened his directing chops at MGM with a series of shorts starting in the 1930s, then moved up to features in 1943 . Roy spent quite a bit of time at the studio, from 1943-51 and again from 1954-58 ; he had the good fortune to marry the niece of Louis B. Mayer and was the father of actor Steve Rowland . While not one of the studio's top-rank directors , he was a good professional who had a considerable success . Most were B-movies, but he occasionally handled such A-graders . His greatest hit was , of course , the fantasy movie titled The 5000 fingers of Dr T (1953) . Rowland made an action picture for independent release based on a Mickey Spillane "Mike Hammer" novel starring Spillane himself (Girl hunters (1963)) . He specialized in a variety of genres, including musicals : ¡Viva Las Vegas! (1956) The seven hills of Rome (57) , Two weeks with love (50) and dramas : Our wines have tender grapes 45 with Edward G Robinson (1945). He was also responsible for the tough, fast-paced Rogue Cop (1954), one of the few MGM films that could be considered "film noir" . Roy was a Western expert , as the last film he made at MGM was this "B" western with Stewart Granger, Gun Glory (1957) ; besides , he filmed Outriders with Joel McCrea , Bugles in the afternoon with Ray Milland and Many rivers to cross with Robert Taylor ; after which and then he traveled to Europe for a string of Spanish/Italian-made westerns such as Los Pistoleros De Casa Grande and Ley Del Forastero . His final film as director was a somewhat cheesy pirate movie (he was uncredited ; his Italian co-director Sergio Bergonzelli got sole credit) called El Tigre De Los 7 Mares and its sequel : Tormenta Sobre el Pacífico (1966) . He was associate producer on Nathan Juran's Spain-shot Western : Al Infierno, gringo (1969), after which he retired . Rating : 6/10 . Well worth watching

I watched this on TCM one night & my wife & I laughed so hard we almost fell off the couch!! This is one of those little movies that has something for everyone...comedy, action, a wonderful script, & characters that force you to like them. Robert Taylor was perfect as the footloose, frontier Romeo, & Eleanor Parker was never more beautiful & funny playing the love-sick woman who intends to "get her man" no matter what it takes...but make no mistake, she is no wimpy, sighing, helpless female...she really is "Steppin' Woman"!!!! The title song is so catchy that you'll have trouble not singing it for months afterward. Some of the dialogue is at one turn hilarious, then a few lines later, subtly humorous...a real scriptwriter's dream. There is nothing to offend anyone but lots of things to delight everyone. A great family film!!!!

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.

I have been searching for the theme song of this movie "The Berry Tree" since I saw it once as a 6 year-old kid in 1955 or 56. I've hummed the melody and sung the few lyrics I remembered since then. I finally got the VHS tape last week and what a pleasure. This is a fantastic frontier comedy and it brings back fond memories of me as a young kid wearing a Davy Crockett coonskin cap and singing the song. Here are the lyrics to the song if anyone else has wondered what they were for 45 years or so, as I had. From other comments here, this song made an indelible impression on almost everyone that has heard it.

The higher up the berry tree the sweeter grows the berry

The more you hug and kiss a gal the more she wants to marry

The berry tree's a wise old tree the sweetest fruit is his'n

But marryin' up with any gal is just like goin' to prison

(Bridge)

Peaches in the summertime, apples in the fall Till I find the gal I want, a' gonna have none at all

Cause higher up.

higher up the berry tree" it stuck with me and so did the fun of the movie. i remember that robert taylor just looked out of place to me but the movie stayed with me all these years. I have enjoyed it over the years and have seen it on tv a couple of times and i always recommend it to my friends. good.