Aventura Sangrenta

A crucial event in American history is rendered dull and unexciting by Hollywood convention; the story of the Lewis and Clark expedition which in the early 1800s conquered unclaimed territory for the ever-growing United States. Production values are glossy and there are a few action highlights, but the handling is uninspired and the slowly-paced film emerges an undistinguished effort overall.

Casting is variable: Fred MacMurray makes for a staid Lewis but Charlton Heston's Clark is, as ever, at home in such larger-than-life surroundings; Donna Reed (as an Indian squaw!) and Barbara Hale provide the none-too-convincing romantic interest - which actually takes up a good deal of the running-time (before the expedition, both men love Hale but she prefers Heston; when the latter meets up with Reed, they fall for each other - but complications of the boring variety arise when it's revealed that she's been promised by the tribe which has abducted her to a villainous French trapper/guide and, even when she finally escapes and goes back to her people, she's spoken for by a rash young Indian brave!). This allows Heston to engage in fisticuffs and he even falls out with MacMurray, but the audience's interest is never more than dimly aroused; however, veteran William Demarest is on hand as a level-headed sergeant who actually keeps the company together during such trying times.

Anyway, the film is watchable enough in itself - though it's better approached, perhaps, as a Western rather than a widescreen spectacular (with which Heston would soon come to be identified)...and, in any case, it's miles behind such celebrated 'epics' of American colonialism as John Ford's DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK (1939) and King Vidor's NORTHWEST PASSAGE (1940).

This is not a movie that is accurate historically. The great thing is seeing a well known cast in color making the thing entertaining. While Barbara Hale is best known as Della Street, Perry Mason's Secretary, she is a second banana here in her role as Julia. She appears in the early part of the film and at the end.

What is interesting is that Donna Reed, Fred MacMurray, & Charlton Heston all get equal billing at a time when women's rights really had not started. In fact, Reed is so good that I didn't even realize it was here until I checked the cast list. This is not the typical 1950's film to be sure.

Trouble is that the film really has no chance to get to the true story of Lewis & Clark as it is too busy with fictional relationships to have time. William Demerest (Uncle Charlie on My Three Sons) joins Fred here as he would later on TV. Considering how much fishing Fred is known to have done, I bet he got some in on breaks on this river location shooting.

The movie is entertainment, just not a classic. Paramounts Vista Vision hasn't hurt the quality of the film photography over the years either.

For what it is, an almost total fabrication of the events involved in the exploration of the Louisiana territory, the film is an enjoyable, beautifully shot adventure but for the real story look elsewhere. Donna Reed is ridiculously cast as Sacajawea, Katy Jurado who was actively working in Hollywood at the time would have been far more suitable. She gives an earnest reading of the part but if this is the best the studios could find for her after her Oscar win it's little wonder that she had moved over to TV within a few years. MacMurray although first billed actually disappears for several stretches of the film and Heston, who is ideal in this sort of picture, carries the bulk of the movie.

Following the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, US President Thomas Jefferson (Herbert Heyes) enlists Capt. Meriwether Lewis (Fred MacMurray) and Lt. William Clark (Charlton Heston) to lead a surveying expedition of the new territory with hopes of finding a route to the Pacific ocean. Things get off to a rocky start when Clark unknowingly steals Lewis' girlfriend Julia Hancock (Barbara Hale). The expedition later recruits Shoshone woman Sacajawea (Donna Reed) to act as their guide into unknown territory, and wouldn't you know it, Clark starts making time with her, too!

Most Hollywood history lessons play fast and loose with the facts, but this movie earned the distinction of once being named by a group of historians as the most historically inaccurate Hollywood movie ever. I can't vouch for that, but a lot of this is pretty silly and unbelievable. Chief among the movie's problems is the awkward and unnecessary romantic triangle (Heston, Hale & Reed), which would be bad enough as a sub-plot, but which by the end seems to be the prime focus of the film. MacMurray's Lewis takes a back seat to things once the romance between Clark and Sacajawea starts, and he's reduced to supporting status. Reed isn't terrible as Sacajawea, it's just that...well, she's Donna Reed! On the movie's plus side, there is some spectacular scenery and location cinematography. That's what raises it to a 5/10.

And Paramount put THIS on DVD but not the excellent and seldom seen "All the Way Home" from 1963. Go figure.

Fred MacMurray and Charlton Heston portray Lewis and Clark, famed historians who explored the Louisianna Territory as per the instructions of President Thomas Jefferson. This plays very much like a cowboys and indians type of actioneer, but without actual cowboys. We also get a fabricated (so I've read) side love story between Clark (Heston) and lovely squaw Sacajawea (Donna Reed!!), the woman who helped lead the way during the discovery. In this story, MacMurray is the more laid back and serious leader while his partner Heston is - no surprise - rather cynical and the Wild Card of the two. Seems like Chuck played these parts constantly in the first half of this decade. It's always been odd for me to go backwards in time and see Fred MacMurray in straight films, as I grew up with him primarily as the dad from TV's sitcom MY THREE SONS. Here he shares screen time with William Demarest , who was also in the TV show as well. Demarest seemed miscast to me here though, cast as an 1800's sergeant. **1/2 out of ****