The Missouri Traveler

The title role in The Missouri Traveler is played by young Brandon DeWilde, his last role essentially as a child star. Soon he'd be doing such adult stuff as Blue Denim, Hud, and In Harm's Way.

It's a nostalgic look at life at the turn of the last century in a small Missouri town where orphan kid Brandon DeWilde stops and decides to stay a while.

This is a nice easy to take film, moving along at a leisurely pace, but actually it has some serious issues. This is an orphan kid making his own way in the world, a world I might add without child labor laws. Young DeWilde is working for his keep, both as a sharecropper and as a horse trainer, well at least an assistant trainer.

Paul Ford gets a preparatory performance in this film for his later role as the mayor of River City in The Music Man. DeWilde has a couple of adult role models, the cynical Lee Marvin the guy who worked his way up to the top and the loquacious Gary Merrill who is the town newspaper editor. Both give DeWilde some good lessons about life.

In fact both Merrill and Marvin get into a knock down drag out fight that was copied, but lovingly from John Ford's The Quiet Man.

The Missouri Traveler was released through Buena Vista Productions in the beginning years of that company before it exclusively was the distributor for Walt Disney. It's a nice film, especially for family viewing with a lot of good lessons in it.

An odd look back at "simpler" days where things really weren't really so simple, at least for the mysterious young boy (Brandon De Wilde) who shows up in Missouri, getting much attention as he passes through a small town. He catches a ride with the dark souled Lee Marvin and meets a kind, caring stranger in the noble Gary Merrill who, being reminded of himself as a youngster, begins to look after him. Strange agreements with Marvin see Dr Wilde taking residence in an abandoned house on Marvin's property and taking care of a wild horse that Marvin gave to Merrill to settle a debt. Marvin cruelty teaches De Wilde the hard facts of life, constantly reneging on verbal deals he made with him, repeating over and over, "It's not worth anything unless you have it in writing".

Often disturbing, thus is a surprisingly adult for a supposed family coming from Walt Disney's Buena Vista studio. Some folksy elements make this almost a Currier and Ives painting, with dark twists and turns. Paul Ford adds both humor and pathos to the role of the lovable old tavern owner who was forced to stop selling beer and start selling chili that nobody likes. Others among the ensemble are Kathleen Freeman and Frank Cady. But with Marvin's constant darkness, it's difficult to see the light at the end of the horse race. An odd example for Disney to try more serious themes, presented in a way that leaves the taste of sour grapes in the viewer's mouth.

I usually like turn of the century (1900), small town America movies. But this one had no zing to it, nor did it make you care about the characters. Who's fault was it? The director? The writer? The actors? I'm thinking the writing, but who knows what happened during production. There were some top actors in this movie too. Brandon de Wilde still had a big name from his earlier years but his acting was a little flat in this one, in my opinion. Lee Marvin was Lee Marvin with his strong, stony acting style so can't blame him. Gary Merrill did a decent job as the local newspaper editor but not as good as I've seen him in other movies. The actor who really made this movie any good at all was Paul Ford who played the cafe/restaurant owner. He was the only one who seemed to know how to carry a scene, and with pizazz. He has always been a great character actor. Another great character actor is Frank Cady who should have been given a larger part in this movie to help bring it along. I remember him as the store owner in Green Acres and more-so, I remember him as Doctor Williams on Ozzie and Harriet. He has always been a quiet yet competent actor. The female lead was someone named Mary Hosford, as in the credits it said she was being introduced, and I don't think she ever made another movie. She was OK but you didn't have any feelings for her part. One thing I liked was how the men stood and took off their hats when the flag went by in a parade. That was commonplace at one time, but I notice teenagers today often not bothering to take off their hats for the National Anthem at sports games. I don't think they are being ignorant, I think many ARE ignorant. Ignorant of what is proper, as no one ever taught them to respect the freedom represented by the US Flag. So, I'd say take a look at the movie if you don't have to go out of your way, and if you like the good old days and or horse or sulky racing. It's not a memorable movie, but worth seeing once I guess.

"The Missouri Traveler" is a film from Disney that seems to reinforce the values that Walt himself had growing up in this same state. He talked about the joy of growing up in small town Missouri and his Main Street USA at Disney World and Disneyland are modeled after this ideal.

The story begins with Biarn (Brandon De Wilde) walking down a country road. Tobias (Lee Marvin) stops to give the boy a lift into town. While it's obvious the boy is on the run, since he appears to be only about 13, the townsfolk don't question this and are quite taken with him. In fact, in a way, the people take him on as a special project, as they see he's very hard working, decent and honest. But there's a problem.... Tobias is a bit of a jerk and he seems to repeatedly make life tough for the kid. What's to become of this odd rivalry?

"The Missouri Traveler" is a very sweet film that manages to balance sentimentality and schmaltziness with entertainment. In other words, it doesn't overwhelm you with too much false sentimentality and the story works for many reasons. Of course the writing is good, but so is the nice direction and the great cast of actors....who are mostly character actors who really make you love the town. One of Disney's best live action films.

This movie shows us how "the boy from Shane",has matured, still a soft talking very polite youth. He is a runaway in this movie and is groomed by Lee Marvin, a hard taskmaster who has made a name for himself as the poor boy who made good in this story. He takes unfair advantage of Brandon, but in the process, really teaches the youth some valuable lessons about life and how to take care of himself. These are lessons we can all learn from, and Gary Merrill provides care, comfort, and guidance for Brandon as he overcomes the hard "teaching" of Marvin. The film is anchored by the fine acting of Paul Ford, as usual, a leader of the business community, but with a soft heart for the troubled. This is a great family film, free of Hollywoods blood, guts, sex, and profanity.