O Caminho de Oregon

Can't help but think this version of 'The Oregon Trail' was put together hurriedly to cash in on the enormous popularity of the TV series 'Wagon Train' with Ward Bond? Having said that, it's always a pleasure to watch Fred MacMurray, one of the movies most versatile stars, his stock in trade was comedy, but he was equally effective in drama, or rugged outdoor films, like this was supposed to be, and at 6'3" and that great physique, I think he fits the bill! First time I'd seen that gorgeous blonde, Nina Shipman, can't help but think Fred should have finished up with her instead of the Indian maiden? Fun to see some of the screens great old character actors like Henry Hull and John Carradine, plus Elizabeth Patterson, who played the Mother of Fred and Bing Crosby in 1938's 'Sing You Sinners', she would have been in her 80's here, and still great! Not a great film by any means, but enjoyable enough if your a fan of the stars, and I am! Sadly William Bishop died the same year the film was released, 1959!

I was enjoyed to see this pretty little western again. Colourful, action packed, with interesting and deep searched characters. Real good picture indeed.

But there is one thing that petrified me literally.I was torn to pieces when the Indian girl, who was in love with Mac Murray and saved him from the Indian warrior, says that she disowns her own people - because of his ferocity, after the ending slaughter. SHAME ON HER !!!

I have never heard such a crap, sorry nonsense, in a western before; and I have already seen thousands of them since I was a kid !!!

I am an Indian lover, and proud of that. I am also sad and angry when I think about all that white people did to the Indian nation. They wiped them out. For their land only. They nearly killed them all with bullets, hunger, plagues, alcohol, misery in reservation - even now...

So, in short, when I hear that kind of nonsense from a character in a movie, particularly an Indian one, i prefer think about something else or switch my TV set off.

But, let's be fair, except for that, "Oregon trail" is nevertheless a good western.

An anachronism is something that appears in the wrong time period. For example, if you see jet planes fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg...that would be a serious anachronism. However, sometimes these anachronisms aren't that obvious and make their way into movies. In the case of "The Oregon Trail", it is chock full of anachronisms...so many that you cannot believe that the writers did any research at all to make sure they were getting the facts right. And, for an ex-history teacher like me, it's really annoying!

Let's mention some of the many anachronisms in this film. The movie talks about the new 'Colt revolver' and show the soldiers using them in 1846. But Samuel Colt didn't make his prototype revolver in 1847 and didn't even open up his own company until 1855...so there would have been no Colt revolvers in 1846. The same goes for the repeating rifles you see in the movie...they didn't come out until about 1860 and were very rare even then....but the natives and soldiers all seem to have them! And, it's not just about weapons...at one point Fred MacMurray's character talks about sending a telegraph from out west to his employers on the East Coast. But the telegraph was never used until 1844 and telegraph wires didn't make it West until a decade later.

But anachronisms aren't the only problem in the film. President Polk had long hair and styled it in a mullet....but here he's nearly as bald as Kojak! And, often characters do things that simply make no sense...such as MacMurray's character defending a thief even when it's obvious the guy is stealing as well as his crazy fight with the guy with a whip early in the movie. The nasty guy is whipping the snot out of people and Fred is literally standing NEXT to the guy. But instead of socking him then, he backs up...thus allowing the whipper to whip him!! Who is THAT stupid??!! Fred....when you are standing NEXT to a guy with a whip, he cannot use it on you....get it?! Apparently not. Such is the care the writers and director took in making this film. And these little details are why I was not enthralled with this movie.

If you care, here is the plot: Fred plays Neal Harris, a reporter from back East. There's a rumor that President Polk is sending soldiers disguised as settlers into the disputed Oregon Territory. He heads there in a wagon train to determine if the rumor is true. Along the way, there's a lot of nonsense and really, really bombastic music!

Overall, this is a sloppy film and one I'd just as soon skip. There are far better westerns and far better Fred MacMurray films out there!

Poor James Polk. Nobody now knows or cares what the eleventh president of the United States looked like so they didn't bother to make Addison Richards (nearly twenty years his senior) look remotely like him in this lively CinemaScope potboiler with the usual mixture of imposing location work and obvious studio exteriors that reunited the star and director of 'I Married a Monster from Outer Space' in the latter's final film before the latter disappeared into TV.

By 1959, TV westerns had begun to replace the Hollywood B-western so there's the distinct feeling that "The Oregon Trail" -- despite its color and widescreen -- really isn't needed. Certainly there's no passion or style apparent in the film's making. It's more a case of everyone just going through the motions and collecting a paycheck.

Things begin unpromisingly with a scene involving President Polk in Washington D.C. This scene tries to give the story a historical context but it's on the dull and talky side. This is followed by another lax scene in which dapper, man-about-town reporter, Fred MacMurray, is assigned to go west on a wagon train and write a story for his newspaper. Finally, as MacMurray arrives in Westport, Missouri -- the eastern start of the Oregon Trail -- things begin rolling. They do so in a conventional way, however, and the entire trek west is filled with the usual situations: troubling encounters with Indians, dry water holes, tensions among the folk on the wagon train, an unexpected rain storm, a funeral service by the side of the trail, a settler protecting his apple-tree seedlings, etc. The use of stock shots and indoor sets hamper the effects of many of these scenes and there's no real villain to conflict with Fred MacMurray. There's also no tension about his mission since he makes no effort to hide it and the possible romantic- triangle involving him and William Bishop and Nina Shipman never takes form. Instead, MacMurray is implausibly paired with Gloria Talbott who appears fairly late in the proceedings.

Action builds toward a last-reel Indian attack which now seems quite "politically incorrect." (The "half-breed" Indian girl implausibly says: "It is because of this, I renounce my people.") Perhaps the only notable thing about "The Oregon Trail" is the scene in which Indians capture Fred MacMurray, strip off his shirt, and stake him out to die. (For a man in his early 50s, MacMurray looks pretty good bare-chested!) While TV westerns often staged these stake-outs, they're not all that common in the movies, and who'd believe one of them would "star" an actor about to get a career boost by playing in Disney comedies?!