The Oregon Trail ** (1959, Fred MacMurray, William Bishop, Nina Shipman, Gloria Talbott, Henry Hull, John Carradine, John Dierkes) – Classic Movie Review 10,631

Fred MacMurray stars as Eastern newspaper reporter Neal Harris, who comes West on a wagon-train pioneers story and helps to smooth the way between Indians and settlers in mid-19th century Oregon, in co-writer/ director Gene Fowler Jr’s 1959 Western film The Oregon Trail.

But President James Polk (Addison Richards) has sent in undercover soldiers masquerading as settlers to grab the territory for the US from the British. Harris clashes with Captain George Wayne (William Bishop), the leader of Polk’s agents, and they get involved in a love triangle over young pioneer woman Prudence Cooper (Nina Shipman).

[Spoiler alert] MacMurray wisely swaps news reporting for a happier life with a half-Arapaho woman called Shona Hastings (Gloria Talbott), the daughter of a mountain man named Gabe Hastings (John Dierkes). And Prudence ends up with Wayne.

Despite various intriguing themes and plotlines, this all turns into a bland, clichéd and rather stale yarn. But the movie looks good filmed in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color against what look like gorgeous Western backdrops even if they are all filmed in the 20th Century Fox lot, while MacMurray and the odd spurt of powerful action help to keep it on the right trail.

There is a fair support cast but MacMurray has to carry the acting virtually alone, even if he was never really happy in Westerns, saying ‘the horse and I never were as one’. He previously had success with The Texas Rangers in 1936 and The Far Horizons (1955).

Also in the cast are William Bishop, Nina Shipman, Gloria Talbott, Henry Hull, John Carradine, Elizabeth Patterson, John Dierkes, James Bell, Ralph Sanford, Tex Terry, Arvo Ojala, Roxene Wells, John Slosser, Sherry Spalding and Gene N Fowler, with Ollie O’Toole as James Gordon Bennett, Arvo Ojala as Ellis, Ed Wright as Jesse, Oscar Beregi, Jr. as Ralph Clayman and Lumsden Hare as Sir Richard Wallingham, the British Ambassador.

The film’s sets are designed by John B Mansbridge and Lyle R Wheeler.

The film was shot in May 1959 in Hollywood, California.

It was financed by producer Robert L Lippert who made B films for 20th Century Fox, but it was more expensive than most of his films, at around $300,000, so he said the film ‘won’t lose’ but it could ‘have used another $100,000.’

Gene Fowler Jr recalled: ‘It was a son of a bitch. Lippert really screwed that one up. He made a bet with Spyros Skouras [the president of 20th Century Fox] that he could make a big outdoor Western without ever leaving the Fox lot, and like an idiot I agreed to direct it.’

Louis Vittes writes the story and screenplay, with Gene Fowler Jr also credited for screenplay.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,631

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