It's 1820 in Kentucky. James Monroe is president, and Burt Lancaster is a freedom-loving woodsman who takes his son, MacDonald, and heads for the river town where they will say hello to Lancaster's big brother, McIntire and his wife, Una Merkel. Along the way they pick up a young lady, Foster, and meet a friendly school teacher, Lynn.
Well, while they's a-waiting' for the river steamer, ol' Burt soon has two wimmen a-moonin' after him -- one a indentured servant gal and the other a purty school ma'rm a-looking for a husband to go with her house. I shore hope I spelled "indentured" wright. Don't know what it means though. Maybe it means she got all her teeth. Sounds good for ol' Burt but it ain't so hot. I oncet had FIVE gals a-moonin' after ME and they was all purty too. Well, we done heard the chimes at midnight more'n oncet, and one night when we was pie-eyed there was all SIX of us, a-baying at the moon like Burt's huntin' dog, Pharaoh. The voices tell me to do things like this.
The problem is that Burt has spent all their "Texas money" to free Foster from bondage. Now he has to go to work for his brother McIntire, and his boy has to go to school and learn something. "I'll turn him into a businessman," says well-meaning McIntire, "and I'll wear that buckskin right off him and OUT of him." This is not Burt's idea of a good time. He likes to lie out in the woods with his boy on a "prime night" and chase a fox or two with Pharaoh. ("The unspeakable in pursuit of the inedible.")
The two of them yearn for the open skies of Texas where the air "tastes like it's never been breathed before." Aside from not having any money, there's another problem or two that need facing. Kentucky is a country of feuding clans and one scabrous clan is on Burt's tail. Another is the local mean guy who runs a saloon and wields a great big whip -- Walter Matthau, if you can believe it. On top of that, McIntire's wife begins to scold them for their backwood ways. She kicks the dog off the couch and nags Burt and his boy, which is beginning to sound painfully like my marriage.
Two outstanding scenes for a warm and ordinary family movie: Burt and son playing rich hicks for riverboat gamblers and then turning the roulette wheel on them; a really NASTY fight between the sadistic and dirty-fighting Matthau and the proud and indefatigable Burt. Burt is whipped to tatters but guess who is knocked out.
Very nice photography by Ernest Lazslo and a subtle score without a whistleable tune in it from Bernard Herrmann. Burt's direction is functional without being distinctive. It's not a bad movie. It's a warm, family drama with a little romance and violence to spice it up.
Well, while they's a-waiting' for the river steamer, ol' Burt soon has two wimmen a-moonin' after him -- one a indentured servant gal and the other a purty school ma'rm a-looking for a husband to go with her house. I shore hope I spelled "indentured" wright. Don't know what it means though. Maybe it means she got all her teeth. Sounds good for ol' Burt but it ain't so hot. I oncet had FIVE gals a-moonin' after ME and they was all purty too. Well, we done heard the chimes at midnight more'n oncet, and one night when we was pie-eyed there was all SIX of us, a-baying at the moon like Burt's huntin' dog, Pharaoh. The voices tell me to do things like this.
The problem is that Burt has spent all their "Texas money" to free Foster from bondage. Now he has to go to work for his brother McIntire, and his boy has to go to school and learn something. "I'll turn him into a businessman," says well-meaning McIntire, "and I'll wear that buckskin right off him and OUT of him." This is not Burt's idea of a good time. He likes to lie out in the woods with his boy on a "prime night" and chase a fox or two with Pharaoh. ("The unspeakable in pursuit of the inedible.")
The two of them yearn for the open skies of Texas where the air "tastes like it's never been breathed before." Aside from not having any money, there's another problem or two that need facing. Kentucky is a country of feuding clans and one scabrous clan is on Burt's tail. Another is the local mean guy who runs a saloon and wields a great big whip -- Walter Matthau, if you can believe it. On top of that, McIntire's wife begins to scold them for their backwood ways. She kicks the dog off the couch and nags Burt and his boy, which is beginning to sound painfully like my marriage.
Two outstanding scenes for a warm and ordinary family movie: Burt and son playing rich hicks for riverboat gamblers and then turning the roulette wheel on them; a really NASTY fight between the sadistic and dirty-fighting Matthau and the proud and indefatigable Burt. Burt is whipped to tatters but guess who is knocked out.
Very nice photography by Ernest Lazslo and a subtle score without a whistleable tune in it from Bernard Herrmann. Burt's direction is functional without being distinctive. It's not a bad movie. It's a warm, family drama with a little romance and violence to spice it up.