"Many Rivers To Cross" starring Robert Taylor and Eleanor Parker

(this blog was begun the night of Monday October 7, 2019)

Tonight's movie was "Many Rivers To Cross" (1955), A Western romantic comedy starring Robert Taylor and Eleanor Parker. The genre is one you don't see very much. I know of Western comedies; "Blazing Saddles" comes immediately to mind, and I know of Western musicals such as "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers" in which romance is the main theme, but I can't think of any other Western rom/coms off hand that combine both elements.

At any rate, the year is 1798 and we are in the backwoods of Kentucky. Robert Taylor is "Bushrod Gentry", a frontiersman in the Daniel Boone mode, complete with coonskin cap. When we first encounter Bushrod, he is under attack by a gang of Shawnee Indians. Fighting is one of Bushrod's major talents, and he is doing pretty well against four Shawnee, but then he is down for the count after being stabbed in the shoulder. Now at a disadvantage, he is just about to be overwhelmed, when we hear "bang! bang! bang"!, and down the Indians fall.

I realize I left out a "bang"! for the fourth Indian, but one must write in rhythmic sentences and the extra syllable would've upset the flow. But rest assured that the fourth guy went down too, because the shooter was none other than the rootin' tootin' Mary Stuart Cherne, played by the statuesque Miss Parker. She can blaze a trail as well as any man, can win any shootin' contest and even has her own Indian guide. She's a badass who comes from a family of Irishmen, three brothers and their father. Mary Stuart is the only girl in the family, but you'd never know it except for her looks.

For the third movie in a row, marriage is an issue. Mary's father (Victor McLaglen, a favorite of John Ford) wants her to find a man so she won't spend her life tomboying around in dangerous Shawnee territory. After rescuing Robert Taylor, she settles on him as a prospective husband. He, however, is having none of it. Taylor is his own man, a lone operator of the type who - in Hollywood movies of the period - "doesn't trust women" in the sense that he thinks they are trouble because they want to tie him down, and he must be free to live life on his own terms, in this case out in the wilderness.

I must interject here to say that I am only interpreting the character's motivations and fictional personality. I myself wish I were tied down, haha, and had a nice lady who would like to marry me.  :):)

So please don't confuse me with Bushrod Gentry in the movie. If I had Eleanor Parker chasing after me, I'd give up frontier life immediately, and  the plot would be over.  :)

But this is a 1950s Western rom/com, so Taylor, as Bushrod, must remain irascible. He doesn't dislike women, but is just a man's man who prefers fighting to romance. But wait a minute! Everything is mixed up, because Eleanor Parker prefers romance, and she has chosen Taylor to be her husband, but she is more than capable of fighting him too, or at least pursuing him to the ends of the Kentucky wilderness to ensure that matrimony will ensue.

I liked "Many Rivers To Cross" but I didn't love it, and the reason was the script. You know how sometimes I rave about movies that have "no fat", in which nothing extraneous is present and every scene leads into the next? That's not the case here. For me, there too much time was spent establishing Bushrod's macho credentials. For the first half of the film, he gets into one fight after another - all humorously staged - with Parker's brothers, her suitors, and other tough guys who want to prove something by calling him out. I was thinking "I get it already, he's unbeatable". I wish they would've spent more time with Bushrod out in the wilderness and perhaps made more of Parker's attempts to track him down. She shines in her role - steals the movie, really - and besides being a stone cold knockout, Parker shows she's also got a little bit of Lucille Ball in her, i.e. a tall redhead who's good at goofy comedy.

There was one bonus to all the fight scenes : at one point, Alan Hale Jr. shows up at the cabin to pound Bushrod into the ground. He plays Eleanor Parker's rejected boyfriend. On hand are Parker's three brothers, who also want to beat up Bushrod because he is refusing to marry their sister. One of the brothers is played by none other than Russell Johnson, and so in this scene you get The Skipper and The Professor in the same room, nine years before "Gilligan's Island" began.  :)

It's possible that I'm missing something, or that I need to see the movie again, because although it's overall IMDB was average (6.3), the written reviews - of which there were many - were all laudatory. Many folks rated it 10/10 or 8/10 at the very least, and called it a gem of old-fashioned romance. The fans loved Taylor and Parker (both of whom are great) and several said that they've watched the film many times. So perhaps I need to do that myself, maybe in the New Year.

For now, however, I'm just gonna give it 1 1/2 (one and a half) Thumbs Up, while still giving a recommendation to fans of romantic comedy. Ironically, if the script had concentrated more on the romance and the "wilderness aspect" of the story, rather than on the hijinx, I might have been more enthusiastic. It's certainly not a bad film, and with Taylor and Parker you can't go wrong, but I thought it could've been better.

Next time I watch it, I'll probably change my mind and give it a rave review. ////

Well, that's all for now. It's Tuesday Afternoon, so please cue The Moody Blues as I head out the door. I'm going to the Libe in search of horror movies to begin the Halloween viewing season. Thank goodness there is no Dodger game today to get nervous/depressed about, lol.

Enjoy the rest of your afternoon, and I'll see you tonight at the Usual Time!

Tons of love.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)