Across the Wide Missouri
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Gossip Friday: Very Gray
From 1950: The person this story amuses most is–Clark Gable. It seems before he started “Across the Wide Missouri,” his studio instructed him to let his beard grow. Being a good boy who always does what he’s told, the virile Mr. G. just smiled and tucked away his razor. Finally, they called him into the studio for wardrobe fittings. When they got a gander at that luxuriant face foliage–very fine but very gray–they ordered the makeup department to make with a fast false beard. Clark went happily on his way–to the barber shop.
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Movie of the Week: Across the Wide Missouri (1951)
This week, Clark is roughin’ it as a 1800’s cowboy in Across the Wide Missouri. Clark is Flint Mitchell, a fur trapper from Kentucky leading a group of French and Scottish trappers through the rugged West in the 1820’s. Battling Blackfoot Indians all the way, especially their chief Ironshirt (Ricardo Montalban), he finds love with an Indian chief’s granddaughter (portrayed by Mexican actress Maria Elena Marques). When Clark was in New York City for a publicity tour for the film, he was interviewed by famed Los Angeles Times reporter Joe Hyams, who asked him about the film: “It stinks,” [Clark] said, “and you can quote me on that.” Indeed…
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Gossip Friday: Shave and a Haircut
From October 1950: King Clark Gable was sans shave-and-a-haircut for quite a spell before “Across the Wide Missouri” started filming in the wilds of Montana. You’ll see that man with a nature-boy hairdo and beard in the first scenes and you’ll also hear him sing. But Mr. G. doesn’t wear the hair mattress all through the picture. He polishes himself up when he meets the Indian maiden with whom he falls in love.
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Nutshell Reviews: Across the Wide Missouri (1951) and Lone Star (1952)
In a Nutshell: Across the Wide Missouri (1951) Directed by: William Wellman Co-stars: Ricardo Montalban, Adolphe Menjou Synopsis: Gable is Flint Mitchell, a fur trapper from Kentucky leading a group of French and Scottish trappers through the rugged West in the 1820′s. Battling Blackfoot Indians all the way, especially their chief Ironshirt (Montalban), he finds love with an Indian chief’s granddaughter (portrayed by Mexican actress Maria Elena Marques). Best Gable Quote: “You’re full of magic…the one woman in the world for me and I love you, pigeon. Maybe I didn’t know it when I found you but I know it now. You can’t understand what I’m trying to tell you…
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{Photos} 1951: Clark Gable Takes His Lady on Location
In 1951, Clark Gable and his new wife, Sylvia Ashley, headed into the Colorado wilderness to film Across the Wide Missouri. This pictorial was in LOOK magazine: Along with 325 actors and technicians, the Clark Gables lived and worked for six weeks in a little movie boom-town especially built in the Colorado Rockies for Across the Wide Missouri. As newlyweds, the Gables were given a secluded two-room log cabin. At first Mrs. Gable, the former Lady Sylvia Ashley, set out to do all the cooking–but finally settled for a lone coffee-maker. The Gables, like the rest of the crew, in a mammoth tent dining hall accomadating the entire…