It's 1763 and two men Capt. Christopher Holden (Gary Cooper) and trader Garth (Howard Da Silva) taking the same ship back to Virginia from London bid for the contract of a woman named Abby (Paulette Goddard) who was given a choice between execution in England or 14 years of indentured servitude in the colonies. The winner Holden gallantly frees her and leaves the ship to join his girlfriend about to marry her . The loser who illegally sells guns to the local Seneca Indians destroys the contract and manages Abby working in his saloon . Along the way Cooper suffers assaults and has to help the settlers fight Indians and escaping from savage natives. Crimson-haired slave girl . . . desired by a man of destiny! Together they shared the thrills of the most daring spectacle De Mille ever filmed !They live again¡ Dauntless men and women who kept America unconquered ¡. I bought this woman for my own..and I'll kill the man who touches her!From A People Like This Came America's Heritage. In A Story Like This Lies America's Greatness!
Lavish film , in fact producers spent a reported 4 million dollar to bring to life this thrilling and moving melodrama , and most of it shows up on the big screen, while outstanding the heroic derring-do of Cooper including the overwhelming getaway by Gary along with Paulette over treacherous and wild rapids and falls that result to be most notable among the colorful set pieces . This is a spectacular adventure combining melodrama with improbability and garnishes it with hokum enough . Containing some splendidly staged scenes in which Gary Cooper has to keep rescuing Goddard throughout the film as well as fighting Da Silva . As Gary Cooper is very good , as usual , as the brave hero attempting to foil plans of controlling the Ohio Valley and to deliver peace belts to the Indians who have already sent out war belts. And female strring Paulette Goddard is frankly gorgeous . Adding a nice gallery of villains as Howard Da Silva as an eminently hissable nasty playing the scurvy trader , Boris Karloff making an unusual appearance as an Indian chief . Furthermore , other illustrous secondaries as Cecil Kellaway, Ward Bond, Katherine DeMille , Henry Wilcoxon , C. Aubrey Smith ,Mike Mazurski , Porter Hall, Jane Nigh, Alan Napier , Raymond Hatton and Marc Lawrence .
It displays a colorful photography from Ray Rennahan , and shot on location in Allegheny Mountain, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, , Big Mesa Falls, Ashton, Idaho, Wolf Creek, New York State,Conejo Grade, Los Angeles,Snake River, Clearwater River,Idaho . Including excellent special effects by Academy Award winning Gordon Jennings . Along with impressive production design by Hans Dreier and Walter Tyler . Thrilling as well as romantic musical score by the classic Victor Young . This vigorous motion picture was realized in Cecil B DeMille's ordinary style , supported by a magnificent second unit by Harold Rosson ; both of them made some greatests spectacles of all time .DeMille especiality was spectacle and he certainly delivers a full measure of it. Although a nimbler action filmmaker than Cecil might have made even more of the Oscar-winning effects work . Cecil produced and directed 70 films and was involved in many more . Many of his films were romantic sexual comedies , as he is supposed to have believed that Americans were curious only about money and sex . His best-known were biblical epics that further established him as the symbol of Hollywood such as ¨King of Kings¨ (1927), The ten Commandments (1923) , ¨The Crusades¨(1935) , ¨Reap of the wild wind¨ (1949) , and , of course , Charlton Heston's ¨Ten commandments¨ (1956) and he made two versions about ¨The Buccaneer : 1938 and 1958¨ that was ended by Anthony Quinn and Arthur Rosson . Rating : 7/10 . Well worth watching . Better than average
