Just got back from traveling trough Shepherd of the Hills country - the Ozarks. Even stopped at the "Shepherd of the Hills" tourist trap in Branson, where I took the tour of the old homestead, and learned a few interesting things...
*The Characters from the novel were all based on real people...the names were changed and the story was completely fiction, but many of the aspects of the novel were based on people and stories that writer Harold Bell Wright knew about while staying in the Ozarks.
*The people in that area are not crazy about the movie that Duke starred in, because the screenplay strayed so far from the original novel. According to the tour guide, Duke made an appearance to the homestead, I believe he said the 60's, to apologize to the people of the area because he knew what the novel meant to them.
When I got home I popped the DVD in a watched it for the first time in while....good movie. While Duke gets top billing, it's really more of a Harry Carey movie, as he plays the story's protagonist. While it's true that's it's a completely different story than the novel, the movie tells a good little story in it's own right.
