The Big Sky is a 1952 American Western film produced and directed by
Howard Hawks, based on the novel of the same name.
The cast includes Kirk Douglas, Dewey Martin, Elizabeth Threatt and Arthur Hunnicutt,
who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Though not considered among Hawks's major achievements by most critics,
the film was chosen by Jonathan Rosenbaum for his alternative list of the Top 100 American Films.
Apart from Duke 'Pal' Kirk Douglas, look out for
Hank Worden as Poordevil, dubbed with a strange voice!
User Review
Very Authentic Fur Trader Adventure; Not Fast-Paced But Engrossing
22 June 2005 | by silverscreen888
This feature is an exercise in pure filmic story-telling for Howard Hawks; and the talented veteran director appears to enjoys this unusual freedom from having to worry about indoor sets, intricate lighting setups and costume designs (although Dorthy Jeakins' costumes are wonderful). Here he gets to realize the best elements of A.B. Guthrie's tough novel of the early West, "The Big Sky". Bringing to life the major characters of this exciting adventure are Kirk Douglas as happy-go-lucky Jim Deakins, Dewey Martin, adequate as Boone Caudill, Arthur Hunnicut in award-winning form as Uncle Zeb, Jim Davis as Streak, Steven Geray lovable as Frenchie, owner of the riverboat, the Mandan, Hank Worden as Poor Devil, and Elizabeth Threatt as Teal Eye, the Amerind girl Geray is returning so they can open fur trade with the proud and wary Bl to enliven the story by playing up the differences between Martin and Threatt one of h signature male-female disagreements. Douglas and the other two form an interesting love triangle; and the climax that requires Martin to decide whether he is going to turn down what Douglas would give anything he has to obtain is very satisfying to my way of thinking. This a film that is atmospheric, always interesting, and a first-rate look at the old West as it was before it was changed forever. The characters' comments on the ant-hill aspects of overcrowded St. Louis, the jumping-off-place to the west, population 12,000, tell us that we are in a different, simpler and cleaner era of civilization. This is one of the best films about the era of the fur trappers and their ways and trade ever produced in every way