‘The Big Sky’: An Adventure as Big as the Great Northwest

Director Howard Hawks knows how to pack intrigue, action, and a good tale into a movie.
‘The Big Sky’: An Adventure as Big as the Great Northwest
(L–R) Jim Deakins (Kirk Douglas), Zeb Calloway (Arthur Hunnicutt), and Boone Caudill (Dewey Martin), in “The Big Sky.” RKO Radio Pictures
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NR | 2h 2m | Drama | 1952

One of the characters in the “The Big Sky” muses, “Sure is big country. Only thing bigger is the sky. Looks like God made it and forgot to put people in it.” Beneath that big sky, producer-director Howard Hawks’s epic Western depicts the coming together of whites and Indians, and women and men in miles and miles of country; it was once hidden, now wide open, but everywhere untamed.

The film’s introductory text admits that American history had many firsts: the first colonists to cross new prairies and mountains; the first to find gold, silver and copper; the first to plow new wheat fields and build new settlements. Set in the 1830s, this story is about the first fur hunters and traders who “took a keelboat up the wild and unexplored Missouri River … from St. Louis through 2,000 miles of hostile Indian country to the hills of Montana and opened a new land for the future—the Great Northwest.”
(L–R) Jim Deakins (Kirk Douglas), Zeb Calloway (Arthur Hunnicutt), and Boone Caudill (Dewey Martin), in “The Big Sky.” (RKO Radio Pictures)
(L–R) Jim Deakins (Kirk Douglas), Zeb Calloway (Arthur Hunnicutt), and Boone Caudill (Dewey Martin), in “The Big Sky.” RKO Radio Pictures

Dangerous Trapping

Northwestern trading routes are fraught. This isn’t due to the daunting terrain only. Free trappers, who prefer a personally lucrative operation, must fight off the trappers who work for a large fur company. Against that backdrop, friends Jim Deakins (Kirk Douglas) and Boone Caudill (Dewey Martin) reach St. Louis, looking for adventure, a livelihood as free trappers, and maybe a little romance.

Perhaps Caudill’s uncle, Zeb Calloway (Arthur Hunnicutt, also the narrator) can lead them to all of it? He does. The trio joins a free trapper band led by Frenchman ‘Frenchy’ Jourdonnais (Steven Geray). They boat their way beyond the familiar routes of the monopoly that tries to co-opt or crush competition.

Romance comes in the shape of Blackfoot Indian woman Teal Eye (Elizabeth Threatt, in her only film appearance). Both Deakins and Caudill have their eyes on her; hers is on only one of them. The daughter of an Indian chief, she’s a bargaining chip. The Indians won’t harm any hunting expedition, as long as she’s with them. So, company and free trappers tussle among themselves to do all they can to protect her and prise her from each other. The guts and guns of Deakins and Caudill, and the mountainous arms of Frenchy’s bodyguard, Romaine (Buddy Baer) keep Frenchy’s band mostly out of trouble. Mostly.

Filmed in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park, this film includes breathtaking shots of the countryside. With all the action he orchestrates, Hawks films so unobtrusively that it’s like he’s just eavesdropping on real conversations and peeking in on real-life adventures as they unfold. He cloaks intrigue in his six-minute, fog-drenched sequence as the men board the boat and leave St. Louis.

(L–R) Boone Caudill (Dewey Martin), Jim Deakins (Kirk Douglas), Zeb Calloway (Arthur Hunnicutt), and Frenchy Jourdonnais (Steven Geray) are caught in heavy fog, in “The Big Sky.” (RKO Radio Pictures)
(L–R) Boone Caudill (Dewey Martin), Jim Deakins (Kirk Douglas), Zeb Calloway (Arthur Hunnicutt), and Frenchy Jourdonnais (Steven Geray) are caught in heavy fog, in “The Big Sky.” RKO Radio Pictures

Lots of Action

Amid that stunning natural landscape, free trappers engage in gun battles with company mercenaries, foil an attempt to burn their boat, and take refuge under a roaring waterfall. In the melee, Deakins loses a finger and almost a leg. Watch for spectacular action scenes as men pole, row, and even haul their way past Fort Leavenworth and the Yellowstone River, braving heat, cold, rapids, rain, mosquitoes, and squabbling Indians; the Blackfoots can’t stand the Crows.

Douglas and Martin shine, but grizzled Hunnicutt is the star here. His steady, rapid-fire voice and piercing eyes dominate every scene he’s in. He commands the workmen, the natives, even Frenchy, by the sheer weight of his knowledge and experience. With no prior acting experience, former model Threatt brings a fiery dignity to her role, speaking only native Indian.

Teal Eye (Elizabeth Threatt) and Jim Deakins (Kirk Douglas), in “The Big Sky.” (RKO Radio Pictures)
Teal Eye (Elizabeth Threatt) and Jim Deakins (Kirk Douglas), in “The Big Sky.” RKO Radio Pictures

Hawks’s storytelling is too action-packed to allow for a meditation on patriotism. Still, he manages to use the initially wild and hostile Teal Eye as a metaphorical personification of bewitching virgin territory and new country. Once befriended or betrothed it expects, even warrants, the deepest love and loyalty. Hunnicutt knows it, but he’s unsure about which of his two young wards feel it. Deakins or Caudill? You’ll have to watch to find out, as they take amusingly contrasting and conflicting approaches to win her womanly charms.

In one striking scene, the boat docks at a riverbank, crawling with men who are noisily disembarking, unloading gear, weapons, food, drink, and supplies. The men are largely unaware that Frenchy has stashed Teal Eye, the only woman, on board. Suddenly, she steps down, her braids tucked beneath a veil, and walks ashore past them. A hush falls. The men stare open-mouthed, abruptly on their best behavior, knowing that only one among them will be lucky enough to win her over.

You can watch “The Big Sky” on TUBI, Plex, Amazon, and on DVD.
‘The Big Sky’ Director: Howard Hawks Starring: Arthur Hunnicutt, Kirk Douglas, Dewey Martin Not Rated Running Time: 2 hours, 2 minutes Release Date: Aug. 19, 1952 Rated: 4 stars out of 5
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Rudolph Lambert Fernandez
Rudolph Lambert Fernandez
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Rudolph Lambert Fernandez is an independent writer who writes on pop culture.