The Oregon Trail (1959)

Fred MacMurray is Neal Harris, a newspaperman sent to Oregon by the editor of the New York Herald to find out if the government is secretly sending troops West to prepare for a fight with the British over control of the territory.

He joins a wagon train led by a grizzled frontiersman named Seton, fights a hard-drinking, bullwhip-carrying bully named Brizzard, makes friends with a down-on-his-luck orchardist named Garrison and flirts a little with a pretty blond named Prudence.

Along the way, he figures out that Prudence’s more serious suitor, George Wayne (William Bishop), is a U.S. Army officer.

He’s about to send a dispatch to that effect back to his newspaper when he meets trapper Gabe Hastings (John Dierkes) and his half-breed daughter Shona (Gloria Talbott).

In return for a handsome price, Hastings offers to “hide” Harris from Wayne in a nearby Indian camp.

In truth, Hastings is a renegade, about to make Harris an Indian captive. He’s angered by white men who are spoiling the West and eager to lead an attack on nearby Fort Laramie, which is precisely where the wagon train is heading.

Fred MacMurray as Neal Harris, the newspaperman sent West to investigate in The Oregon Trail (1959)

William Bishop as Capt. George Wayne, secretly heading West under government orders in The Oregon Trail (1959)

Review:

The last and weakest of MacMurray’s series of 1950s Westerns. The film suffers from the liberal use of poorly matched stock footage, embarrassingly obvious stage-set scenery for what’s supposed to be an epic journey West and a poorly choreographed final assault on the fort.

Oh, and nothing looks very 1840-ish. In fact, the wagon train guide bemoans the demise of the buffalo in one scene — while looking at stock footage, of course — though the film is supposed to take place in 1846, before the great buffalo slaughter began.

With the likes of Henry Hull, John Carradine and John Dierkes, the film features lots of faces familiar to Western fans. But Nina Shipman, who plays Prudence, wasn’t one of them. This marked her first and only Western film role, though she appeared in a number of TV series, Westerns included, through the 1960s.

Gloria Talbott as Shona Hastings, the fur trapper’s daughter Harris befriends in The Oregon Trail (1959)

Nina Shipman as Prudence Cooper, one of the settlers heading West in The Oregon Trail (1959)

Directed by:
Gene Fowler Jr.

Cast:
Fred MacMurray … Neal Harris
William Bishop … Capt. George Wayne
Nina Shipman … Prudence Cooper
Gloria Talbott … Shona Hastings
Henry Hull … George Seton
John Carradine … Zachariah Garrison
John Dierkes … Gabe Hastings
Roxene Wells … Flossie Shoemaker
Elizabeth Patterson .. Maria Cooper
Gene N. Fowler … Richard Cooper
James Bell … Jeremiah Cooper
John Slosser … Johnny
Ralph Sanford … John Decker
Sherry Spalding … Lucy
Tex Terry … Brizzard
Ollie O’Toole … James Bennett

Runtime: 86 min.

Title tune: “Ballad of the Oregon Trail”
Also featured: “Never Alone”

Henry Hull as George Seton, guide for the wagon train in The Oregon Trail (1959)

John Carradine as Zachariah Garrison, the man heading West with his apple trees in The Oregon Trail (1959)

Memorable lines:

Newspaper editor James Bennett: “On your way out, tell Miss Shoemaker to get me a pickled herring. And some milk.”
Neal Harris: “And some milk? Mr. Bennett, I’d say your reputation for being a courageous man is well founded.”

Grandma Cooper: “Jeremiah, you’ve been a failure all your life. Don’t know why you had to come more than 3,000 miles to keep on being it.”

George Seton: “Ain’t you never rid a horse before?”
Neal Harris. “Oh, yeah. Quite a while ago though. I remember the horse had rockers under it.”

Neal Harris, as Shona frees him from being staked out: “Why are you doing this for me?”
She grabs him and kisses him.
Harris: “I guess that answers my question.”

John Dierkes as Gabe Hastings, the fur trapper Harris trusts with his message in The Oregon Trail (1959)

Tex Terry as Brizzard, a troublemaker among the wagon train settlers in The Oregon Trail (1959)

James Bell as Jeremiah Cooper, Prudence’s father and one of the settlers heading West in The Oregon Trail (1959)

Elizabeth Peterson as Maria Cooper, Prudence’s grandma, who takes ill on the trip West in The Oregon Trail (1959)