Details

Release year: 1962

Storyline

A family saga covering several decades of Westward expansion in the 19th century, including the Gold Rush, the Civil War, and the building of the railroads.

Top credits

Directors

Writers

Cast

James Stewart — Linus Rawlings
John Wayne — Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman
Gregory Peck — Cleve Van Valen
Henry Fonda — Jethro Stuart

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Awards

3 wins & 5 nominations

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Did you know

• During filming in June 1961, Karl Malden had to be rushed to hospital to have an emergency appendectomy.

• Stuntman Bob Morgan was seriously injured, and almost died, while performing a stunt in this picture. Toward the end of the film, there is a gunfight on a moving train between the sheriff and a gang of train robbers. Morgan was one of the stuntmen playing a robber and was crouched next to a pile of logs on a flatcar. The chains holding the logs together snapped, and Morgan was crushed by the falling logs. He was so badly hurt it took him five years to recover to the point where he was able to move by himself and walk unaided.

• Cinerama was so expansive that it couldn't really be configured for close-ups. The nearest it could manage was to place a key actor in the central frame and try to get in as close as possible. This proved to be very intimidating for a lot of actors as the camera (an enormous piece of apparatus under a black hood with three lenses) would be literally in their face--18 inches away, to be precise.