By Frank Miller
Yellowstone Kelly
Brief Synopsis
A trapper gets caught between his young assistant and a beautiful Arapaho woman.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Gordon Douglas
Director
Clint Walker
Luther "Yellowstone" Kelly
Edward Byrnes
Anse Harper
John Russell
Gall
Ray Danton
Sayapi
Claude Akins
Sergeant
Film Details
Genre
Western
Adaptation
Release Date
Sep
5,
1959
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Location
Flagstaff, Arizona, United States; San Francisco Peaks, Arizona, United States; Sedona, Arizona, United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the novel Yellowstone Kelly by Clay Fisher (Boston, 1957).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 31m
Sound
Mono (RCA Sound System)
Color
Color (Technicolor)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
8,252ft
(10 reels)
Synopsis
Luther "Yellowstone" Kelly, trapper, surveyor and Indian scout, arrives at the Yellowstone River to board a steamship bound for Fort Buford, where he plans to sell his skins. At the fort, Major Towns, the commanding officer, asks Kelly to scout the Sioux territory south of the Missouri for the Army, and Kelly reluctantly agrees, setting out with Anse Harper, a young man he met on the steamship. As they approach the Snake River, they are captured by Sayapi, a young Sioux, and brought before Gall, chief of the Seven Nations and a hater of whites. Gall reminds Kelly that seven years earlier, Kelly had saved his life after Gall was shot by soldiers and left for dead, and he now demands that Kelly do the same for a captured Arapaho, a beautiful maiden named Wahleeah. Kelly manages to remove the bullet from her spine, and Gall allows Kelly and Anse to leave, despite Sayapi's objections. Later, Wahleeah, having managed to escape from the Sioux, approaches Kelly's cabin half-dead from fever, and when Kelly warns that she will die if she is moved, Gall orders that she remain there until the winter, provoking a jealous outburst by Sayapi. When she revives, Wahleeah asks Kelly to take her to her own people, but he refuses, unwilling to let anything interfere with his trapping. Aware that soldiers are about to cross the river, Kelly warns Major Towns that a thousand Sioux are on the other side, but Towns, eager to punish the Sioux for the massacre at Little Bighorn, orders his soldiers to drive them back to the Dakota Territory. While, Kelly is with the soldiers, Anse decides to take Wahleeah back to her people, but in a violent confrontation, Sayapi and his men stop them, and Kelly returns to find his house aflame and Anse dying. An anguished Kelly tracks Sayapi to a cave and kills him, then rescues Wahleeah and tells her he will now return her to her tribe. When Kelly learns that Major Downs died in an attack by the Sioux, and the surviving soldiers are surrounded, he goes unarmed to meet Gall, who offers Kelly his freedom in exchange for Wahleeah, but insists that the soldiers must die. Kelly refuses, and Gall orders the Sioux to attack. When Kelly asks Gall how many more must die, proclaiming that the land no longer smiles on the Sioux people, Gall leaves in frustration. Sometime later, Kelly and Wahleeah ride mules to the river, where he signals a steamship to stop for them.
Director
Gordon Douglas
Director
Cast
Clint Walker
Luther "Yellowstone" Kelly
Edward Byrnes
Anse Harper
John Russell
Gall
Ray Danton
Sayapi
Claude Akins
Sergeant
Rhodes Reason
Major Towns
Andra Martin
Wahleeah
Gary Vinson
Lieutenant
Warren Oates
Corporal
Harry Shannon
Captain
Buff Brady
Helmsman
Nesdon Booth
Reed
Chief Yowlachie
Medicine man
Vince St. Cyr
Indian
Clyde Howdy
Indian
Foster Hood
Drummer
Crew
Harold Barker
Best Boy
Gordon Bau
Makeup Supervisor
Marjorie Best
Costume Design
Bill Cline
Camera Operator
Stanley Fleischer
Art Director
Carl Guthrie
Director of Photography
Bill Hawkes
Sound Editing
Howard Hohler
Script Supervisor
Howard Jackson
Music Conductor
Vic Johnson
Gaffer
Burt Kennedy
Screenwriter
Roy Kennedy
Wrangler
Bill Kissel
Assistant Director
Ed Luckey
Sound Editing
Larry Meek
Sound Editing
M. A. Merrick
Sound
William Wallace
Set Decoration
Levi Williams
Props
William Ziegler
Film Editor
Videos
Movie Clip
Film Details
Genre
Western
Adaptation
Release Date
Sep
5,
1959
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Location
Flagstaff, Arizona, United States; San Francisco Peaks, Arizona, United States; Sedona, Arizona, United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the novel Yellowstone Kelly by Clay Fisher (Boston, 1957).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 31m
Sound
Mono (RCA Sound System)
Color
Color (Technicolor)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
8,252ft
(10 reels)
Articles
Yellowstone Kelly
TV star Clint Walker and director Gordon Douglas re-teamed for this Western after their work on 1958's Fort Dobbs. But although the earlier film had been a box-office disappointment, Warner Bros. didn't pull back for their second feature. They actually gave Walker a bigger production with Technicolor cinematography and extensive location work in Arizona that give the film an impressive look unlike anything audiences at the time would find on their TVs. Burt Kennedy adapted Heck Allen's fact-inspired novel about Western trapper Luther "Yellowstone" Kelly (Walker) caught between the Sioux, who have granted him unprecedented access to their lands, and a Cavalry troop out to avenge the Battle of Little Big Horn. Warner's tried to raise the film's box-office allure by matching Walker with not one, but two other stars of their TV series -- Edward Byrnes, who played parking lot attendant "Kookie" on 77 Sunset Strip, as Walker's apprentice and John Russell, the rugged star of Lawman, as the Sioux chief. They even pushed the connection to their TV series with the tagline "Clint's back!...and 'Kookie' is with him!" Contemporary audiences may be intrigued to catch early performances from Claude Akins and Warren Oates, the latter in his first billed film role.
By Frank Miller
By Frank Miller
Yellowstone Kelly
TV star Clint Walker and director Gordon Douglas re-teamed for this Western after their work on 1958's Fort Dobbs. But although the earlier film had been a box-office disappointment, Warner Bros. didn't pull back for their second feature. They actually gave Walker a bigger production with Technicolor cinematography and extensive location work in Arizona that give the film an impressive look unlike anything audiences at the time would find on their TVs. Burt Kennedy adapted Heck Allen's fact-inspired novel about Western trapper Luther "Yellowstone" Kelly (Walker) caught between the Sioux, who have granted him unprecedented access to their lands, and a Cavalry troop out to avenge the Battle of Little Big Horn. Warner's tried to raise the film's box-office allure by matching Walker with not one, but two other stars of their TV series -- Edward Byrnes, who played parking lot attendant "Kookie" on 77 Sunset Strip, as Walker's apprentice and John Russell, the rugged star of Lawman, as the Sioux chief. They even pushed the connection to their TV series with the tagline "Clint's back!...and 'Kookie' is with him!" Contemporary audiences may be intrigued to catch early performances from Claude Akins and Warren Oates, the latter in his first billed film role.
By Frank Miller
Quotes
The Major is in a hurry to get buried on a Montana mountain.- Sergeant
Yeah, he said he was gonna cross the Yellowstone and jump the Sioux.- Yellowstone Kelly
Will he try a fool thing like that?- Anse Harper
If he does, the ground is going to be full of soldiers.- Yellowstone Kelly
Trivia
Notes
Although an August 1957 Hollywood Reporter news item reported that Jules Schermer would produce the film, his contribution has not been confirmed. According to the pressbook for the film, scenes were shot in Arizona in and around Flagstaff, the San Francisco Peaks area and Sedona, where the battle at the end was filmed. The pressbook states that 114 Navajo Indians portrayed Sioux warriors. The film featured stars from three Warner Bros.-produced ABC-TV series: Clint Walker of Cheyenne; Edward Byrnes, who played "Kookie" on 77 Sunset Strip; and John Russell of Lawman. Reviewers noted that this film would test whether stars of television would attract viewers to movie theaters.
Variety commented, "Box office response to this picture will provide more data on the question of whether stars developed in teleseries can draw paying customers on the strength of their names rather than tv characters they portray. It's a good bet that they will, especially in this combination." Motion Picture Daily predicted that the stars' "names May well bring out to theaters that part of the so-called 'lost' audience which has been lost because of TV westerns and action dramas." Variety praised the film's "craftsmanship in every department" which, it suggested, "displayed the three tv heroes in a production framework not approachable in telefilming." Los Angeles Mirror-News called the film "a throwback to those Technicolored cavalry versus Indian days before the movie western went somberly psychological, tense and black-and-white."
Luther "Yellowstone" Kelly (1849-1928) was a real historical figure who became a well-known trapper and Indian scout in Wyoming. Another film featuring Kelly is the 1956 United Artists picture Gun Brothers.
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1959
Released in United States 1959
