The Oregon Trail

The Oregon Trail (1959)

When the cry of a frontier on the move was '54-40 or fight' !

In 1846, a reporter for the New York Herald joins a wagon train bound for the Oregon Territory. He hopes to confirm a rumor that President Polk is sending in soldiers disguised as settlers in order to strengthen American claims to the Territory.

Date of release
1959-08-31
TMDB
5.7 / 10 (19)
Runtime
1h 26m
Genres
Western
Director
Gene Fowler Jr.

Casting

Interesting facts

The Oregon Trail is a 1959 American CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color Western film directed by Gene Fowler Jr. and starring Fred MacMurray, William Bishop and Nina Shipman. The film's sets were designed by the art directors John B. Mansbridge and Lyle R. Wheeler.

Production

The film was shot in May 1959. It was financed by Robert L. Lippert who made B films for Fox, The Oregon Trail was more expensive than most of his films, being budgeted at around $300,000. Lippert said the film "won't lose" but could "have used another $100,000."

Gene Fowler had made a number of Westerns for Lippert. He remembered The Oregon Trail as being "a son of a bitch – Lippert really screwed that one up. He made a bet with Spyros Skouras that he could make a big outdoor Western without ever leaving the Fox lot and like an idiot I agreed to direct it."

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended