How the West Was Won (film)

How the West Was Won is a 1962 American Metrocolor epicWestern film. The picture was one of the last oldfashioned epic films made by MetroGoldwynMayer to enjoy great success. Set between 1839 and 1889, it follows four generations of a family starting as the Prescotts as they move ever westward, from western New York state to the Pacific Ocean. The picture was filmed in the curvedscreen threeprojector Cinerama process.

Zebulon Prescott Karl Malden and his family set out west for the frontier via the Erie Canal, the west at this time being the Illinois country. On the journey, they meet mountain man Linus Rawlings James Stewart, who is traveling east to Pittsburgh to trade his furs. He and Zebulons daughter Eve Carroll Baker are attracted to each other, but Linus is not ready to settle down.Linus stops at an isolated trading post run by a murderous clan of river pirates headed by Alabama Colonel Hawkins Walter Brennan. Linus is betrayed when he accompanies seductive Dora Hawkins Brigid Bazlen into a cave to see a varmint. She stabs him in the back and he falls into a deep hole. He is not seriously wounded, and is able to rescue the Prescott party from a similar fate. The bushwhacking thieves Lee Van Cleef plays one, including Dora, are dispatched with rough frontier justice. ........

Source: Wikipedia