The Missouri Traveler (1958)

Sadly Over-hyped

Absolutely Fantastic

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Missouri Traveler is an okay movie; you and your kids can enjoy it at least once. Biarn is a runaway from an orphan's home who happens across the small town of Delphi, where he settles into an abandoned farm and makes a life on his own with both the help and interference of various of the townsfolk. Brandon DeWilde's performance as Biarn is rather underplayed, almost to the point of making him seem a bit dull; this is probably his weakest film performance but even so he's okay in it. There were so many differences between the book and the movie though, and I wonder why the movie version was changed so much. In the movie, most of the theme seems to be Biarn rising above Tobias Brown's taking advantage of him, but in the book the themes are much deeper and more numerous; just by being himself, Biarn affects many of Delphi's townsfolk to an extent nobody realizes until the end of the story. This unexpected depth of the plot has unfortunately not made it from the book to the movie. Even so, watch The Missouri Traveler - and if you and/or the kids like the movie, get the book. Read it, have your kids read it, or read it to them at bedtime... it's nearly 300 pages and you'll enjoy every last one. The movie is 'nice' but only a taste of the actual story; I would really like to see this one remade, staying faithful to the actual story. It would be so much better.

The title role in The Missouri Traveler is played by young Brandon DeWilde, his last role essentially as a child star. Soon he'd be doing such adult stuff as Blue Denim, Hud, and In Harm's Way.It's a nostalgic look at life at the turn of the last century in a small Missouri town where orphan kid Brandon DeWilde stops and decides to stay a while.This is a nice easy to take film, moving along at a leisurely pace, but actually it has some serious issues. This is an orphan kid making his own way in the world, a world I might add without child labor laws. Young DeWilde is working for his keep, both as a sharecropper and as a horse trainer, well at least an assistant trainer.Paul Ford gets a preparatory performance in this film for his later role as the mayor of River City in The Music Man. DeWilde has a couple of adult role models, the cynical Lee Marvin the guy who worked his way up to the top and the loquacious Gary Merrill who is the town newspaper editor. Both give DeWilde some good lessons about life.In fact both Merrill and Marvin get into a knock down drag out fight that was copied, but lovingly from John Ford's The Quiet Man.The Missouri Traveler was released through Buena Vista Productions in the beginning years of that company before it exclusively was the distributor for Walt Disney. It's a nice film, especially for family viewing with a lot of good lessons in it.

I usually like turn of the century (1900), small town America movies. But this one had no zing to it, nor did it make you care about the characters. Who's fault was it? The director? The writer? The actors? I'm thinking the writing, but who knows what happened during production. There were some top actors in this movie too. Brandon de Wilde still had a big name from his earlier years but his acting was a little flat in this one, in my opinion. Lee Marvin was Lee Marvin with his strong, stony acting style so can't blame him. Gary Merrill did a decent job as the local newspaper editor but not as good as I've seen him in other movies. The actor who really made this movie any good at all was Paul Ford who played the cafe/restaurant owner. He was the only one who seemed to know how to carry a scene, and with pizazz. He has always been a great character actor. Another great character actor is Frank Cady who should have been given a larger part in this movie to help bring it along. I remember him as the store owner in Green Acres and more-so, I remember him as Doctor Williams on Ozzie and Harriet. He has always been a quiet yet competent actor. The female lead was someone named Mary Hosford, as in the credits it said she was being introduced, and I don't think she ever made another movie. She was OK but you didn't have any feelings for her part. One thing I liked was how the men stood and took off their hats when the flag went by in a parade. That was commonplace at one time, but I notice teenagers today often not bothering to take off their hats for the National Anthem at sports games. I don't think they are being ignorant, I think many ARE ignorant. Ignorant of what is proper, as no one ever taught them to respect the freedom represented by the US Flag. So, I'd say take a look at the movie if you don't have to go out of your way, and if you like the good old days and or horse or sulky racing. It's not a memorable movie, but worth seeing once I guess.

This movie shows us how "the boy from Shane",has matured, still a soft talking very polite youth. He is a runaway in this movie and is groomed by Lee Marvin, a hard taskmaster who has made a name for himself as the poor boy who made good in this story. He takes unfair advantage of Brandon, but in the process, really teaches the youth some valuable lessons about life and how to take care of himself. These are lessons we can all learn from, and Gary Merrill provides care, comfort, and guidance for Brandon as he overcomes the hard "teaching" of Marvin. The film is anchored by the fine acting of Paul Ford, as usual, a leader of the business community, but with a soft heart for the troubled. This is a great family film, free of Hollywoods blood, guts, sex, and profanity.