The Big Sky is based on a popular novel by A.B. Guthrie.
Kirk Douglas and
Dewey Martin play a pair of Kentucky frontiersmen who embark upon the first keelboat trip up the Missouri River way back in 1830. Joining Douglas and Martin are Martin's grizzled old uncle
Arthur Hunnicutt and garrulous Frenchman
Steven Geray. Running afoul of various Indian tribes, Douglas nonetheless romances Sioux princess Elizabeth Threatt (their off-screen relationship was on the kinky side, as an embarrassed Douglas reveals in his autobiography). Director
Howard Hawks leavens the Boys' Own Adventure atmosphere of the film with a few isolated comic sequences, including a sidesplitting scene in which Douglas' gangrenous finger is cut off. Produced for RKO Radio by Hawks' own Winchester Pictures, The Big Sky was released at 141 minutes, though the TV print runs 122 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide