From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

How the West Was Won
Directed by	John Ford Henry Hathaway George Marshall Richard Thorpe
Produced by	Bernard Smith
Written by	James R. Webb
Starring	Carroll Baker Lee J. Cobb Henry Fonda Carolyn Jones Karl Malden Gregory Peck George Peppard Robert Preston Debbie Reynolds James Stewart Eli Wallach John Wayne Richard Widmark Walter Brennan Andy Devine Raymond Massey Agnes Moorehead Thelma Ritter Spencer Tracy
Distributed by	MGM
Release date(s)	November 1, 1962
Running time	162 min.
Language	English, Arapaho
Budget	estimated $15,000,000[1]
IMDb profile

How the West Was Won is an epic 1962 western film which 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 film is set between 1839 and 1889.

The all-star cast included Carroll Baker, Lee J. Cobb, Henry Fonda, Carolyn Jones, Karl Malden, Gregory Peck, George Peppard, Robert Preston, Debbie Reynolds, James Stewart, Eli Wallach, John Wayne, and Richard Widmark.

The movie consists of five segments, three directed by Henry Hathaway ("The Rivers", "The Plains" and "The Outlaws"), and one each by John Ford ("The Civil War") and George Marshall ("The Railroad"), with transitional sequences by the uncredited Richard Thorpe. The screenplay was written by John Gay (uncredited) and James R. Webb. Popular western author Louis L'Amour wrote a book based on the screenplay.^[2]

Contents 1 Plot summary 1.1 The Rivers (1830s) 1.2 The Plains (1850s) 1.3 The Civil War (1861~1865) 1.4 The Railroad (1860s) 1.5 The Outlaws (1880s) 2 Cast 3 Awards and nominations 4 Production 5 References 6 External links

Mountain man Linus Rawlings (James Stewart) is returning to civilization to trade his furs when he meets a group of settlers heading west, led by Zebulon Prescott (Karl Malden). His daughter Eve (Carroll Baker) and Linus are attracted to each other, but he isn't ready to settle down and leaves.

Linus stops at an isolated trading post run by a clan headed by "Colonel" Hawkins (Walter Brennan). The frontiersman finds out too late that all is not what it seems; when he accompanies pretty Dora Hawkins (Brigid Bazlen) into a cave to see a "varmint", she stabs him while his back is turned and pushes him into a deep hole. Fortunately, Linus is not seriously wounded, and is able to rescue the Prescott party from a similar fate. The bushwacking thieves are dispatched with rough frontier justice.

The settlers continue down the river, but their raft is caught in some rapids, and Zebulon and his wife Rebecca (Agnes Moorehead) drown. Linus, finding that he cannot live without Eve, reappears and marries her, even though she insists on homesteading at the spot where her parents died.

Eve's sister Lily (Debbie Reynolds) chooses to go to St. Louis, where she finds work performing in a dance hall. She attracts the attention of professional gambler Cleve Van Valen (Gregory Peck). After overhearing that she has just inherited a California gold mine (and to avoid paying his debts), he joins the wagon train that will take her there. He and wagon train master Roger Morgan (Robert Preston) court her along the way, but she turns them both down, much to the dismay of her new friend and fellow traveler Agatha Clegg (Thelma Ritter).

Surviving an attack by the Cheyenne Indians, Lily and Cleve arrive at the mine, only to find that it is now worthless. Cleve leaves. Lily returns to work in a dance hall in a literal "Camp Town", living out of a covered wagon. Morgan finds her and again proposes marriage in a rather unromantic way. She tells him, "No, not ever."

Later, Lily is singing in the music salon of a riverboat. By chance, Cleve is a passenger. When he hears Lily's voice, he leaves the poker table (and a winning hand) to propose to her, telling her of the opportunities waiting in the rapidly growing city of San Francisco. She accepts.

Linus joins the Union army in the American Civil War. Despite Eve's wishes, their son Zeb (George Peppard) eagerly enlists as well, looking for glory and an escape from farming. Corporal Peterson (Andy Devine) assures them the conflict won't last very long. The bloody Battle of Shiloh shows Zeb that war is nothing like he imagined. He encounters a similarly disillusioned Confederate who suggests deserting, to which Zeb agrees.

However, by chance, they overhear a private conversation between Generals Ulysses S. Grant (Harry Morgan) and William Tecumseh Sherman (John Wayne). The rebel realizes he has the opportunity to rid the South of two of its greatest enemies and tries to shoot them, leaving Zeb no choice, but to kill him. Afterwards, Zeb rejoins the army.

When the war finally ends, he returns home, only to find his mother has died. She had lost the will to live after learning that Linus had been killed in the fighting. Zeb gives his share of the family farm to his brother and leaves in search of a more interesting life.

Following the daring riders from the Pony Express and the construction of the transcontinental telegraph line in the early 1860s, two ferociously competing railroad lines, the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad, one building west and the other east, open up new territory to eager settlers.

Zeb becomes a lieutenant in the U.S. cavalry, keeping peace with the Indians with the help of buffalo hunter Jethro Stuart (Henry Fonda), an old friend of Linus. When ruthless railroad man Mike King (Richard Widmark) violates a treaty by building on Indian territory, the Sioux Indians retaliate by stampeding buffalo through his camp. Disgusted, Zeb resigns and heads to Arizona.

In San Francisco, widowed Lily auctions off Cleve's estate (the couple had made and spent several fortunes) to pay the debts. She travels to Arizona, inviting Zeb and his family to oversee her remaining asset, a ranch.

Zeb (now a marshal), his wife Julie (Carolyn Jones) and their children meet Lily at Gold City's train station. However, Zeb also runs into an old enemy there, Charlie Gant (Eli Wallach). When Gant makes veiled threats against his family, Zeb decides he has to act rather than wait for Gant to show up someday. Suspecting Gant of planning to rob an unusually large gold shipment being transported by train, he prepares an ambush with the reluctant help of his friend, Gold City's marshal Lou Ramsey (Lee J. Cobb). Gant and his gang are killed in a shootout. In the end, Lily and the Rawlings travel to their new home.

Actor	Character
Carroll Baker	Eve Prescott Rawlings
Lee J. Cobb	Marshal Lou Ramsey
Henry Fonda	Jethro Stuart
Carolyn Jones	Julie Rawlings
Karl Malden	Zebulon Prescott
Harry Morgan	Gen. Ulysses S. Grant
Gregory Peck	Cleve Van Valen
George Peppard	Zeb Rawlings
Robert Preston	Roger Morgan
Debbie Reynolds	Lilith 'Lily' Prescott
James Stewart	Linus Rawlings
Eli Wallach	Charlie Gant
John Wayne	Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman
Richard Widmark	Mike King
Brigid Bazlen	Dora Hawkins
Walter Brennan	Col. Jeb Hawkins
Raymond Massey	President Abraham Lincoln
Spencer Tracy	Narrator

The movie won Academy Awards for:

• Best Writing, Story and Screenplay — Written Directly for the Screen (James R. Webb)
• Best Film Editing, Best Sound

It was also nominated for:

• Best Picture
• Academy Award for Best Art Direction — Set Decoration, Color
• Best Cinematography, Color
• Best Costume Design, Color
• Best Music, Score — Substantially Original (Alfred Newman and Ken Darby)

The film has also been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

How the West was Won is one of only two feature films (the other being The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm) made using the three-strip Cinerama process, and suffers from that process's technical shortcomings. When shown on television in a Cinemascope print made from the original three-strip version, the joins between the three frames are clearly and sometimes glaringly visible; when seen in letterbox format the actors' faces are nearly indistinguishable in long shots. There have been efforts to put the three parts of the image together in a better way, and to make the Cinerama image look better on a flat screen, led by HP^[3].

Stuntman Bob Morgan, husband of Yvonne De Carlo, was severely injured and lost a leg during an accident while filming.^[4]

• How the West Was Won at the Internet Movie Database
• How the West Was Won at the TCM Movie Database
• An Amateurs Making Of HTWWW