In the year 1867, signs that the approaching winter will be a hard one produce agitation in the burgeoning mining town of Denver, as the hard-drinking citizenry fear a shortage of whiskey. Taking advice from Oracle Jones (Donald Pleasence), a local guide and seer (but only when under the influence of alcohol), the populace arrange for a mass shipment of forty wagons full of whiskey to be delivered by the Wallingham Freighting Company. The whiskey wagon train heads out under the direction of company owner Frank Wallingham (Brian Keith), who repeatedly describes himself as “a taxpayer and a good Republican”.
Chaos ensues as the cargo becomes the target for several diverse groups, each with their own leaders and plans to take control of the valuable cargo. Young Capt. Paul Slater (Jim Hutton) of the United States Cavalry is assigned by Fort Russell commander Col. Thaddeus Gearhart (Burt Lancaster) to escort the Wallingham Wagon Train, and merely wishes to carry out his orders.
A group of Irish teamsters, hired as wagon drivers, wishes to strike unless whiskey rations are distributed. Twice-widowed, crusading temperance leader Cora Templeton Massingale (Lee Remick) and her followers, informed of the alcoholic cargo, wish to intercept the train and destroy its contents. So, the group sets out escorted by a second cavalry division under the command of a reluctant Col. Gearhart.
Gearhart’s daughter, Louise Gearhart (Pamela Tiffin) is engaged to Capt. Slater but entranced by Mrs. Massingale’s message. Despite their extremely different personalities and inability to see eye to eye, the weatherbeaten Gearhart and beautiful Cora Massingale fall in love. Beneath her composure and grace, and even her occasional ribbing against him, Cora is infatuated with Gearhart from the moment he rides into the fort and spends much of the film trying subtly to win his affection.
Other interested parties include Sioux Indians, led by Chiefs Five Barrels (Robert J. Wilke) & Walks-Stooped-Over (Martin Landau), and a Denver citizens’ militia, led by Clayton Howell (Dub Taylor) and guided by Oracle Jones, concerned about obtaining their precious supply of drinkables.
Inevitably the various groups converge, and the ensuing property struggle is played out through a series of comic set pieces and several diplomatic overtures by an increasingly weary Gearhart. Highlights include a massive shoot-out between the concerned parties within a blinding sandstorm without a single injury, a hostage situation when the Indians capture the Temperance members in order to reinforce their demands for alcoholic drink, and Massingale tricking Wallingham into riding his entire wagon train into a quicksand bog, where the wagons and their cargo sink into the pits. The participants then disperse, mostly disappointed.
The story ends with a double wedding for Colonel Gearhart and Captain Slater. Wallingham and Oracle end up with a lifetime supply of whiskey when buoyancy causes the barrels to erupt from the quicksand, and for the winter of 1867 to actually become one of the mildest ever.
A 1965 American mockumentary comedy Western produced & directed by John Sturges, screenplay by John Gay, based on the book of the same title (originally released as “The Hallelujah Train”) by Bill Gulick in 1963, cinematography by Robert Surtees, starring Burt Lancaster, Lee Remick, Jim Hutton, Pamela Tiffin, Donald Pleasence, Brian Keith, Martin Landau, Robert J. Wilke, and Dub Taylor. Casting by Lynn Stalmaster. Burt Lancaster didn’t get along with Brian Keith or Lee Remick.
Stuntman Bill Williams was killed on November 13, 1964, performing a stunt with a colleague during this shoot. The stunt called for Williams and another stuntman to guide a horse-drawn wagon toward a cliff. As the horses separated, both men were supposed to jump clear as the wagon continued over the cliff. Williams didn’t manage to jump clear in time and died as a result of the fall.The scene was kept in the movie.
During location shooting in New Mexico the crew was confronted with the heaviest rainfalls in that region in 50 years. It washed away the tents as well as the set and props.
The film is presented in a pseudo-documentary style, with a tongue-in-cheek narrator (unbilled John Dehner) providing historical background and context, and periodically interrupting the story to point out animated charts illustrating strategic positions of various groups.
The film was one of several large-scale widescreen, long-form “epic” comedies produced in the 1960s, much like “The Great Race” (1965) and “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” (1963), combined with the epic grandeur of the Western genre.
The film is part of a group, which were filmed in Ultra Panavision 70 and presented in selected theaters via the oversized Super Cinerama process.
On October 19, 1968, three years and four months after its release, the film had its television premiere in a three-hour timeslot on NBC Saturday Night at the Movies.
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