Many Rivers to Cross (1955)

Just perfect...

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Oh my,I have only a vivid mental image of Robert Taylor as a suave, debonair, romantic lead which is hard to shake. To see and hear him as a Kentucky frontiersman was too much for me. The clothes don't make the man in this case. Cover this tomato with a coonskin cap and buckskins and it still is a tomato. Miscast is not stretching it a bit.Eleanor Parker surely should have passed his one up. She does her best in this unusual role, but can't save this picture. What is it? A comedy drama evidently. However, there are too many ho hums and not enough chuckles. Hooray for the Indians who provide a modicum of drama and looked realistic enough with scalp locks and fierce grimaces.

I first saw this movie on WGN's "Family Classics" as a kid. Even then, I laughed out loud. I got it for Christmas this year, and I think I laughed harder. And the cast was a bigger shock. In addition to Robert Taylor, you have Will Danaher from 'The Quiet Man', it also has Alan Hale, Jr., and the guy who played the Professor on Gilligan's Island, and James Arness as a frontiersman. The humor is deft, and not over the top, the story moves along, and the scenery hearkens back to a time when the country was smaller, the frontier larger, and the dangers could be conquered with resolve, fortitude, and a little bit of forethought. This movie is a worthy addition to any movie lover's collection.

I saw this movie many years ago, and fully enjoyed it. Does anyone know the words to the song, "The higher up the berry tree"???? If so, please e-mail me @ [email protected]. I really would love to get this info, as my mother is just wild about this song. I am really having a hard time finding anyone who can help me on this subject. I was probably about ten years old when I first saw this movie, and heard this song. I can still remember humming it to this day, but for the life of me I can't remember the words. Great movie though. My oldest brother can usually help me on any of the "movie classics", but even he wasn't able to come through to help on this one.

I have been searching for the theme song of this movie "The Berry Tree" since I saw it once as a 6 year-old kid in 1955 or 56. I've hummed the melody and sung the few lyrics I remembered since then. I finally got the VHS tape last week and what a pleasure. This is a fantastic frontier comedy and it brings back fond memories of me as a young kid wearing a Davy Crockett coonskin cap and singing the song. Here are the lyrics to the song if anyone else has wondered what they were for 45 years or so, as I had. From other comments here, this song made an indelible impression on almost everyone that has heard it.The higher up the berry tree the sweeter grows the berryThe more you hug and kiss a gal the more she wants to marryThe berry tree's a wise old tree the sweetest fruit is his'nBut marryin' up with any gal is just like goin' to prison(Bridge)Peaches in the summertime, apples in the fall Till I find the gal I want, a' gonna have none at allCause higher up.