MovieChat Forums > Daniel Boone (1964) Discussion > Cumberland Gap ripoff

Cumberland Gap ripoff

posted 18 years ago by tightspotkilo
8 replies | jump to latest

I was surfing through my DIRECTV channels last night and happened upon one of these old Daniel Boone episodes masquerading as a movie on the Encore Westerns channel, going under the movie title of "Daniel Boone: Frontier Trail Rider." After a little research I determined that it was actually a two-part episode from season two of this series, "The High Cumberland," originally broadcast April 14 and 26, 1966.

What was striking about it was that the story was a direct, and I do mean direct, rip from the 1952 Jimmy Stewart western, Bend of the River. Exact same story, with Fess Parker/Daniel Boone stepping into the Jimmy Stewart role, Mingo/Ed Ames stepping into the Arthur Kennedy role, Armando Silvestre/Jim Santee stepping into the Rock Hudson role, and Jacqueline Evans stepping into the Julie Adams role. Bend of the River was somewhat of a unique story line, so it was very obvious and easy to spot, all the much more so because they followed it so closely, making no effort to disguise it. The one and only real difference in the stories wasn't plot or dialogue, but setting. Instead of being set in Oregon on the Columbia River, as was Bend of the River, they moved it to the Cumberland Gap in the Appalachian Mountains in Kentucky, as a Daniel Boone story would fittingly require. But even that was odd, what with snow-capped alpine peaks in the background and the trees looking a lot like Ponderosa Pines and Douglas Firs. This is not Kentucky or anywhere else in Appalachia, but more likely the foothills of the Cascade Range in Oregon or Washington.

I guess I'm just a little surprised that they would do it so blatantly. Writing credits for Bend of the River go to Borden Chase and William Gulick (novel), whereas writing credits for episode 058 of Daniel Boone, "The High Cumberland," are given to D. D. Beauchamp and Jack Guss.

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[–] audree7593 16 years ago

This is all very interesting to me. I watched the movie Bend of the River not long ago; it was a Jimmy Stewart movie I hadn't seen. I was surprised to see Frances Bavier ('Aunt Bee' of TAGS) in it. After watching the movie, I also read the book.

Yes, the Daniel Boone TV show wasn't filmed in the Appalachians; it was filmed out west, which is blatantly obvious to anyone who knows the huge differences (not just height) between those mountains and the Rockies.

After reading this, I'd like to see the two-part Daniel Boone series you mentioned.

[–] wilson2174 16 years ago

Don't blame the Western Channel. This episode was actually released in theaters. During the run of the series they used two of the episodes as movies, one from the first season and them "The High Cumberland" in the second season. I guess the show was so popular they thought they could make an extra buck showing it in the theaters. I guess it worked too.

So what if this episode is a copy from a movie. What tv show doesn't copy?

[–] joehrobertsjr 14 years ago

That's nothing. Season One's Lac Duquesne and Season Two's Fifty Rifles were the exact same episodes. Only the actors and names of the characters were different. The villain in the former was a renegade French officer while the baddie in the latter was a renegade British officer and Robert Logan replaced Albert Salmi as Daniel's number two sidekick. Same plot though. Requeim for Craw Green, which aired in Season Three, was basically a frontier version of the classic 1955 film Bad Day at Black Rock with Ed Ames filling the Spencer Tracy role and guest star Jeffrey Hunter stepping into Robert Ryan's shoes as the baddie.

[–] kenobi7 13 years ago

I've just finished watching Season Two. I was going to post something about this, but somebody else got to it before I could. ...odd... But anyways, Season 2 was a very good season; a vast improvement over Season 1. That's not to say Season 1 was a bad season, but the second season was much more action-oriented and didn't have so many of the scenes around the Boone house with Israel and the goose (Hannibal). Those scenes were funny for a while, and then they just got boring and too commonplace. Also, the color photography for Season 2 was much better suited for the action scenes; in the first season, I could barely make out a lot of the action, but only in certain episodes, such as in "THE DEVIL'S FOUR". However, as already mentioned in the other posts, Season 2 did have it's disadvantages. There were a few episodes that were basically direct remakes of Season 1 episodes, sometimes even down to the dialogue. But with most of those episodes, the writing only took a few of the same story elements and just did it a different way. This is NOT the case with the last episode of Season 2, the two-parter "HIGH CUMBERLAND". Essentially, everything about the episode was annoying and predictable. The episode was an almost direct knock-off of the very good James Stewart film, "BEND OF THE RIVER", which was stupid and foolish on the part of the show's writers, not to mention extremely annoying and it actually made me laugh at certain parts because it was so dumb. Also in this episode, since it shows how Daniel and Rebecca met and first came to Kentucky, of course introduces Mingo. But since Albert Salmi and his 'Yadkin' character ceased to exist after season 1, Mingo's introduction is the same (even the same scenes, just in color!!!) as he was introduced in the show's premiere, just without Yadkin. And since the episode has bad writing and is just a copy of "BEND OF THE RIVER", therefore the characters are not as good as they could be. The relationship between Daniel and Rebecca was very weird; she seemed to be more of a nag than anything else. Mingo seems to be frightfully out of place, even though he was great in so many other episodes where he was the only Indian. Cincinnatus has literally NO PURPOSE. Most frustrating of all, even the amazing and beastly star of the show, Fess Parker, just goes through the motions of his role, as if he was only there for the money. Oh, well. Maybe that is true. I like to think, since Fess Parker is one of my favorite actors, that he knew it was a knock-off of "BEND OF THE RIVER", but was just somehow conned into it or something. So, about season 2. And most particularly, the final two-parter episode "HIGH CUMBERLAND". Season 2 was a very good season. "HICH CUMBERLAND" featured bad dialogue, some bad acting, and a horrible plotline, and that's not even considering that it's a copy of a James Stewart movie. The truth is that it is just A BAD EPISODE in general. I know you're thinking, "That's strange. Especially for such a good TV show." Yeah, well, that's cause it (the episode, not the show) sucks!

- Major. Bluebelly Major.
--- Jonas Steele, "THE BLUE AND THE GRAY" (1982) ---

[–] CoriSCapnSkip (1581) 3 months ago

That's extremely interesting. I had noticed that Season 5, episode 5, of Daniel Boone, "The Plague That Came to Ford's Run" was a Bad Day at Black Rock ripoff, but hadn't realized they ripped off that same movie twice! So that makes four times rather than three.

[–] CoriSCapnSkip (1581) 3 months ago

I've just watched "Requiem for Craw Green" for the first time since watching Bad Day at Black Rock and you are absolutely right about the similarities. In fact, Ed Ames wiping up the joint with John Crawford was arguably a better fight scene than Spencer Tracy mopping the floor with Ernest Borgnine. His fight with Jeffrey Hunter was also more exciting. There were some differences but still a ripoff. So that makes four Daniel Boone episodes taken from popular movies, two from the very same movie considering that "The Plague That Came to Ford's Run" is also a Bad Day at Black Rock ripoff.

[–] CoriSCapnSkip (1581) 4 months ago

This seems to be the third movie ripoff we have caught the series committing.

[–] CoriSCapnSkip (1581) 3 months ago

Thank you for posting this. I had never actually seen Bend of the River all the way through, just a few scenes, though I had met the book author, Bill Gulick, who was a very nice guy. He passed away in 2013 at the age of 97! I watched Bend of the River last night and watched "The High Cumberland" again today. I would disagree about Armando Silvestre/Jim Santee stepping into the Rock Hudson role. He looked and acted more like Rock Hudson, but his role was much more that of Arthur Kennedy in terms of how the characters met and how his character treated the hero. I don't want to give too many details for the sake of anyone who has not seen either of these shows. I wouldn't say Mingo/Ed Ames was anything like the Arthur Kennedy role at all, but much more of the Rock Hudson role in terms of how he was just swept up into the situation and was loyal to the hero. And it was Patricia Blair in the Julie Adams role. (Who is Jacqueline Evans?)

As with Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, another blatant ripoff/exact copy. In both cases you could literally show clips from one and then the other and see the same scenes enacted, in some cases with the same dialogue, and you were right, the Daniel Boone episodes did have some bad acting compared to the original movies.

It was hard to tell when "The High Cumberland" was supposed to be set. There was talk of a war, and Tories, but the Revolutionary War was just breaking out at the beginning of Season 1 at which time Daniel Boone and Rebecca Bryan (misspelled "Brian" in "The High Cumberland" credits) were married with two children. "The High Cumberland" should have been 15 years earlier if not more. Again, as I have said before, a possible case of time travel, one of many in this series.

As for the scenery, it's pretty hard to ignore, but I don't think any of Daniel Boone was filmed in the Pacific Northwest. The series was filmed in entirety in California and Utah.