The Kentuckian
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Burt Lancaster
Written by	A.B. Guthrie Jr.
Based on	The Gabriel Horn by Felix Holt
Produced by	Harold Hecht
Starring	Burt Lancaster Dianne Foster Diana Lynn Walter Matthau
Cinematography	Ernest Laszlo
Edited by	George E. Luckenbacher
Music by	Bernard Herrmann
Color process	Technicolor
Production company	Hecht-Lancaster Productions
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	August 10, 1955 (1955-08-10)
Running time	104 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$2.6 million (US)[1]

The Kentuckian is a 1955 American CinemaScope Western film directed by Burt Lancaster, who also starred. This was one of only two films Lancaster directed (the other was The Midnight Man), and the only one for which he has sole credit. It was Walter Matthau's film debut. The film is an adaptation of the novel The Gabriel Horn by Felix Holt. The film was shot in locations around Kentucky, including Cumberland Falls, the Levi Jackson Wilderness Road State Park near London, Owensboro, and Green River, and at the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Village near Rockport, Indiana.^[2] A feature landmark is the natural arch Sky Bridge .

Plot

Frontiersman Elias "Big Eli" Wakefield decides to leave 1820s Kentucky and move to Texas with his son "Little Eli". Along the way, they run into two women who take a liking to the pair, indentured servant Hannah, who wants to go with them, and schoolteacher Susie, who would rather have Big Eli marry her and settle down. Big Eli has to deal with villainous Stan Bodine, who is very skilled with a bullwhip.

Cast

Production

Near the end of the film, a ferocious fight occurs between Lancaster's character and Matthau's whip-wielding villain. Matthau was doubled by whip expert Whip Wilson, who cut Lancaster across the shoulder after the star asked him to "hit me and make it look real".^[3] Lancaster had also taken a real whipping during the filming of Norma Productions' first film Kiss the Blood Off My Hands in 1948.^[4]

The film features an appearance by the famed sternwheel riverboat Gordon C. Greene, the same steamboat used in Gone with the Wind and Steamboat Round the Bend.

Release

As part of the publicity, the producer, Hecht, and Lancaster, commissioned Thomas Hart Benton to create the painting The Kentuckian, which depicts a scene from the film. The painting belonged to the Hecht family for years but was ultimately donated to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1978.^[5]