The Kentuckian (1955) on Netflix
Elias Wakefield plans to leave 1820s Kentucky and take his son Little Eli to Texas. In a town where a family shares their surname, a struggle lands the frontiersman in jail.
- Netflix1.9/5
- IMDb6.2/103,496 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes14%
Trailer
Plot summary
Elias Wakefield, called Big Eli, is a widower raising his son Little Eli in 1820s Kentucky, and he decides the state has grown too settled for his taste. He plans to take the boy to the wild country of Texas. In a town where a family shares their surname and is suspected of murder, a struggle puts Big Eli in jail, and Hannah, an indentured servant, minds the boy. That family is feuding with the Wakefields, and two of its men want Eli handed over to them. A corrupt constable also works against him, and the feud between the two families is long-standing.
Cast
- Donald MacDonaldas Little Eli Wakefield
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Kentuckian (1955)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Matthau's whip-wielding antagonist was doubled by whip expert Whip Wilson, who cut Lancaster across the shoulder during their climactic fight after the star asked Wilson to "hit me and make it look real".
- The Kentuckian features the famed sternwheel riverboat Gordon C. Greene, the same steamboat used in Gone with the Wind and Steamboat Round the Bend.
- As part of the publicity, producers Hecht and Lancaster commissioned Thomas Hart Benton to create the painting The Kentuckian, depicting a scene from the film; it stayed with the Hecht family until it was donated to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1978.
