''Ten Who Dared'' is a 1960 American Western film directed by

William Beaudine William Washington Beaudine (January 15, 1892 – March 18, 1970) was an American film actor and director. He was one of Hollywood's most prolific directors, turning out films in remarkable numbers and in a wide variety of genres. Life and car ...

and starring Brian Keith, Ben Johnson, John Beal and

James Drury James Child Drury Jr. (April 18, 1934 – April 6, 2020) was an American actor. He is best known for having played the title role in the 90-minute weekly Western television series '' The Virginian'', which was broadcast on NBC from 1962 to ...

. It was produced by

Walt Disney Productions The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

and released by

Buena Vista Distribution Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, formerly known as Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Inc. until 2007, is an American film distribution studio within the Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. It ha ...

. It tells the story of

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

officer

John Wesley Powell John Wesley Powell (March 24, 1834 – September 23, 1902) was an American geologist, U.S. Army soldier, explorer of the American West, professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, and director of major scientific and cultural institutions. He ...

, who was the first to travel down the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...

, and the dangers that he and nine other men had to face while making a map of the region during their 1869 expedition. Hired by Walt Disney Studios in 1959 as a technical adviser,

Otis R. Marston Otis Reed "Dock" Marston (February 11, 1894 – August 30, 1979) was an American writer, historian and Grand Canyon river runner who participated in a large number of river-running firsts. Marston was the eighty-third person to successfully comp ...

led a film crew through the Grand Canyon to film river running and background scenes for the film.

Plot

The film is set in the United States, in 1869. Thanks to the activity of explorers, soldiers and trappers, the American territory is now well known. On the cards, there are few places marked with an explicit Unexplored (unexplored). One of these places shrouded in mystery and avoided because they are believed to be full of danger is the Colorado River. John Wesley Powell, a former Northern major of enormous scientific culture, but without an arm, lost at the Battle of Shiloh during the Civil War, gathers 9 men, including his brother Walter, marked by the sufferings of Southern captivity, and obtains 4 boats to set out to discover Colorado. The journey is long and difficult. On the way, a boat is destroyed by the whiskey drunk occupants. The meeting with Baker, trapper husband of an Indian and friend of Powell, who tells of terrible waterfalls, makes one of the men abandon the company. Three others mutiny, continuing the journey overland alone, but are killed by the Indians who pass them off as the killers of a squaw. Powell eventually finds the point where the Colorado flows into Lake Mead, concluding the great feat with success.

Cast

* Brian Keith as Bill Dunn * John Beal as Major

as Walter Powell *

R. G. Armstrong Robert Golden Armstrong Jr. (April 7, 1917 – July 27, 2012) was an American character actor and playwright. A veteran performer who appeared in dozens of Westerns during his 40-year career, he may be best remembered for his work with director ...

as Oramel Howland * Ben Johnson as George Bradley *

L.Q. Jones Justus Ellis McQueen Jr. (August 19, 1927 – July 9, 2022), known professionally as L.Q. Jones, was an American actor and director. He appeared in Sam Peckinpah's films ''Ride the High Country'' (1962), ''Major Dundee'' (1965), ''The Wild Bunc ...

as Billy "Missouri" Hawkins * Dan Sheridan as Jack Sumner *

David Stollery David John Stollery, III (born January 18, 1941 in Los Angeles, California) is a former American child actor and, as an adult, an industrial designer. He appeared in numerous Disney movies and television programs in the 1950s. He is best known for ...

as Andrew "Andy" Hall * Stan Jones as Seneca Howland *

David Frankham David Frankham (born 16 February 1926) is a British retired actor. After serving in India and British Malaya, Malaya in the Second World War, Frankham worked first as a news reader, and then a writer, interviewer and producer for the BBC from 1 ...

as Frank Goodman * Roy Barcroft as Jim Baker * Pat Hogan as Indian Chief * Ray Walker as McSpadden *

Jack Bighead John Bighead (April 23, 1930 – April 28, 1993) was an American football player. A Yuchi Indian, he starred in football at L.A. Poly High in the 1940s and played in the National Football League (NFL). He was a 1948 graduate of Pepperdine Unive ...

as Ashtishkel * Dawn Little Sky as Indian Woman * Chickie The Dog as Jarvie The Dog

Production

Besides the Grand Canyon, other parts of the film were shot at the Big Bend of the

, Professor Valley, Arches,

Dead Horse Point Dead Horse Point State Park is a state park of Utah in the United States, featuring a dramatic overlook of the Colorado River and Canyonlands National Park. The park covers of high desert at an altitude of . Amenities The park has several o ...

, Dewey, Castle Valley, and

Westwater Canyon Westwater Canyon is a canyon located on the Colorado River in Eastern Utah between the Utah/Colorado state line and Cisco, Utah. The inner gorge of the canyon is made up of black Precambrian rock and contains class III and IV rapids which are ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. The Grand Canyon production crew included producer James Algar, assistant director of script Herb Hirst, assistant director and production manager Russ Haverick, assistant producer Alessandro "Vee" Bodrero, head cameraman

Gordon Avil Gordon Avil (3 March 1899 – 25 April 1970) was an American cinematographer. He worked in ''Billy the Kid'' (1930), '' The Champ'' (1931), '' A Miracle Can Happen'' (1948), ''Robot Monster'' (1953), ''Shield for Murder'' (1954), ''King Dinosaur ...

, operative cameraman Richard Kelley, medical control Forrest "Doc" Reed, special effects Ray Bolton, makeup and wardrobe Frank LaRue, radioman Lester Gear, mechanic Don "Doc" Hill and rim control Matthew Bruttig. One of the replica boats used on the film, the ''Emma Dean'', was recovered by local raconteur, Stan A. Jones, in 1969 from the Golden Oak Ranch, a Disney movie lot in Placerita Canyon, Newhall, Santa Clarita, California. The boat is on display at the Powell Museum in

Page, Arizona Page is a city in Coconino County, Arizona, United States, near the Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 7,247. History Unlike other cities in the area, Page was founded in 1957 as a housing com ...

Reception

According to ''

Allmovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was founded by popular-cult ...

'', critics consistently rate this as one of the worst movies made by Disney. ''

Halliwell's Film Guide Robert James Leslie Halliwell (23 February 1929 – 21 January 1989) was a British film critic, encyclopaedist and television rights buyer for ITV, the British commercial network, and Channel 4. He is best known for his reference guides, '' Film ...

'' calls it "tedious and unconvincing". Leonard Maltin's annual publication "TV Movies" gives the film a BOMB rating, describing it as "rock-bottom Disney."

Comic book adaption

Dell Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies. Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data ...

Four Color ''Four Color'', also known as ''Four Color Comics'' and ''Dell Four Color'', was an American comic book anthology series published by Dell Comics between 1939 and 1962. The title is a reference to the four basic colors used when printing comic ...

#1178 (December 1960)

References

External links

* * {{William Beaudine Walt Disney Pictures films 1960 films American films based on actual events Films directed by William Beaudine 1960s adventure films American Western (genre) films 1960 Western (genre) films Films produced by James Algar Films produced by Walt Disney Films set in 1869 Films scored by Oliver Wallace Films adapted into comics Films shot in Utah 1960s English-language films