The Kentuckian is a 1955 adventure film directed by Burt Lancaster, who also starred. It also marked the feature film debut of Walter Matthau. The picture is an adaptation of the novel The Gabriel Horn by Felix Holt. The picture would be shot on location in Kentucky location sites as the Cumberland Falls area, the Levi Jackson Wilderness Road State Park near London, Owensboro and Green River, and the Indiana site as the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Village near Rockport. This was one of only two films Lancaster directed , and the only one on which he has sole credit . 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 also has to deal with villainous Stan Bodine , who cracks a mean bullwhip.
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| Release date: | August 1, 1955 |
| Directed by: | Burt Lancaster |
| Runtime: | 104 Minutes |
| Producer: | Harold Hecht, James Hill |
| Music by: | Bernard Herrmann |
| Cinematography: | Ernest Laszlo |
| Screenplay by: | A. B. Guthrie, Jr. |
| Adapted from: | The Gabriel Horn |
| Genre: | Adventure, Western |