As part of their collaboration with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Cinerama agreed to modify their system by reducing the frame rate to 24 frames per second (the industry standard) so that this film would have an exhibition life after its Cinerama engagements.
Because the 2 dividing lines that separate the 3 separate projections could not be totally edited into a seamless match, the directors skillfully used camouflage techniques to disguise the lines. Some of the objects used for this were trees, lamp posts, window edges, porch rails, building corners, doorways and wooden crates which were positioned at these points.
Cinerama was so expansive, it couldn't really be configured for close-ups. The nearest it could manage was to place a key actor in the central frame and try to get in as close as possible. This proved to be very intimidating for a lot of actors as the camera (an enormous piece of apparatus under a black hood with 3 lenses) would be literally in their face - 18 inches away, to be precise.
Due to the detail that would have been shown via the Cinerama process, the costumes had to be sewn by hand, rather than with a sewing machine, as they would have been during the time periods depicted in the movie.
During the Indian attack that was filmed in Lone Pine, California, a Conestoga Wagon tumbles down a hill. In order to create the illusion of the audience being inside of a tumbling wagon, a track was built down the slope of a small hill and the top portion of a Conestoga Wagon, without the wheels, was affixed onto a flatbed along with a mechanism that would turn the wagon over and over as the flatbed was guided down the hill. The Cinerama camera, in turn, was attached to one end of the flatbed so that it could shoot directly through the turning wagon as the stuntmen, including Loren Janes, were tumbled around the insides of the wagon along with boxes, barrels, blankets and other cargo. It took more than two days to prepare the scene and several takes to complete. In the final cut, this scene lasts no more than five seconds on the screen.
Features more than 12,000 extras, including several Indian tribes.
Final film of Joe Sawyer.
No ordinary "single-camera" version was filmed simultaneously with the Cinerama version, resulting in two noticeable dividing lines on the non-Cinerama theater prints, video, TV and DVD versions (indicating the three synchronized film strips originally used). The same problem occurred with the other Cinerama film in release at the time, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, which had not been shot in a "single-camera" version either. Both were MGM films.
Of the five segments, Henry Hathaway directed "The Rivers", "The Plains" and "The Outlaws", John Ford directed "The Civil War" and George Marshall did "The Railroad". Some uncredited work was done by Richard Thorpe.
One of the few American films to have its world premiere in London, England.
Since the three lenses of the Cinerama camera sat at angles to each other on the camera itself, it was very problematic for actors to film a scene as they would in front of a single-lensed camera. When their images were projected onto the three panels of the Cinerama screen, it would appear as though the actors were looking either slightly up-screen or slightly down-screen, and not directly at their fellow actors. This is very evident in a few scenes in the previous Cinerama film, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm. However, by the time this film went into production, this problem was solved somewhat. In order to compensate for the lens angles, actors would have to look one-third of the way in and toward the camera, and pretend that they were looking at their fellow actors. Hence, when their images were projected onto the Cinerama screen, it would appear as though they were looking at each other. It was a very difficult process for actors, which is one of the reasons that three-panel Cinerama was abandoned for narrative films after this film was released.
Some stock footage from other (non-Cinerama) epics were used. The Mexican army marching past the Alamo came from The Alamo and a Civil War battle was taken from Raintree County. The final scenes of the modern U.S. were from This Is Cinerama.
Stuntman Bob Morgan was seriously injured, and almost died, while performing a stunt in this picture. Toward the end of the film, there is a gunfight on a moving train between the sheriff and a gang of train robbers. Morgan was one of the stuntmen playing a robber and was crouched next to a pile of logs on a flatcar. The chains holding the logs together snapped, and Morgan was crushed by the falling logs. He was so badly hurt it took him five years to recover to the point where he was able to move by himself and walk unaided.
The film stock was so expensive that all the actors were asked to know their lines and their marks as thoroughly as possible to cut down on the number of takes.
The film was inspired by a factual series on the settling of the West of the same name that had appeared in 'LIFE' magazine and which had been followed by a identically titled 2-LP set of western songs sung mostly by Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney. Many of the songs on the record album were also used in the film soundtrack, like "Bound for the Promised Land" and "What Was Your Name in the States?"
The first non-documentary Cinerama film, it was also one of the last to use the old three-camera technique, resulting in two very visible, somewhat distracting, dividing lines in the non-Cinerama print and all TV and home video versions.
The opening pan across the Rockies is actually an out-take from This Is Cinerama. The same holds true for the closing aerial sweep.
The river-rafting sequence was filmed over a period of seven days.
The riverboat is the same one used in Raintree County.
The sequence where the Indians attack the wagon train took 6 weeks to film.