Directed by William A. Wellman, the film stars Clark Gable as cunning trapper Flint Mitchell, Ricardo Montalbán as Blackfoot Iron Shirt, John Hodiak as Brecan, María Elena Marqués as Kamiah, a Blackfoot chief's daughter Mitchell marries and later falls in love with, J. Carrol Naish as Nez Perce Looking Glass, and Adolphe Menjou as Pierre.

Flint outbids Brecan for Kamiah, the granddaughter of Blackfoot medicine man Bear Ghost and adopted daughter of a Nez Perce chief, Looking Glass.

Pierre, a French Canadian trapper, and Captain Humberstone Lyon, another Scotsman, who fought in the Battle of Waterloo, join Flint on the dangerous expedition.

Kamiah successfully guides Flint and his men on their trek through the high passes filled with crippling snow drifts, and delivers them to the Blackfoot territory, where they build a stockade.

[3][4] The film was shot largely in the Rocky Mountains, mostly at altitudes between 9,000 and 14,000 feet (2,743 and 4,267 meters), north of Durango, Colorado near Purgatory and Molas Pass, the main location sites.

[6] It was seen as overly long and preview audiences reaction was negative, so the narration was the solution to allow the cutting thought needed and maintain the story.