The Kentuckian is a 1955 American CinemaScope Western film directed by Burt Lancaster, who also stars.

The film was shot in locations around Kentucky, including Cumberland Falls, the Levi Jackson Wilderness Road State Park near London, Owensboro and Green River, and at the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Village near Rockport, Indiana.

In town, Big and Little Eli listen to Ziby Fletcher, a showman making a sales pitch.

Eli meets Susie, the local schoolteacher, and they enjoy the evening with Zack and Sophie.

Big Eli finishes writing the letter to the president, offering to sell him the pearl.

The Texas steamboat arrives to pick up tobacco, and the townsfolk are allowed to tour the boat.

When Eli takes his son hunting, Hannah hears their dog and meets them at the fire.

Eli deduces that she has indentured herself again to give him his Texas money, but he tells her to get the paper back and free herself.

Big Eli realizes that he forgot about dinner with Susie, but she forgives him when he arrives apologetically late.

He gambles at the roulette wheel and wins, so he plans to tell everyone that he got the money from the president for his pearl.

Near the end of the film, a ferocious fight occurs between Lancaster's character and Matthau's whip-wielding antagonist.

As part of the publicity, producers Hecht and Lancaster commissioned Thomas Hart Benton to create the painting The Kentuckian, which depicts a scene from the film.

The painting belonged to the Hecht family for years, but was ultimately donated to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1978.