The Kentuckian is a 1955 American CinemaScope Western film directed by Burt Lancaster, who also stars. This is one of only two films that Lancaster directed (the other was The Midnight Man), and the only one for which he has sole credit. It is Walter Matthau's film debut. The film is an adaptation of the novel The Gabriel Horn by Felix Holt. 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. A featured landmark is the natural arch Sky Bridge .