Fighting Caravans
Directed by Otto Brower and David Burton
Written by Edward E Paramore Jr et al from a novel by Zane Grey
1931/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime (free to members)
Clint Belmet: I’m asking you a question and the answer can’t be maybe. I’m asking you straight out – will you marry? Yes or no?
Felice: Oui, Monsieur!
Clint Belmet: Huh?
Not much of a Western, but its leads were never more gorgeous.
During the Amercian Civil War use of the railroad was restricted to supplying the troops. Caravans of wagons carried freight to California along with some settlers. As the story begins young Indian Scout Clint Belment (Gary Cooper) is locked up in the pokey just as one such caravan is getting ready to leave. Felice (Lili Dalmity), a single French woman, is intent on joining the caravan.
Belment’s drunken comic relief pals get the idea to spring their boy by telling the authorities Clint has married Felice. They tell Felice that the wagon train will not allow an unmarried woman to travel with them. Both agree to the ruse. But the plan backfires and the two drunks spend the rest of the movie trying to keep their charge from falling in love with his “wife”.
The film could have been more exciting with more action and less romance and comic relief. It’s a pretty routine Western but I was interested to see Dalmita who looks like she is out of a much later decade than the ’30’s. And of course Cooper is young and gorgeous.
