Gary Cooper plays Clint Belmet, a carousing Western scout who loves his freedom and admires his two mentors, Bill Jackson and Jim Bridger. When he lands in trouble with the law and is facing time in jail, they come to the rescue.
A young French woman named Felice (Lila Damita) has just shown up, eager to join a westbound freight caravan, but anxious that she won’t be allowed to because she’s a woman traveling alone. Yep, that might be a problem, Jackson and Bridger confirm. So they haul her into a saloon where a marshal is holding Clint at gunpoint and weave a yarn about how he’s changed his ways and is ready to settle down with the French beauty he’s just married.
The stunt works, but backfires in a way the older men didn’t except. After her initial anger over being lied to — she thought Clint’s life was in danger — she begins to fall for the frontiersman. And vice versa.
Of course, their romance is going to hit some bumps along the way West as the wagon train negotiates winter weather, mountains and warring Indians.
Review:
Another Hollywood wagon train heads West, facing the typical perils, and there’s nothing unique about this film in that respect to set it apart.
But the focus here centers around Belmet’s boast that the woman who can rope him into marriage hasn’t been born yet. Well, Felice is about to put him to the test. Belmet falls, resists, falls and resists again, worried about losing his sense of freedom. Jackson and Bridger tug in the other direction. Guess who winds up winning?
Worth watching only for the love story; the rest is old hat.
Lili Damita, who plays Felice, appeared in several films at the end of the silent and beginning of the sound era. She was single at the time this film was made, between marriages to director Michael Curtiz and Errol Flynn. She was the mother of Sean Flynn.
Directed by:
Otto Brower,
David Burton
Cast:
Gary Cooper … Clint Belmet
Lili Damita … Felice
Ernest Torrence … Bill Jackson
Tully Marshall … Jim Bridger
Fred Kohler … Lee Murdock
Eugene Pallette … Seth Higgins
Roy Stewart … Couch
May Boley … Jane
Eve Southern … Faith
Frank Campeau … Jeff Moffitt
Charles Winninger … Marshal
Frank Hagney … Renegade
Runtime: 92 min.
Memorable lines:
Clint Belmet: “What does Lincoln and the government think they’re doing, stripping this Western territory of protection?”
Couch: “Yeah. Freight and supplies gotta go on, war or no war.”
Cavalry officer: “Maybe you haven’t heard that Lee and the Confederates got pretty near to Washington.”
Clint: “Nah. We’re too busy out here to pay any attention to that picayune squabble back East.”
Bridger, watching Clint and Felice: “Look at her. Wriggling and pouting … Just like a snake putting a spell on a bird.”
Jackson: “He ain’t been himself for the last three days. I’ve been a watchin’ him pretty close. Yesterday, he only had 11 drinks.”
Bridger: “And he’s been working, too. Doing things for Couch he don’t have to.”
Jackson: “She’s got him alright.”
Bridger: “Let’s get drunk.”
Jackson: “Let’s try anyway.”
Jane, talking about men: “You have to baby them, and honey then and butter them on both sides.”
Felice: “I am French, and I have known all of what you say since I was so high.”
Jane: “What’s the good of knowing if you don’t use it?”
Clint: “I don’t see how I’m going to fit into the picture you’ve got in your mind. working regular, eating off a tablecloth, and tying a napkin around my neck like a baby. I’ve always been free … I ain’t never been tied down to nothin’.”
Felice: “Oh, how stupid I was. I thought you loved me. I thought you wanted marry me. And be happy with me. And all you want is this — to ride, to drink whiskey, to make love to some other girl and get killed by the Indians.”
Clint: “Well, all that’s being free, anyhow.”
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