Joan Crawford plays Joan Prescott, a spoiled and privileged New Yorker who hops off a train bound for her rich father’s ranch in Montana when her flirtations go too far and she’s on the verge of stealing yet another man from her sister.
She lands at the campsite of Larry Kerrigan and winds up marrying the cowpoke, who just happens to work for her dad.
But it’s a turbulent relationship from the start. She can’t understand why he still wants to work after marrying into a rich family. He can’t understand why she still wants to party the night away with her friends now that she’s married.
And while he’ll dress in a tux to make his new bride happy, he won’t stand by and continue to watch her dance and flirt with other men, though she seems to think nothing’s unusual about such behavior.
Review:
Crawford is at her eye-batting best in this early talkee, that’s surprisingly risque at times. Ricardo Cortez plays the playboy who’d like to seduce her, married or not. Dorothy Sebastian plays “Lizzie,” Joan’s sister, who keeps losing boyfriends to her.
Cliff Edwards provides comic relief as Froggy, a cowpoke who finds his horse, Sam, easier to understand than the blond socialite he has his eyes on.
Crawford had become a star in silent films and survived the transition to talkies. Brown would star in “Billy the Kid” later the same year and remain a top Western star for about two decades.
Directed by:
Malcolm St. Clair
Cast:
Joan Crawford … Joan “Montana” Prescott
Johnny Mack Brown … Larry Kerrigan
Dorothy Sebastian … “Lizzie” Prescott
Ricardo Cortez … Jeff Pelham
Lloyd Ingraham … Mr. Prescott
Karl Dane … Hank
Cliff Edwards … Froggy
Benny Rubin … Bloom, the doctor
Runtime: 89 min.
Memorable lines:
Larry Kerrigan, about his boss, Mr. Prescott, and not realizing he’s talking to his daughter: “He’s got a pair of high-falutin daughters who ought to be hog-tied.”
Montana: “Oh, yeah, what’s wrong with them?”
Larry: “Well, I haven’t met them personally, but from all reports, they’re a pair of ornery little brats. I wish they belonged to me.”
Montana: “What would you do to them?”
Larry: “Why I’d turn them ends up across my knee and I’d play ‘Home, Sweet, Home’ on their southern exposures.”
Larry: “We’re different, Montana, me and you. As different as velvet and cactus.”
Montana: “Not so different. Just a boy and a girl.”
Larry: “I a’ saying I shouldn’t have gone an’ put a Western saddle on a New York thoroughbred.”
Lizzie: “Joan, it’s happened. It’s happened.”
Joan: “Calm yourself.”
Lizzie: “He did it. He did it.”
Joan: “Elizabeth Prescott, I’m ashamed of you. You naughty girl.”
Lizzie: “He kissed me. Jeff kissed me.”
Joan: “Is that all? Whew. I thought something worthwhile had happened to you.”
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