Fighting Caravans (1931)

OK, so why do I mention that it's pre-code? Well, how many pre-1965 westerns have white men getting hooked up with Native American women as a GOOD THING? How about the line where "Indians have no use for blond women"? Even having a foreigner getting hitched to all-American Gary Cooper in the West could be frowned upon in some circles in the 1930's. So, we have a pre-code western here. I love pre-code films just to catch a line or so that is not considered family friendly. I happen to watch a lot of different media, with pre-code old films being one of my interests for entertainment, I also watch adult themed cartoons like Family Guy. On the Cartoon Channel at night they play mature cartoons and one of them is called "The Venture Brothers". In that show they have a spoof of an elderly Sean Connery superhero and I swear that Ernest Torrence (who steals the show here) was the inspiration for the character and the voice! Seems like some off coloured jokes going on but I could be wrong. I give it a 7, highlights are pre-code and higher production standards then a B flick. However, the audio is often bad and the version I watched looked really chopped up on Retro TV. Probably not a good thing to give it a higher rating, it's no The Searchers but was fun and my wife even was into it, so maybe a good date flick for an old western film. 7 of 10.

The main flaw to this movie is Gary Cooper. He was a great actor, but in this film appears to be in a not-yet-mature stage in his career. Cooper plays a lanky happy-go-lucky cowboy, who can turn the wrong direction or the right direction at this point in his young life. The heroine is a tough woman, but who still has a woman's heart. She can be very tough, but still expects to be treated right by a man. Instead of seeing what a great wife and partner for life she would be, Cooper's character struggles with many dilemmas before choosing this path. The best characters in the film are two older men, who are scouts. They are a dying breed and the coming of the railroad threatens to destroy their livelihoods. They are very selfish and want to keep their young apprentice (Cooper) under their wings. They try everything to destroy the budding romance between the hero and heroine. In the end, they realize that they have been fools, and decide that supporting the romance is after all the best solution. I liked the fact that the Native Americans were portrayed with some sensitivity. This was 1931. The main bad guy was white. While continuing some of the stereotypes about Native Americans - that they are brutal, the movie was at least light-hearted and comical, rather than pursuing an agenda of hatred towards the Native Americans. The ending was nice. Everybody finds love. Even an older man finds a Native American bride.

The Gary Cooper of "Fighting Caravans" is certainly not the Gary Cooper of "High Noon", nor is his future star quality evident here. In this film, Cooper is as green and naive as the Clint Belmet character he portrays. To avoid arrest on a trumped up charge, he poses as an intended groom for French lovely Felice (Lily Damita), who is intent on finding passage to California on a wagon train from Independence, Missouri to Sacramento. Clint has been trained in the ways of frontier life by two grizzled veterans, Bridger and Jackson, and they don't exactly cotton to the budding romance they see unfolding - "Here's hopin' she finds a husband somewhere's else".Based on a Zane Grey novel and set right in the middle of the Civil War, the film moves unevenly from it's unlikely premise, to a temporary stop at an Army fort while it's troop marches on to Vicksburg to hook up with General Grant. Throughout it's dangerous journey in the middle of hostile Indian territory, Cooper proves his worth and finally wins his lady's heart by rescuing her from a runaway wagon. See it both for Gary Cooper's early starring performance and for it's early Western treatment in the relatively new "talkie" format, but don't expect an epic.

"The old time west is passing," says one of the characters in "Fighting Caravans." This early 'talkie' is also one of the earliest 'big budget' westerns from what I read. Unfortunately, this is a B Movie all the way, and not that entertaining either. A young Gary Cooper plays a scout of some sort who is working for a wagon train caravan carrying freight from Missouri to Sacramento, California in the 1860's during the civil war and right before the railroads had been built throughout the west. There is hardship, danger, Indians, romance and cornball humor in this vintage western. Somehow, when you mix them all up together, the recipe isn't all that tasty. The humor is obnoxious at times and the acting, even Gary Cooper's, is noticeably weak during some scenes. This movie tries to be several different types of movies all rolled in to one and it doesn't pull it off. Interestingly enough, there are moments in the film where it is evident that the style of acting and camera work from silent films is still being used. It is a bit fascinating to see how an early 1930's filmmaker portrayed the 1860's. I'd say pass on this movie unless you are a Gary Cooper fan or a hard core fan of early westerns. 61/100.