Ray Milland is an unusual choice for the lead role. Especially since he hadn’t done a western before. It would be the first of his four collaborations with director John Farrow, which included COPPER CANYON. Milland developed a fondness for the Hollywood western, and his directorial debut was in this genre at Republic Pictures in 1955.
Cast as Milland’s leading lady is Barbara Stanwyck. Though she’d already made a few western movies by this stage of her career, they would become her bread and butter in the 1950s, as well as in the 1960s on television.
Character actor Barry Fitzgerald is third-billed. He probably has the most interesting role here as a champion for the underdog.
In early scenes Fitzgerald displays compassion for Stanwyck’s character, a saloon gal accused of cheating at cards and stealing men. She gets thrown out of a midwestern town and is allowed to join a wagon train headed for California, thanks to Mr. Fitzgerald’s intervention.
Stanwyck and Milland get off on the wrong foot, but there’s more than a few sparks between them. One night, the wagon train has stopped to set up camp in the desert. Since old habits apparently die hard, Stanwyck charms her way into a poker game the men are playing. She wins a bunch of cash, which prompts Milland to assume she’s using a marked deck. After examining the cards, he realizes she’s been on the level. He sits down and plays a hand with her. Of course, she cleans him out too.
While this is a western with hard-fisted action and romance, it is also a historical drama. We learn about the different pioneers heading to the coast– some of them drifters, most of them farmers, all with dreams of a better life. California was still under Mexican authority at this time, but it would soon become a republic, then part of the United States. The gold rush was underway.
It is no coincidence that Paramount released the film in January 1947, to mark a special 100th anniversary. California joined the union on January 13, 1847, although official statehood didn’t take place until 1850.
Some of the drama depicted on screen involves disputes that occur after the wagon train reaches the coast, where farmers and miners battle greedy land barons. The biggest villain is a guy named Pharaoh Coffin (love that name!) played by George Coulouris. At the same time there are Mexican noblemen associated with Coffin. This group is led by Anthony Quinn. There is also a military leader (Roman Bohnen) who appears, since Milland’s backstory concerns desertion from the army.
A lot is jam packed into a 97-minute running time. Paramount pulled out all the stops and we are treated to vibrant Technicolor; musical interludes (Stanwyck’s singing is dubbed); and an abundance of background players, though not quite as many as we’d find in a DeMille spectacle. There is also plenty of on-location filming in Arizona and of course, in California itself.
It’s a film that takes a look at the land and people of California as well as its form of government. I would call it a golden production befitting a golden state.
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