In Old California [Blu-ray]

Overview

With its slight resemblance to Destry Rides Again (1939) -- probably not entirely coincidental -- this rousing Western from Republic Pictures remains a joy throughout. John Wayne plays Tom Craig, a mild-mannered druggist from Boston who opens a shop in wild and woolly Sacramento shortly before the Gold Rush. The town is "owned" by the Dawson brothers, Britt (Albert Dekker) and Joe (Dick Purcell), who poison Craig's tonic when saloon hostess Lacey Miller (Binnie Barnes) takes too much of an interest in the handsome newcomer. Town drunk Whitey (Emmett Lynn) has one drink too many, and all of Sacramento is soon in a lynching mood. The news of "gold in them thar hills" saves the druggist in the nick of time, but his business is destroyed. While everyone is heading for the gold fields, Craig prepares to leave town with snobbish debutante Ellen Sanford (Helen Parrish), whom he intends to marry. News of typhoid fever among the prospectors changes his mind, however, and the man once referred to as "a human hitchin' post instead of a two-legged man," risks his own life to save the suffering populace. The Dawson brothers, meanwhile, plan to hijack the medical supplies and sell them to the highest bidder, but when Britt Dawson learns that Lacey is helping the sick and may be stricken with the disease herself, he has a change of heart and eventually confesses to spiking Craig's medicine. Cast against type for most of the film, John Wayne fails to make his amiable druggist entirely believable but remains simply John Wayne throughout -- which is as it should be. Binnie Barnes is rowdy and fun whether leading a chorus of "California Joe" by Johnny Marvin and Fred Rose, or jealously interrupting a tête-à-tête between Wayne and 19-year-old Helen Parrish. Usually cast as glacial "other women" in Hollywood films, the British-born Barnes had actually begun her professional career touring Europe and South Africa with bucolic American headliner Tex McLeod, which was as good a preparation as any to play In Old California's saloon belle. Patsy Kelly, who shoots down her laundry with a Winchester, and Edgar Kennedy, as Wayne's tooth-ache plagued sidekick, add to the general fun.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/28/2013
UPC:	0887090065207
Original Release:	1942
Rating:	NR
Source:	Olive
Presentation:	[B&W]
Language:	English
Time:	1:22:00
Sales rank:	19,023

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

John Wayne	Tom Craig
Binnie Barnes	Lacey Miller
Albert Dekker	Britt Dawson
Helen Parrish	Ellen Sanford
Patsy Kelly	Helga
Edgar Kennedy	Kegs McKeever
Dick Purcell	Joe Dawson
Harry Shannon	Mr. Carlin
Charles Halton	Mr. Hayes
Emmett Lynn	Whitey
Bob McKenzie	Mr. Bates
Milt Kibbee	Mr. Tompkins,Mr. Tompkins
Paul Sutton	Chick
Anne O'Neal	Mrs. Tompkins
Minerva Urecal	Mrs. Carson
Robert E. Homans	Marshal
Hooper Atchley	Higgins
Pearl Early	Mrs. Bates
Ruth Robinson	Mrs. Higgins
Frank Jaquet	Dr. Glaggett
Jack O'Shea	Saloon Patron
Jack Kirk	Wagon Driver on Run
Lynne Carver	Actor
James Morton	Red,Actor
Horace B. Carpenter	Townsman in Mob
Olin Howlin	Actor
Chester Conklin	Actor
Frank Hagney	Actor,Angry Citizen in Lynch Mob
Ralph Peters	Bar Brawler
Forrest Taylor	Man in Saloon with Carlin
Richard Alexander	Clem
Donald Curtis	Pike
George Lloyd	San Francisco Sheriff
Stanley Blystone	San Francisco Deputy
Slim Whitaker	Man in Street
Frank Ellis	Wagon Drive
Bud Osborne	Actor
Ed Brady	Angry Citizen in Lynch Mob
Wade Crosby	San Francisco Bartender
Guy Usher	Captain of First Boat
Martin Garralaga	Señor Alvarez
Rex Lease	Gold Strike Rider
Karl Hackett	Charlie
Art Mix	Actor
Merrill McCormack	Dawson's Henchman
Frank McGlynn Sr.	Actor
Pedro de Cordoba	Mr. Carlin

Technical Credits

William McGann	Director,Director
Robert North	Producer

Editorial Reviews

In Old California is hardly a memorable movie, but it does have some curiosity value. After all, when was the last time you saw the legendary John Wayne play a frontier pharmacist? If that casting seems a bit off-key, it's with good reason. Nobody could carry a good western quite like Wayne, and even in less-than-good "oaters," he provided the kind of sturdy, manly presence that was essential for the genre. But he's not really comfortable with his California role and therefore ends up playing it as he does many of his more typical cowboy heroes. Sure, he tries to be a bit less commanding, but that's just not what Wayne was about, and those attempts don't ring true. Everyone feels better, Wayne included, when the actor simply forgets he's a druggist and acts like Wayne. The screenplay is a bigger problem, a fairly slight story that has been stretched to fill a feature length film, and the film suffers from that. William McGann's direction is adequate but nothing more, and doesn't fill up the dead space as it needs to. Albert Dekker does very well as Wayne's moral opposite, and there's fine support from ladies Binnie Barnes and Helen Parrish and some very funny moments from Patsy Kelly. But all in all, California is only moderate entertainment.

All Movie Guide - Craig Butler