IN OLD CALIFORNIA
US, 1942, 88 minutes, Black and white.
John Wayne, Binnie Barnes, Albert Dekker.
Directed by William Mc Gann.
In Old California is one of many John Wayne vehicles made at Republic Studios in the early 1940s. These were the stepping stones to his career as a superstar. The plots are fairly similar, this one resembling The Lady From Louisiana.
Wayne is a gentleman from out of state, this time Boston, who goes west. He is a pharmacist who is caught up in the action and double-dealing out in San Francisco and Sacramento. Needless to say he wins the heroine's heart, changes her way of life, thwarts the villains. In fact, villain Albert Dekker makes a confession of everything on his deathbed thus enabling Wayne to lead the people to combat an-outbreak of Typhoid.
There is some serious drama, some action and chase sequences, some gunfighting, some romance, some saloon songs, all the ingredients of a popular western. (Interestingly, the screenplay is written by women: Gertrude Purcell and Frances Hyland.)
1. An entertaining John Wayne actioner? this kind of 1940s film?
2. The popular ingredients of westerns?
3. Black and white photography, San Francisco and Sacramento in the 19th century, the western town, the goldfields? Action sequences? Musical score, songs?
4. The title and the focus on the way of life out west? The contrast with the east? The frontier, the establishment of society, the powerbrokers in the western towns? The goldfields?
5. Tom Craig and his arrival from Boston, his friendship with Lacey Miller? The encounter with Britt Dawson? His nonchalance? The people mocking his Boston gentleman style? Moving from San Francisco to Sacramento? Dawson tossing him off the boat? His keeping his cool? Friendship with Lacey, setting up the pharmacy store? The clashes with the people in the town? Winning, their friendship? Lacey's maid, the town hobo (providing comedy as well)? The attack by the Dawsons? Their poisoning Whitey? His being lynched by the populace? The discovery of gold? The collapse of his business? His decision to help in the goldfields? His falling in love with Ellen, her using’ him, her demands that he go with her to San Francisco? His refusal? Accompanying the medicine to the goldfields? The attack of the Dawsons? The shootout? The deathbed confession by Britt? The happy ending? An engaging hero?
6. Lacey as the wealthy saloon girl, her being kept by Britt, attracted towards Tom, working with him for the pharmacy store? the clashes with Britt? Growing suspicions? Her jealousy of Ellen? Manoeuvring to get him away from her? His being in jail and her visit? Going to the goldfields to entertain, her helping with the illness? Sending for Tom, change of heart and lifestyle? Reconciliation?
6. Britt and his brother, their politics, buying people out, pressurising landowners? Tough attitudes? Britt's love for Lacey? The poisoning of Whitey? Thwarted when Craig was not hanged? The clash between the two brothers, Joe shooting Britt? Joe's death? Britt's deathbed confession?
7. The comic supporting characters - the wild west, the bossy woman, the town hobo? The gallery of characters in the town, respectable, at the saloon, crooked?
8. The action sequences, the chase and shootout? Life on the goldfields?
9. The western hero? Principles? Gallant? His attachment towards the high society woman, seeing through her? The American heroine - the saloon singer with the heart of gold? Becoming respectable?
10. Themes of the American frontier, law and order, the establishment of business, the wild times changing to respectable? Themes of old California?
