The Fighting Kentuckian
by George Waggner
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Actor: John Wayne, Marie Windsor, Oliver Hardy, Philip Dorn, Vera RalstonDirector: George Waggner
Brand: Lions Gate
Producer: John Wayne
Cinematographer: Lee Garmes
Writer: George Waggner
Editor: Richard L. Van Enger
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 100 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-05-22
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Republic Pictures
DVD Reviews of The Fighting Kentuckian
DVD Review: If it weren't for love...
Summary: 5 Stars
Returning to Republic, for which he had made many B Westerns in his 20's, John Wayne produced this "Eastern Western" in his middle career, after his great success in Stagecoach. The date is 1819, the place Mobile, Alabama, and he plays John Breen, a member of the Second Kentucky militia, which has spent the last five years fighting the Seminoles and Creeks and is now on its way home--on foot, because local riverboat magnate Blake Randolph (John Howard) won't let it ride his craft. Sighting Fleurette deMarchand (Vera Ralston), whom he doesn't know is Randolph's fiancee, he falls in love, and she returns the sentiment. 10 days later the Second arrives at Demopolis, a settlement created by exiled officers of Napoleon's forces and headed up by Fleurette's father. There Breen arranges to stay on, and soon discovers that all is not as peaceful as it seems. George Hayden (Grant Withers), who controls the rivermen, is conspiring with Randolph to eject the French from the land they have improved, but Randolph, influenced by a genuine fondness for Fleurette, is having second thoughts. One-armed Col. Georges Giraud (Philip Dorn), one of deMarchand's most trusted followers, has suspicions that something isn't right. And Hayden's mistress Ann Logan (Marie Windsor) is out to get revenge for her former fiance, who she believes was murdered by Hayden. To achieve this end she fools everyone into thinking that Breen and his sidekick, rotund bugler and packmaster Willie Paine (Oliver Hardy), are surveyors come to check out the French grant lines. Now Breen and Willie must convince deMarchand that his people's titles are in danger--to say nothing of their lives.
Besides suspense, action, a generous sprinkling of humor, and an intriguing historical background (it isn't *exactly* accurate--look up "Demopolis, Alabama" on Wikipedia--but let's assume that this is a slightly alternative Universe), if you read the Production Notes included on the disc, you'll come away with an increased respect for Wayne as an actor. Ralston (with whom he had worked four years earlier in Dakota) was wished on him by her boyfriend, the head of Republic, who was determined to make a star of her, but she couldn't act and sometimes required as many as 15 takes to get a scene right. Wayne not only conquers his natural dislike of such unprofessional behavior and makes a convincing lover of himself, he makes Ralston look good while he's at it. This has been one of my favorites of the Duke's mid-career work ever since I discovered it on cable many years ago. It's definitely worth a look.
Description of The Fighting Kentuckian
FIGHTING KENTUCKIAN - DVD MovieHere's something you don't see every day. Then again, would you want to? Several years before the 1950s' Davy Crockett craze, John Wayne donned a coonskin cap to play a militiaman in early-19th-century Alabama. He and his fellow Kentuckians are just passing through--"marching 600 miles," as they merrily sing (and sing, and sing), because riverboat magnate John Howard has refused to haul them. Howard and all-purpose scoundrel Grant Withers are scheming to dispossess a community of French émigrés--veterans of Napoleon's Grand Army who've come seeking life, liberty, etc. in the New World. Howard's also out to marry Vera Ralston, the French general's daughter. Naturally, Wayne's just the lad to gum up both plans.
Wayne himself produced The Fighting Kentuckian, but far from repeating the success of his maiden effort, Angel and the Badman, this is one of the feeblest films in his long career. Writer-director George Waggner never gets a handle on what a pre-Western should look and move like. Consequently, the cast does a lot of standing around looking silly in period costume, waiting--mostly in vain--for the script to establish their connection to one another and something resembling a plot. There is a glossier look to the proceedings than most Republic pictures achieved, thanks to Lee Garmes's pearly cinematography, but this is scant consolation. So is the almost creepy presence of Oliver Hardy, sans Laurel, doing Ollie-shtick as Wayne's jolly sidekick. No, he doesn't say, "This is another fine mess you've got me into!" But he should. --Richard T. Jameson
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