Frontier Gal

Bad Man Rod Cameron is shotgun-married to saloon singer Yvonne De Carlo. After one night of honeymooning, he's arrested. When he returns from six years in prison, he discovers he has a five-year-old daughter.

Despite the usually sure comedy hand of director Charles Lamont, this movie annoyed me from the beginning, and my mood grew sourer as it progressed. Was it Cameron's one-note, offhanded performance? Miss De Carlo's I-love-you-don't-touch-me performance? The way plot points, like a daughter or a fiancee appears just as it is needed? Beverly Simmons' squeaky-voiced, I'm-a-cute-little-girl act? All those and more. At least Fuzzy Knight gets to show the reason he was known as an entertainer by playing the piano.

It's not enough. This was originally planned as a vehicle for Jon Hall and Maria Montez. Reportedly, Miss Montez, on seeing the script, refused the part. When the geniuses assigned the role to Miss De Carlo, they figured they didn't need Hall, and in the usual inspired manner, assigned Cameron as the leading man from SALOME WHEN SHE DANCED. Miss De Carlo doesn't dance, but she does sing, voice courtesy of Doreen Tryden.

This is an atypical western. Here there is more humour than suspense, and humour of a timeless nature. When a man loves a woman, or vice versa, there are always trouble spots and the inevitable consequences of the loving union. Take the timeless difficulties between the genders and the mischief of their offspring and you have quite an entertaining and engrossing story. There is a thrilling ending to this romp in the west, and definitely some exaggerated but not politically correct philosophies that reflect the attitudes prevalent in the era when the movie was made. But it is all good fun!

Originally meant to be a vehicle for Maria Montez who didn't like the script - allegedly the spanking scene at the end - so the part went to Yvonne de Carlo, who thought that the spanking was 'cute'. The movie is fairly predictable in its taming-of-the-shrew type of rumbustious humour with plenty of fights and a prolonged spanking of our feisty heroine's pert bottom at the end, after which, of course, all is well. Well according to Western if not #MeToo. Cute performance by the child actress who manages not to be too annoying.

I saw and forgot about countless western movies in my early years, but this is one western I recall vividly. (I picture it in Technicolor.) First, I remember fiery Yvonne De Carlo and cowboy Rod Cameron who came riding up to the establishment she owned. It was like the irresistible object encountering the immovable force. Their love-hate romance was unusual for any era, and would be almost unthinkable in today's films, but it worked for this out-of-the-mainstream movie. I've forgotten some of the details, but what impressed me most was their little girl and how she brought about the exciting conclusion of the movie and a strangely satisfying resolution to their love affair. This is one I'd like to see again, but it never turned up on TV and seems to have faded into oblivion. A pity. It was fun.

Frontier Gal (AKA: The Bride Wasn't Willing) is directed by Charles Lamont and written by Michael Fessier and Ernest Pagano. It stars Rod Cameron, Yvonne De Carlo, Andy Devine, Fuzzy Knight, Sheldon Leonard, Andrew Tombes and Clara Blandwick. Music is by Frank Skinner and Technicolor photography is shared by Charles Boyle and George Robinson.

What a mixed bag of a film! It begins with the high speed pursuit of Rod Cameron on horseback. He's our man in black and we shunt our way through absolutely gorgeous Technicolor enhanced locales. From there he hits town and quickly flirts with a ravishing De Carlo, flirting that goes so far as to use sexually playful violence as part of the process. This annoys local dude Sheldon Leonard, a macho muscle flexing contest occurs, a faux wedding is strangely arranged, Cameron bogs off for a few years, comes back to town, finds he has a daughter with De Carlo and the pair carry on warring as secrets begin to will out.

The story itself is utterly bonkers and tonally it is never at ease with itself as it unconvincingly tries to blend offbeat farce, action, drama and musical numbers. Some of the location photography around Kernville and Mammoth Lakes is sumptuous, the costuming gorgeous and sparkling in Technicolor (with a top print of the film now available). Yet these tech highpoints are undone by some real creaky money saving stage work, notably for the big finale as the scenery props wobble and the big dramatic "child in life threatening peril" sequences are blighted by appalling process work.

Cast are fine, very likable stars who are in on the nutty nature of the beast, with Beverly Sue Simmons as the precocious child of the play something of a revelation. The musical score is standard throwaway stuff from Skinner, likewise De Carlo's musical numbers - where I'm not convinced she is actually singing herself? There's also plenty here for the politically correct to get in a twist about, but personally it doesn't bother myself as I take it as intended for the era it was made. So all told, approach with caution because it's all over the place, but as wacky and as frustrating as it is, I still kind of enjoyed it - sort of... 5/10