La taverne du cheval rouge

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.

On the run after shooting one of the men who murdered his partner, Johnny Hart (Rod Cameron) stops in a remote saloon and meets vivacious singer Lorena Dumont (De Carlo). Tempers and passions flare, and Johnny and Lorena waken in the morning married and with a jealous outlaw after them. When Johnny is sent to prison for six years, he returns to find an embittered Lorena living with their young daughter.

Filmed in glorious Technicolor, this Universal studio Western stars Rod Cameron and the beautiful Yvonne DeCarlo who make a great pair with their love-hate relationship. The scene where Yvonne slaps Rod then gets kissed times four garners some face expressions from DeCarlo which shows her comic side. Frontier Gal is a light, romantic-musical western with sometimes a chauvinistic theme, but it's humorous and lively enough to overlook this. Well it's a comedy as well, bordering with slapstick. Frank Lackteen as Cherokee - Cameron's servant- is hilarious with his one line answers "How." And "you talk too much." The latter is directed to women.

Cameron's character can be a bit mean-spirited as he rejects his daughter, says he's not interested in being father, but the little sprog changes his mind with her cute charm and then takes the sprog away from his mother. But he soon learns the error of his way. Needless to say, there's not much action, it's not a typical western, but the opening sequence was great with Cameron dismounting onto a tree limb and the horse goes and hides In some bushes so the posse chasing won't them see him. Nice climax sequence that rounds things up neatly.

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

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.

Frontier Gal has two exceptionally great features that make the film at least a "7" rather than a "4"- One is the least 20 minutes of the film- fast paced and lots of action (in contrast to the first 60 minutes which was primarily colorful scenes from an old west barroom), breathtaking scenery of the Sierra mountains in California and a great story ending and 2. Miss Beverly Simmons who was fantastic in her role of Mary Ann. From my research on IMDb.com Miss Simmons appeared in only about 4-5 movies, including Buck Privates Come Home. all before the age of fifteen and died too early at the age of 64. I believe her last film was a role in Weekend with Father (1951)for which she did not receive a credit. Miss Simmons was "Shirley Temple" like yet with her own unique charm and terrific acting. I give a 10 to Miss Simmons.