La grande caravane

In once again reviewing a movie or TV appearance of a cast member of the original "Dallas" in chronological order, I'm now at 1954 where Jim Davis is once again in a Republic production directed by Joseph Kane. He plays Silky, a bar owner who's friends with the main characters played by Joan Leslie, Vera Ralston, Forrest Tucker, and Pat O'Brien. The story moves along briskly with occasional stops for action and music. The Trucolor scenery is nice to look at. Victor Young's music score is also enjoyable to listen to. Really, I don't have a thing to complain about. I do wonder if the novel this movie was based on had even more that happened that they couldn't show here due to time constraints...

Unusual and charming western, though it is really more of a romantic costume film. The sets and costumes are glorious, as others have noted. Very unusual color combinations for the ladies. Great authenticity to the sets. Lots of Spanish being spoken, without translation. The acting is good and the story is not at all the usual wagon train picture. I did not care so much for all of the singing. It was a little distracting. Filler if you will. But the romance was good. It was kind of an old fashioned melodrama actually. Well just watch it, but do not have expectations ahead of time because it is not at all what you would expect.

JUBILEE TRAIL is close to a disaster, and it particularly distressing to see lovely and very talented JOAN LESLIE reduced to a namby-pamby secondary role to the awful Vera Ralston. Ralston, of course, was a stellar Olympic figure skating champion who arrived in Hollywood to skate her way into a couple of films for Republic Pictures' boss Herbert J. Yates (who fell in love with her, married her, and spent years and money on trying to convince the public that she could act.) Ralston's acting was poor but less annoying in those films in which she was surrounded by professionals (e.g. MURDER IN THE MUSIC HALL and ANGEL ON THE AMAZON). But Yates kept pushing the envelope, and Republic's expensive western JUBILEE TRAIL is one of the nadirs. Lots of money obviously spent on the film, but Ralston, as a 'dance hall' performer (hmmm) is all over the place with shrieky acting techniques, an overabundance of makeup, and a plump-ish body. It is truly one of the lowest acting exercises. Photography, though, is quite good, and Yates' money expenditures are obvious in other facets of the production. John Russell is the best in a large supporting cast. Joan Leslie remains the central character around whom the plot is moved along. She is beautiful and tries to do the best with some of the awful dialog. (She plays a nice newlywed who, for some unfathomable reason, befriends Ralston.). What a waste!!! If life were fair, Leslie, by this time, would have been an appreciated talent whose abilities were growing with her own maturity.

I have a poster of Jubilee Trail on my wall and at the top it says, "The Greatest American Drama Since Gone With the Wind." Now that's a howler and yet I've always liked this unusual western. Nothing quite like Jubilee Trail on a rainy Saturday afternoon with cookies and milk. It's about the settling of California but is short on action and long on dialogue... not for the typical western watcher perhaps. It kind of reminds me of "Johnny Guitar" (made the same year by the same studio) with two women as the leads. Here they are not protagonists but great, supportive friends. Top-billed is Vera Ralston (married to the studio head) but the real star is the always-enchanting Joan Leslie and this is one of her finest moments. Forrest Tucker, John Russell, Jim Davis, Buddy Baer and others who have worked with Leslie and Ralston before make this film look like a happy working experience for all. We couch cowboys are the winners.

Jubilee Trail represented one of the last attempts of Herbert J. Yates to get the American movie public to accept his wife Vera Hruba Ralston as a star. Again she didn't score with the public and pretty soon Vera and Republic Pictures were history.

Actually Republic Pictures really ended the day that John Wayne got shed of his long term contract with Republic. Yates made more money loaning him out to other studios than he did with the films that actually starred the Duke. After all, Duke's loanout services were pure profit, no overhead expenses involved in producing high budget epics that befit his growing star status.

John Wayne couldn't have saved Jubilee Trail because the central characters here are two women, Vera and Joan Leslie. Vera's running from a mysterious past in New York and she hooks up with Joan and her new husband John Russell. Russell is traveling west with a pack train of supplies for he and his brother Ray Middleton. Russell also has a past himself that involves some kanoodling with the owner of a local ranchero and a small bundle of joy he only finds out about just as he's starting west.

Middleton's real upset about the marriage as they've ruined plans for a merger between the two families. He takes an unreasoning dislike to Joan Leslie and is determined to gain control of the child she's carrying now after Russell is killed.

It really is more soap opera than horse opera. There's an Indian attack sequence, but I'm sure it's in there so western fans can have a little action. There's also a nice gun battle between Forrest Tucker and two bad guys in Middleton's employ looking to steal Leslie's child after it's born. Middleton is the kind of villain you are more likely to see on daytime soaps.

Tucker has the hero role, but he really does little between the action sequences but look solemn and declare his love for Leslie. Pat O'Brien has a supporting part as a cashiered army surgeon who drinks to forget his troubled past. And presiding over it all once they reach California is Vera at Jim Davis's saloon.

Vera's got the Marlene Dietrich part here, but Jubilee Trail would have been a whole lot better if Yates had gotten Marlene Dietrich for the part.