Oh! Susanna

"Oh! Susannah" is really a knockoff of several John Ford films. After the success of "My Darling Clementine" and "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" Republic must have thought the public would accept any sort of rehash as long as the main theme and the title were a folksy ditty. Here we have John Wayne (Rod Cameron), Henry Fonda (Forrest Tucker), Ward Bond (Chill Wills), Grant Withers (Jim Davis), Victor McLaglen (William Haade), Maureen O'Hara (Adrian Booth), and even John Agar (James Lydon) wannabes. The climax is right out of "Fort Apache."

The action is often chaotic and diffuse, with Rod Cameron holding the film together through his understated acting style. "Oh! Susannah" shows glimpses of what Cameron might have done with a better story and production.