Lightnin'

Louise Dresser owns and operates a hotel which the California-Nevada runs through. She has an offer to buy it from businessmen who offer to pay for it with stock. Her husband, Will Rogers, thinks it a swindle and won't let her sell, so she starts divorce proceedings.

I don't think anyone ever went to a Will Rogers film for anything but Rogers. Given that he was Fox's biggest star in this period, they gave him ample budgets, fine co-stars - here it's Louise Dresser playing, as she often did, his wife, Joel McCrea and Helen Cohan as young lovers, and Jason Robards as a crooked lawyer - and the best directors. Here it's Henry King, tending his favored patch of small-town Americana.

Rogers gets off some of his amiable quips and tall tales, but King lets him hesitate and grumble over his lines too often for my taste. Still, there's real chemistry between him and Miss Dresser, and the other performers get some nice performances in. It's certainly not the best of Rogers' vehicles, but I don't care. I came to see him, and I did.