Fighting Caravans

During the Civil War, FIGHTING CARAVANS of freight wagons make their way West, crossing hostile Indian country.

This sturdy Zane Grey Western, largely forgotten over the decades, offers some fine entertainment with its good performances and vivid location filming. The number of wagons, livestock and extras used show that Paramount Studios paid out a fair few pennies for decent production values. The dramatic struggles across the wilderness and a rousing Indian attack help punch up the action considerably.

Laconic Gary Cooper stars as the trail guide helping to lead the teamsters and settlers through dangerous territory. Hot-tempered Lili Damita plays a solitary French maiden driving her wagon West. Their intermittent romance is completely predictable, but the two young performers make it all very watchable.

Stealing their every scene are a pair of old pros from the Silent days: Ernest Torrence & Tully Marshall. Playing a couple of grizzled, drunken, women-hating trail guides--as well as Coop's best buddies--they are very amusing in their attempts to break-up the budding romance between their protégé and the troubling Miss Damita.

Rotund Eugene Palette is on hand as a lovelorn member of the wagon train. Charles Winninger enlivens the film's opening minutes as the blustery Marshal of Independence, Missouri.

Movie mavens will recognize sweet Jane Darwell as a pioneer and Iron Eyes Cody as a Fort Indian in search of firewater, both uncredited.

..and directors Otto Brower and David Burton, very loosely based on a Zane Grey novel. Gary Cooper stars as scout Clint Belmet, a hard-drinking troublemaker who nonetheless gets hired to escort a large wagon train west to California. Along with his crusty pals Bill (Ernest Torrence) and Jim (Tully Marshall), he finds the safest path through the hills, and away from "wild Injuns". He also makes time with solo pioneer woman Felice (Lili Damita).

Paramount hoped to make this a real epic, but it gets bogged down in cliches, pointless character digressions, and some miscasting. Damita has trouble with her English, while Cooper looks too clean and neat to be hanging around with the sloppy likes of Torrence and Marshall: where does he keep getting his clothes laundered, and why aren't his pals using the same service? There's a big barroom brawl scene played for laughs, and the inevitable Indian attack, but the outcome of this is obvious from the opening credits. Speaking of which, one of the few stylistic touches I liked was having Native Americans in costume walking toward the camera during the credits, obscuring words and even blacking out the screen.

In Missouri, during the Civil War, "high, wide, and handsome" Gary Cooper (as Clint Belmet) gets a little jail cell shut-eye. Awakening, he moseys over to the local saloon, where he is held at gunpoint by the town's drunken sheriff. Mr. Cooper's guardians, Ernest Torrence (as Bill Jackson) and Tully Marshall (as Jim Bridger), secure his release by convincing French lass Lili Damita (as Felice) to pretend she is Cooper's wife. Then, the quartet join a caravan to California. A real romance begins to bloom between Ms. Damita; but, Mr. Torrence and Mr. Tully want Cooper's bachelorhood preserved. Along the way, Indians (Native Americans) lurk…

Old pros Torrence and Marshall are "Fighting Caravans" main attraction. They were responsible for many memorable character roles (mostly) in silent films (mostly); and they are in excellent form, reprising their "Covered Wagon" roles. Cooper obviously enjoys working with them. Ms. Damita is cute and effective. The production levels are relatively high, leading to the obligatory ending battle; but, the performances make it entertaining. Unnecessarily re-made as "Wagon Wheels" (1934), with stock footage and Randolph Scott.

******* Fighting Caravans (2/1/31) Otto Brower, David Burton ~ Gary Cooper, Ernest Torrence, Tully Marshall

Stars a young gary cooper, guiding wagons across the plains of the west. A remake of the 1923 film covered wagon (with the one and only alan hale !). And the story will be told again in the 1934 wagon wheels, with randolph scott!. Keep an eye out for gene pallette. He was a supporting actor in so many films of the 1930s. But was not a nice guy, if you read his bio in wikipedia. Caravans is okay; the typical zane grey western story. More fanfare and galloping horses than anything. It's a story about a wagon train traversing america, but many of the scenes all seem to take place on the same (backlot) of the studio. In one scene about 45 minutes in, the wheel on the wagon isn't even turning as the wagon moves...say what? The picture quality and sound are both so-so, but this film is coming up on 100 years old! Director otto brower made a ton of zane grey's stories into film. Sadly, brower died young at 50.

"The old time west is passing," says one of the characters in "Fighting Caravans." This early 'talkie' is also one of the earliest 'big budget' westerns from what I read. Unfortunately, this is a B Movie all the way, and not that entertaining either. A young Gary Cooper plays a scout of some sort who is working for a wagon train caravan carrying freight from Missouri to Sacramento, California in the 1860's during the civil war and right before the railroads had been built throughout the west. There is hardship, danger, Indians, romance and cornball humor in this vintage western. Somehow, when you mix them all up together, the recipe isn't all that tasty. The humor is obnoxious at times and the acting, even Gary Cooper's, is noticeably weak during some scenes. This movie tries to be several different types of movies all rolled in to one and it doesn't pull it off. Interestingly enough, there are moments in the film where it is evident that the style of acting and camera work from silent films is still being used. It is a bit fascinating to see how an early 1930's filmmaker portrayed the 1860's. I'd say pass on this movie unless you are a Gary Cooper fan or a hard core fan of early westerns. 61/100.