Frontier Gal (1945)

★ 4.4 1h 32m IMDb

Romance Western

Johnny Hart is on the run from the law after killing one of the men who shot his partner. He passes through a town and stops at a saloon owned by singer Lorena Dumont. The two seem a good, albeit tempestuous match, although Johnny has no plans to marry -- Lorena has other ideas and a shotgun wedding ensues.

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Cast

Yvonne De Carlo as Lorena Dumont Died 2007 · Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Yvonne De Carlo (September 1, 1922 – January 8, 2007) was a Canadian-born American actress of film and television. During her six-decade career, her most frequent appearances in film came in the 1940s...

Rod Cameron as Jonathan (Johnny) Hart Died 1983 · Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Andy Devine as Big Ben Died 1977 · Flagstaff, Arizona, USA From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Andrew Vabre "Andy" Devine (October 7, 1905 – February 18, 1977) was an American character actor known for his distinctive raspy, crackly voice and roles in West...

Fuzzy Knight as Fuzzy Died 1976 · Fairmont, West Virginia, USA John Forrest "Fuzzy" Knight was an American film and television actor. He was also a singer, especially in his early career. He appeared in more than 180 films between 1928 and 1967, usually as a cowb...

Andrew Tombes as Judge Prescott Died 1976 · Ashtabula, Ohio, USA

Director Charles Lamont

Cast Yvonne De Carlo, Rod Cameron, Andy Devine, Fuzzy Knight, Andrew Tombes, Sheldon Leonard, Clara Blandick, Jan Wiley, Jack Overman, Frank Lackteen

John Chard 5/10 Aug 03, 2019

The shrew wasn't willing?!

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