Tonight’s Movie: In Old California (1942)

I've now caught up with IN OLD CALIFORNIA (1942), a John Wayne film for Republic Pictures, as part of my quest to see all of Wayne's films of the '40s.

Last month I saw another of Wayne's '40s Republic films, DAKOTA (1945). DAKOTA was much the better film of the two, although IN OLD CALIFORNIA had some enjoyable moments scattered throughout.

The somewhat unusual plot finds Wayne playing Tom Craig, a pharmacist from Boston who arrives to set up business in booming Gold Rush era California. Craig is a mild-mannered, good-natured gentleman who orders milk at a bar and refuses to become outraged when he's ill treated, even when tossed off a boat in the middle of a river! He just shrugs and carries on, always looking at the bright side.

It should be clear that Craig is no wimp, possessing both moral and physical strength; the latter is hinted at when he fascinates onlookers by periodically bending coins with his fingers. He's simply judicious when it comes to picking his battles.

In Sacramento Craig gets to know two very different ladies: Lacey (Binnie Barnes), a saloon gal who's an item with a local crook, Britt Dawson (Albert Dekker), and Ellen (Helen Parrish, THREE SMART GIRLS GROW UP), a proper young lady visiting from San Francisco. Craig goes into business with Lacey when she becomes a partner in his pharmacy, and he proposes marriage to Ellen.

As time goes on Lacey loses interest in Dawson and falls hard for her business partner, while Ellen gradually reveals a calculating shrew underneath her sweet-tempered exterior.

Meanwhile, there are problems as Dawson tries to drive Craig out of business...and there's an epidemic brewing at a mining camp outside of town...

Wayne is appealing as the pharmacist, and one of the more interesting aspects of the movie is seeing someone with that degree essentially acting as a doctor at times, dispensing medicine from his shop as needed, while also providing aid to a medical doctor.

I really enjoy Parrish, but her role as Craig's fiancee is underdeveloped; I don't know whether that's the fault of the script by Gertrude Purcell and Frances Hyland or if scenes were left on the cutting-room floor. Barnes fares better in a larger part, but on the whole the movie could have used less "comic relief" (from Patsy Kelly and Edgar Kennedy) and reduced the extensive "riding around shooting" action scenes in the last third of the movie in favor of more plot.

My favorite thing about this movie is a related anecdote by Barnes. In a 1985 interview she was asked who was the best actor she'd ever worked with: Laurence Olivier? Ralph Richardson? Her reply was "John Wayne."

IN OLD CALIFORNIA runs 88 minutes. It was directed by William C. McGann. The black and white cinematography was by Jack Marta. Location filming took place in Kernville, along with Big Tujunga Canyon in the San Gabriel Mountains, but the movie also relies heavily on back projections and soundstage "exteriors."

The supporting cast includes Dick Purcell, Charles Halton, Harry Shannon, Milton Kibbee, Anne O'Neal, Esther Estrella, and Emily LaRue.

IN OLD CALIFORNIA is available on DVD in multiple editions. I found my copy, labeled Republic Pictures, in a used DVD store earlier this year, not long before everything shut down. It's also been released by Olive Films which can typically be counted on to do a nice job.