Evening star., 1951-12-12

out of which Charles Schnee made
the Screenplay and Director Will
liam Wellman the final picture.
This is a collection of able men
and it has done a workmanlike
job in the expansive production.
It's biggest dramatic surprise,
however, is that such natural ma
terial for a movie has been lying
around in frontier history all
these years without being discov-
cred.
This incredible remissness is
underscored in the current pro-
duction which finds Robert Tay-
lor as the man engaged to herd
$50 women, led by Denise Darcel,
to the primitive paradise that was
California in 1851. In all his years
as a film actor, Taylor never made
q firmer showing against more
overwhelming odds.
XXX
There is a sort of tongue-in-
cheek quality in this history les
son from M-G-M.
The clever Wellman has recog-
nized his subject as yeaSty one
and has seen no reason why it,
should be directed too evaSively
After all, his story is one of the
relations between bachelors in
California and maidens in Chi
cago and how the women went
westward to keep one of the great
blind dates in American history.
There have been countless
movies Of the long trek from the
Mississippi to the Pacific but none
quite like this. It was an epochal
march born in the mind of old
Roy Whitman, an upright pioneer
Californian and great believer
In the American family.
What his rich valley needed. he
told Guide Taylor one day. was
the woman's touch to make it al
Paradise. Why not go to Chicago,
recruit $50 good. wholesome wom-
en- and bring them westward toI
marry with his 100 men? The
$50 was to allow for shrinkageI
en- route due to illness, accidents
and Indian raids.
Taylor, an old trails hand who
has brought every kind OF wagonI
train to the west. rebels at this
notion at first. Once in it, how
ever, he is just the man for the
Sob. There Is a skeptical streak
In him and he would like to
prove once and for all that wo-l
men cannot make a trip such as
Whitman proposes.
The hardships which provide
the exciting incident of West
ward the Women" are the IA
miliar ones of such trips. only
harder because 1t is the supposedly
weaker sex that suffers them.
The grip starts, for instance.
with a male crew Of Is to take
care OF the rough work, the
roughest of which is fighting OF
marauding Indians. But Taylor's
firmest order is that there shall
be no fraternizing between crew
and passengers. Its effect is that
before the trip is at midpoint, all
but four males have deserted or
been shot for diSobedience.
This leaves it up to the women
10 learn to shoot. handle mules.
lower wagons down preciptious
roads, ford treacherous streams,
and fight off the Indians them
selves. In addition, they must
learn how to cross deserts, handle
animal stampedes. bury the cara
vans dead. and try to keep their
emotions in state Of equilibrium.
1t takes two hours for them to |
prove that they learned all these
lessons and that is longer than
at least one customer of west
ward the Women" thinks justi-
fable.
The elapsed time of the pic
eure, however. leaves one with
the impression that pioneer fe-
males were a high-hearted lot if
not very impressive to look at. \
X X X |
AS the trail rider boss of "West-
ward the Women" Taylor gives
she impression of a man who isl
ADJUSTMENTS.