Product Description

A Kentucky rifleman protects a beautiful French girl and other French settlers against the riverman killers who want their land.
Genre: Westerns
Rating: NR
Release Date: 26-FEB-2002
Media Type: DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29898 in DVD
• Brand: WAYNE,JOHN
• Released on: 2001-05-22
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 100 minutes

Amazon.com
Here's something you don't see every day. Then again, would you want to? Several years before the 1950s' Davy Crockett craze, John Wayne donned a coonskin cap to play a militiaman in early-19th-century Alabama. He and his fellow Kentuckians are just passing through--"marching 600 miles," as they merrily sing (and sing, and sing), because riverboat magnate John Howard has refused to haul them. Howard and all-purpose scoundrel Grant Withers are scheming to dispossess a community of French émigrés--veterans of Napoleon's Grand Army who've come seeking life, liberty, etc. in the New World. Howard's also out to marry Vera Ralston, the French general's daughter. Naturally, Wayne's just the lad to gum up both plans.

Wayne himself produced The Fighting Kentuckian, but far from repeating the success of his maiden effort, Angel and the Badman, this is one of the feeblest films in his long career. Writer-director George Waggner never gets a handle on what a pre-Western should look and move like. Consequently, the cast does a lot of standing around looking silly in period costume, waiting--mostly in vain--for the script to establish their connection to one another and something resembling a plot. There is a glossier look to the proceedings than most Republic pictures achieved, thanks to Lee Garmes's pearly cinematography, but this is scant consolation. So is the almost creepy presence of Oliver Hardy, sans Laurel, doing Ollie-shtick as Wayne's jolly sidekick. No, he doesn't say, "This is another fine mess you've got me into!" But he should. --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews

Charming western with a few minor flaws
As another reviewer mentioned, the movie is a bit slow to start and leaves some plot points unexplained (yes, why *is* John Breen trying to get out of going with his regiment?) but is overall very enjoyable. Wayne is courtly and charming (nobody says "ma'am" like he does), and Oliver Hardy (showing off his native Georgian accent) is so adorable, I wanted to put him in my pocket. Truly an inspired piece of casting; thank goodness Wayne kept after Hardy when he initially refused to work without Stan Laurel. Vera Ralston as the French general's daughter was not the best choice, and I kept getting the two mustached villians mixed up, but I happily stayed with the movie until the "big calvary rescue" ending, and would watch it again. This DVD also includes some good behind the scenes photos, and plenty of interesting production notes.

Delightful old time hollywood frontier story
The Fighting Kentuckian is a frontier classic that's a perfect John Wayne vehicle. Its the type of picture that I would stay up till one am to see when I was a boy in the early 60's. The old style marching, singing, and fighting is a fine escape for its duration. Not realistic and all old time Hollywood I would recomend it to anyone just for the fun of it.

Another off-beat role for The DUKE!
"The Fighting Kentuckian" is the second movie that The DUKE produced for Republic Pictures. Unfortunately, while the first project, "Angel and the Badman" was a great success, this movie bordered on disaster.

In order to be given producing credit, DUKE had to hire the studio boss's girlfriend (Vera Ralston), to star opposite him. He knew she'd be no good for the picture, but DUKE's hands were tied.

One problem with Vera Ralston was that she had a Czech accent. The role she was playing was supposed to be a French woman! In the end, all the French characters had to be cast with Czechs and other Eastern Europeans so Ralston's accent would not stand out. While not embarrassing herself too badly here, Ralston was not a real actress, and it shows.

Oliver Hardy is great as DUKE's sidekick, although he was reluctant to do a project without his partner, Stan Laurel. Hardy had worked in a play with DUKE and John Ford just before filming began on "The Fighting Kentuckian", and DUKE really wanted Hardy in his next project. Hardy only agreed after Laurel, ill at the time, talked him into it.

There's quite a bit that's out of place here. Mixing the Louisiana river traders with French Army ex-patriots is a weird bit of psudo-history, made even more weird by the unlikely addition of the Kentucky Regiment that Wayne and Hardy are part of.

DUKE is still DUKE, and Hardy is fun, but otherwise this overblown costume drama is not very memorable.

The print Artisan used for the DVD transfer is pretty poor, too. For DUKE or Hardy completists, only.