The Plainsman (1936)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Cecil B. DeMille

Writers:

Courtney Ryley Cooper (story)
Frank J. Wilstach (story)

Release Date:

16 November 1936 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | History | Romance | War | Western

Tagline:

Cecile B. DeMille brings you Gary and Jean in their grandest picture...the story of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane, the hardest boiled pair of lovers who ever rode the plains...a glorious romance set against the whole flaming pageant of the Old West...

Plot:

Wild Bill Hickok attempts to stop an Indian uprising that was started by white gun-runners.

Plot Keywords:

Rifle | Wild Bill Hickok | Buffalo | Repeating Rifle | Calamity Jane

Cast

Gary Cooper	...	Wild Bill Hickok
Jean Arthur	...	Calamity Jane
James Ellison	...	William "Buffalo Bill" Cody
Charles Bickford	...	John Lattimer
Helen Burgess	...	Louisa Cody
Porter Hall	...	Jack McCall
Paul Harvey	...	Yellow Hand
Victor Varconi	...	Painted Horse
John Miljan	...	Gen. George A. Custer
Frank McGlynn Sr.	...	Abraham Lincoln
Granville Bates	...	Van Ellyn
Frank Albertson	...	Young trooper
Purnell Pratt	...	Capt. Wood
Fred Kohler	...	Jake (teamster) (as Fred Kohler Sr.)
Pat Moriarity	...	Sgt. McGinnis (as Pat Moriarty)

Runtime:

113 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

UK:U | Norway:16 | Australia:PG | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #2597)

Filming Locations:

Birney, Montana, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Anthony Quinn told Cecil B. DeMille that he spoke fluent Cheyenne. Quinn's description of the Custer battle is gibberish, but DeMille was impressed.

Goofs:

Factual errors: On the evening of Lincoln's assassination Van Ellyn and his associates are discussing the supposedly then current John Soule editorial, "Go West, Young Man." Lincoln was murdered in 1865. Soule wrote that famous line in 1851.

Quotes:

[last lines]
Epilogue: It shall be as it was in the past... Not with dreams, but with strength and with courage... Shall a nation be molded to last.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Golden Saddles, Silver Spurs (2000) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Yankee Doodle

Greed and Indian Annihilation

With the end of the North American Civil War, the manufacturers of repeating rifles find a profitable means of making money selling the weapons to the North American Indians, using the front man John Lattimer (Charles Bickford) to sell the rifles to the Cheyenne. While traveling in a stagecoach with Calamity Jane (Jean Arthur) and William "Buffalo Bill" Cody (James Ellison) and his young wife Louisa Cody (Helen Burgess) that want to settle down in Hays City managing a hotel, Wild Bill Hickok (Gary Cooper) finds the guide Breezy (George Hayes) wounded by arrows and telling that the Indians are attacking a fort using repeating rifles. Hickok meets Gen. George A. Custer (John Miljan) that assigns Buffalo Bill to guide a troop with ammunition to help the fort. Meanwhile the Cheyenne kidnap Calamity Jane, forcing Hickok to expose himself to rescue her.

The dated "The Plainsman" is a great deception, with a pretentious and shallow story without historical accuracy, "politically incorrect" in the present days and a terrible screenplay that wastes Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur. Their performances are below average with awful characters. The best part is the beginning, with the inception of the lobby of the greedy manufacturers of weapons using the repeating rifles to provide Indian (and also "white man") annihilation in the name of the pockets full of money. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Jornadas Heróicas" ("Heroic Journeys")