The Fighting Kentuckian (1949)

Background: John Wayne, the star of this picture, really needs no introduction. He's one of the most famous movie stars ever. He appeared in almost 250 movies, including a streak of at least one per year for fifty-one consecutive years. He barely slowed down when he had to have his entire left lung removed in 1964 (He was a chain smoker for many, many years). He's been consistently ranked among the best male leads of all time. Say what you will about his politics, he was very conservative and very anti-communist, but his popularity as an actor is undeniable, even to this day. One other knock against him: He's the great uncle of boxer/actor Tommy Morrisson, a.k.a. Tommy "The Machine" Gunn from Rocky V. Goddamn Rocky V.

Also starring in this movie is Oliver Hardy, of the famous comedy duo Laurel And Hardy. The two started in the era of silent films and lasted until their final film together in 1951. Hardy was another heavy smoker, so at least he had something to talk to Wayne about. Directing this film is George Waggner. Fans of early Universal monster movies will recognize his name, he directed The Wolf Man with Lon Cheney Jr. This movie is billed as an action comedy, and starring John Wayne (for the action) and Oliver Hardy (for the comedy) it can't go too far astray, right?

Plot: This story, despite being called The Fighting Kentuckian takes place entirely in Alabama. A small group of French separatists were exiled from their native land after the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo. They're given a few townships to make a small settlement of their very own. The story mostly takes place is the town of Demopolis, one of the towns taken over by the French.

John Wayne and Oliver Hardy are Kentucky riflemen, clad in fringe-y jackets and coonskin caps. On a detour through the French section, he meets Fleurette, a pretty young thing that has eyes for Wayne. The two fall for each other five minutes into the movie. Romance was uncomplicated back then I guess. There's a problem though, and its name is Blake Randolf. Randolf is the rich riverboat owner with his eyes on greater things, namely owning the French settlement as well as the marital hand of Fleurette.

John Wayne refuses to let Fluerette go to such a clearly evil man and takes up the fight against his thugs. I don't really need to type anymore plot synopsis after that. You know the rest.

Why Was It Forgotten? Well, to start with, this is a terrible copy of the movie. The film stock was in terrible shape when they transferred it, there are tons of scratches and much of the movie is washed out or blurry. Worse than the picture quality is the sound quality. Regardless of what you think about the movie itself, these are reason alone to forget about it. The movie itself is fairly straightforward. John Wayne's the hero, Oliver Hardy is a goofy sidekick. There's not really any surprises to be had, though few really come to John Wayne movies for surprises. I mean in his 200 or so movies, he's only died in a handful.

What Went Right? It's really hard to tell how much of the comedy really holds up due to the quality of the video. Most of it is just Oliver Hardy doing the Oliver Hardy thing without a whole lot of gusto. This is not a bad movie by any means, but it really seems like no one's trying that hard. Coming up with one or two specific things that went right is virtually impossible.

Verdict: Pretty rote, but a higher quality version of the movie shouldn't be excluded from John Wayne fans' veiwings.

Score: Movie: 60%, this version: 5%