The Forty-Niners (1932) DVD-R

Starring Tom Tyler, Betty Mack, Al Bridge, Fern Emmett, Gordon De Main
Directed by John P. McCarthy

Print: black/white
Runtime: 51 min.
Genre: western
Print Quality: B-

"Tennessee" Matthews is a trader dealing in buffalo hides at his post
situated on the North Platte River at Fort Laramie, Wyoming. There Jed
Hawkins and his daughter Virginia are waiting for an escort for their
wagon trail headed for California. "Widow" Melindy Spriggs is also with
the train and has intentions of trapping Hawkins as her next husband,
although his disposition to drink is very trying to her 'dry' ways. "Squaw"
O'Hara, called such because he has a habit of taking up with Indian
women (which may well be very politically incorrect now, but writer F.
McGrew Willis did not name his villain such with an eye on the PC world
of the future, and revisionist film history will not intrude here) is hired as
the train's scout. O'Hara is one bad character indeed and his real
vocation is misguiding wagon trains into traps so they can be looted. At
the present time, O'Hara has taken up with a beautiful Indian girl named
Lola who lives in a hut where O'Hara makes frequent visits and stores the
booty from the many caravans he has betrayed, and has full intentions of
doing the same with the Hawkins train. He may only be visiting to check
on the inventory, but the pre-code days implication is that he considers
Lola as part of the inventory. He and Matthews both fall in love with
Virginia, but it is plain to see she prefers Matthews. She even sends him
a rose. This displeases O'Hara so much that he beats up Lola out of
frustration, and Matthews comes to her aid. He puts an arm around her to
comfort her and, of course, that is when Virginia rounds the corner and
jumps to the conclusion that Matthews is a two-timer in buckskin.(Which
in the real world he might have been since Lola is about three numbers
higher on a politically incorrect scale of 1-10 than Virginia is, and Lola ain't
no ten herself.) Virginia covers her heartbreak by encouraging O'Hara,
which is somewhat akin to pouring coal-oil kerosene on a fire, as O'Hara
is not a man who waits for any signs of encouragement anyway. Comes
the dawn , O'Hara begins to lead the settlers west to California, but has
already notified his Indian friends just where he will lead them for an easy
attack. But Matthews has other plans. Earlier Gordon DeMain (as
Hawkins) gets drunk and sings "Oh, Melindy" to the widow, which marks
the only time DeMain sang in a western film and the only time Fern
Emmett was serenaded in a film, western or otherwise.