Main Cast: John Wayne, Vera Ralston, Philip Dorn, Oliver Hardy, Marie Windsor
Release Year: 1949
Country: US
Run Time: 100 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
Set shortly after the Battle of New Orleans, the film casts John Wayne as John Breen, a Kentucky trooper making the long journey homeward with his confreres. Breen becomes involved with a plan by robber baron Blake Randolph (John Howard) to deprive hundreds of French army refugees of land granted to them by an Act of Congress. Championing the cause of the refugees, Breen does his best to defeat Randolph and his minions--and to prevent the villain's marriage to Fleurette De Marchand (Vera Ralston), the daughter of a former French general (Hugo Haas). Oliver Hardy makes a rare appearance sans Stan Laurel as Wayne's pugnacious, philosophical sidekick Willie Payne. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
James Sullivan - Art Director, Adele Palmer - Costume Designer, George Waggner - Director, Richard Van Enger - Editor, George Antheil - Composer (Music Score), Cecil Holland - Makeup, Don L. Cash - Makeup, Bob Mark - Makeup, Webb Overlander - Makeup, Lee Garmes - Cinematographer, John Wayne - Producer, Howard Lydecker - Special Effects, Theodore Lydecker - Special Effects, George Waggner - Screenwriter
The story is set in Alabama in 1818, including the city of Demopolis, which was founded by Bonapartists. The Bonapartists had been exiled from France after the defeat of Napoleon I at the Battle of Waterloo. Congress authorized the sale of four townships in the Alabama Territory in March 1817 at two dollars per acre, and Marengo County was created on February 7, 1818 from lands that had been taken from the Choctaw Nation. It was named after Spinetta Marengo, Italy where Napoleon defeated Austria in 1800 in the Battle of Marengo. The county seat, Linden, Alabama, was named after Hohenlinden, Bavaria where Napoleon won another victory against the Austrians. The Bonapartist colony did not succeed overall, in part due to surveyance issues that contribute to the plot of the film and in part due to practical difficulties in establishing the vineyards.[1][2][3]
Plot
John Breen, a Kentucky militiaman falls in love with French exile Fleurette De Marchand (Vera Ralston). He discovers a plot to steal the land that Fleurette's exiles plan to settle on. Throughout the film, Breen's soldiers sing...
Only six hundred miles more to go Only six hundred miles more to go And if we can just get lucky We will end up in Kentucky Only six hundred miles more to go
Although when the song is first heard, there is eight hundred miles to go
Remarks
The is one of three films in which John Wayne wears a coonskin cap in substantial portions of the movie, the others being Allegheny Uprising a decade earlier and The Alamo a decade later. Allegheny Uprising and The Fighting Kentuckian are frequently mistaken for one another as a result.
