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Westward the Women

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Westward the Women
Theatrical film poster
Directed byWilliam A. Wellman
Screenplay byCharles Schnee
Story byFrank Capra
Produced byDore Schary
StarringRobert Taylor
Denise Darcel
John McIntire
CinematographyWilliam C. Mellor
Edited byJames E. Newcom
Music byJeff Alexander
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • December 31, 1951 (1951-12-31)
Running time
118 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2,203,000[1]
Box office$3,996,000[1]

Westward the Women is a 1951 American western film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Robert Taylor, Denise Darcel and John McIntire.

Plot

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In 1851, the working men of Whitman's Valley in California are lonely. Local proprietor Roy Whitman (John McIntire) decides the best way to prevent his men from leaving is to convince women to settle down in Whitman Valley. Roy heads to Chicago, Illinois to search for women willing to take on the arduous journey to California in order to marry. Among the 140 women he convinces are the widowed middle-aged Patience (Hope Emerson), the pregnant and unmarried Rose Meyers (Beverly Dennis), and former showgirls Fifi Dannon (Denise Darcel) and Laurie Smith (Julie Bishop). The women select their prospective husbands from a board of daguerreotypes tacked to a display board. Roy hires experienced wagon master Buck Wyatt (Robert Taylor) to lead the convoy.

Roy and Buck take the women to St. Joseph, Missouri, where Conestoga wagons and 15 trail hands await them. Kentaro Ito (Henry Hiroshi Nakamura), a determined and diminutive Japanese man, persuades Buck to take him on as the cook. Before setting out, Buck warns the men and the women to stay away from each other, as he has seen wagon trains torn apart by romantic shenanigans. Four experienced women teach the others how to harness draft animals and drive the wagons and after a week's training, the train begins making its way westward.

After Buck executes one of the trail hands for raping Laurie, all but two trail hands leave in the middle of the night, with eight women going with them. While Roy wants to turn back, they are halfway to their destination and Buck believes they can finish the difficult journey if they train the women how to defend themselves. While teaching the women to shoot, Tony Moroni, the young son of the Italian widow Mrs. Moroni, is accidentally shot. Distraught, Mrs. Moroni refuses to leave her son's grave, Buck hogties her for fear she'll commit suicide and leaves her with Patience and Rose in their wagon.

Over the coming weeks, the group endures many hardships and losses. A group of indigenous Americans attack the group, killing Roy, Sid, and six women and Laurie drowns when a heavy rainstorm causes the collapse of a riverbank, plunging her and Fifi's wagon into the water. Fifi and Buck fall in love. At the edge of the desert, Buck orders the women to leave behind the furniture and fancy clothing to lighten the wagon loads. As many of the women proceed on foot, Rose goes into labor and gives birth to a son.

They come to rest near a small lake on the border of Whitman's Valley. Not wanting to meet their future spouses in tattered clothing, the women demand Buck bring them materials to fashion new dresses. Obliged, Buck rides into town and orders the men to gather any fabrics they can find for the women to use. Once properly dressed, the women drive into town and meet the men they picked. Patience is the first of the women to approach the men and look for her husband, intimidating the men with her firm and confident demeanor. Mrs. Moroni meets an Italian citrus farmer and Rose and her newborn are greeted warmly by the man she chose. While some of the couples dance, others stand in line to be married by the preacher. Ito convinces Fifi to reconcile with Buck and the two decide to marry.

Cast

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Production

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Frank Capra, who receives story credit, originally intended to do this film himself; he'd always wanted to make a western, hopefully with Gary Cooper, but Paramount wasn't interested. He mentioned the idea to Wellman, who asked if he could take a stab at it. Capra gave him his blessing, and Wellman pitched it to Dore Schary at MGM, who gave him the go-ahead and liked the concept so much that he produced it himself.

A documentary included in the film's DVD states that it was filmed at various locations in Kane County, Utah.[2] Film locations also include Johnson Canyon, the Gap, Paria, and Surprise Valley in Utah.[3] The documentary also mentions that the actresses all had to learn how to drive a four horse team pulling a wagon.

Reception

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According to MGM records the film earned $2,640,000 in the US and Canada and $1,356,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $266,000.[1]

Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 67% from 33 reviews.[4]

Radio adaptation

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Westward the Women was presented on Lux Radio Theatre December 29, 1952. Taylor and Darcel re-created their roles from the film in the one-hour adaptation.[5]

Film inspires caravans of women in Spain

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In 1985, the Spanish village of Plan, Aragon, made the news in Spain when local bachelors organized a "caravan of women" following an airing on television of Westward the Women. At the time the plan was conceived, there were over 40 single men and just one single woman in the village, since most of the local women had emigrated. An advertisement in the press calling for "Women between 20 and 40 with marriage intentions for Pyrenees village" resulted in 33 marriages, revitalizing the village.[6]

Since then, other Spanish villages have organized similar "caravans".[6]

The phenomenon inspired the 1999 Spanish film Flowers from Another World.

References

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  1. ^ a b c The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study, Los Angeles
  2. ^ Documentary included with the DVD Westward the Women. ASIN B007RKFXQW.
  3. ^ D'Arc, James V. (2010). When Hollywood came to town: a history of moviemaking in Utah (1st ed.). Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith. ISBN 9781423605874.
  4. ^ "Westward the Women | Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes.
  5. ^ Kirby, Walter (December 28, 1952). "Better Radio Programs for the Week". The Decatur Daily Review. p. 36. Retrieved June 5, 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  6. ^ a b "Los hijos de la caravana, sin plan". El Mundo (in Spanish). January 16, 2005.
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