I'm one of the lucky folks who got to see "Frontier Gal" in a brilliantly hued imbibition Technicolor print -- the kind of color that commands your attention, it is so glorious.
Rod Cameron plays Johnny Hart, a cowpoke on the wrong side of the law, but good-hearted nevertheless. He falls in love with Lorena (Yvonne deCarlo), a drop-dead beautiful saloon owner who, under her tough exterior, has feelings for him too. They get married, but after the honeymoon night, the law catches up with him and Johnny is sent away to prison.
Seven years go by, Johnny is released, and he tries to hook up with the bride he left behind. Now he discovers he's got a six-year-old daughter, Mary Ann (Beverly Simmons), and a wife who doesn't want her daughter associating with an ex-con, never mind that he's her father.
Sheldon Leonard is Blackie, leader of a gang that hates Johnny, and when he discovers his enemy has a little girl, Blackie has his gang kidnap the tyke. Johnny goes after the baddies and, after a brutal fight over a raging waterfall, rescues Mary Ann and returns her to Lorena.
In other commentaries, you will read words such as "a strangely satisfying conclusion," "unthinkable in today's films," and "politically incorrect," and you may wonder what the writers mean by that. Here it is: In the final scene of this western, Johnny puts his wife over his knee and gives her a good, sound spanking. After that, she realizes that he really loves her, and decides to accept him back into her life and their daughter's life.
When asked what she thought about that scene, Miss deCarlo said, "I think spankings are cute." Not your present-day P.C. attitude, perhaps, but it worked in 1945, spectacularly so. "Frontier Gal" made Yvonne deCarlo a front-line star at Universal and launched a brilliant film career.
Dan Navarro (daneldorado93@yahoo.com)
Rod Cameron plays Johnny Hart, a cowpoke on the wrong side of the law, but good-hearted nevertheless. He falls in love with Lorena (Yvonne deCarlo), a drop-dead beautiful saloon owner who, under her tough exterior, has feelings for him too. They get married, but after the honeymoon night, the law catches up with him and Johnny is sent away to prison.
Seven years go by, Johnny is released, and he tries to hook up with the bride he left behind. Now he discovers he's got a six-year-old daughter, Mary Ann (Beverly Simmons), and a wife who doesn't want her daughter associating with an ex-con, never mind that he's her father.
Sheldon Leonard is Blackie, leader of a gang that hates Johnny, and when he discovers his enemy has a little girl, Blackie has his gang kidnap the tyke. Johnny goes after the baddies and, after a brutal fight over a raging waterfall, rescues Mary Ann and returns her to Lorena.
In other commentaries, you will read words such as "a strangely satisfying conclusion," "unthinkable in today's films," and "politically incorrect," and you may wonder what the writers mean by that. Here it is: In the final scene of this western, Johnny puts his wife over his knee and gives her a good, sound spanking. After that, she realizes that he really loves her, and decides to accept him back into her life and their daughter's life.
When asked what she thought about that scene, Miss deCarlo said, "I think spankings are cute." Not your present-day P.C. attitude, perhaps, but it worked in 1945, spectacularly so. "Frontier Gal" made Yvonne deCarlo a front-line star at Universal and launched a brilliant film career.
Dan Navarro (daneldorado93@yahoo.com)