With all the songs and can-can dance scenes this film would almost qualify as a musical. The story takes place in San Francisco at the turn of the century, and I should have picked up on the date when it was mentioned but I never gave it a second thought. It was the year of the great earthquake, 1906, and it figures somewhat prominently during the latter part of the picture, though it couldn't shake Duke Fergus's resolve to win the trophy he came back for.
His nickname was the Duke, and even though he didn't use that name in very many of his pictures, John Wayne was Duke Fergus in this one, a Montana cowboy who wins and loses a small fortune of sixteen thousand dollars on his first trip to San Francisco to collect on a horse trade. A newspaper reporter from the San Francisco Star called him the 'King of Luck' when he cleaned up at the Eldorado, and then partied his way up and down Pacific Street with winning hands at the competition. Smitten with saloon gal Flaxen Tarry (Ann Dvorak), Duke winds up leaving town with a vow to return and make his mark after Tarry's main man Tito Morrell (Joseph Schildkraut) busts him at the poker table.
It was cool to see William Frawley here as Duke's sidekick and gambling mentor Wolf Wiley. Frawley seems to be one of those actors that no matter what year he appeared in a picture, he always looks the same as Ricky and Lucy's next door neighbor. It's like he was never young and never ages. At least that's the way it strikes me, but I'm still looking to a capture an early flick in which he might have appeared youthful. In the story, Wolf seems to know all the transplanted gamblers like Calico Jim (Paul Fix) and Horseshoe Brown (Al Murphy). Speaking of which, actor Marc Lawrence probably has one of the shortest ever credited film appearances here, actually counting down his thirty seconds of screen time before the Duke shoots him for dirty dealing.
Well the love triangle, if you want to call it that, between Flaxen, Tito and the Duke will keep you guessing how it will turn out right till the very end. Wayne's character came in with a winner take all attitude right from the start, but I have to say, I thought the singer would have stuck it out at the Eldorado after all the fireworks settled down. You know, we never did get to see the Duke's cabin back in Montana, so who knows. Maybe after one look, Miss Tarry might have high tailed it back to the city by the bay.
His nickname was the Duke, and even though he didn't use that name in very many of his pictures, John Wayne was Duke Fergus in this one, a Montana cowboy who wins and loses a small fortune of sixteen thousand dollars on his first trip to San Francisco to collect on a horse trade. A newspaper reporter from the San Francisco Star called him the 'King of Luck' when he cleaned up at the Eldorado, and then partied his way up and down Pacific Street with winning hands at the competition. Smitten with saloon gal Flaxen Tarry (Ann Dvorak), Duke winds up leaving town with a vow to return and make his mark after Tarry's main man Tito Morrell (Joseph Schildkraut) busts him at the poker table.
It was cool to see William Frawley here as Duke's sidekick and gambling mentor Wolf Wiley. Frawley seems to be one of those actors that no matter what year he appeared in a picture, he always looks the same as Ricky and Lucy's next door neighbor. It's like he was never young and never ages. At least that's the way it strikes me, but I'm still looking to a capture an early flick in which he might have appeared youthful. In the story, Wolf seems to know all the transplanted gamblers like Calico Jim (Paul Fix) and Horseshoe Brown (Al Murphy). Speaking of which, actor Marc Lawrence probably has one of the shortest ever credited film appearances here, actually counting down his thirty seconds of screen time before the Duke shoots him for dirty dealing.
Well the love triangle, if you want to call it that, between Flaxen, Tito and the Duke will keep you guessing how it will turn out right till the very end. Wayne's character came in with a winner take all attitude right from the start, but I have to say, I thought the singer would have stuck it out at the Eldorado after all the fireworks settled down. You know, we never did get to see the Duke's cabin back in Montana, so who knows. Maybe after one look, Miss Tarry might have high tailed it back to the city by the bay.