| Fighting Caravans | 
 enlarge | Directors: David Burton, Otto Brower
Actors: Gary Cooper, Lili Damita, Ernest Torrence, Tully Marshall, Fred Kohler
Studio: Lions Gate
Category: DVD
List Price: $9.98
Buy New: $3.97
You Save: $6.01 (60%)
New (17) Used (8) from $2.90
Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 108700
Format: Black & White, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Ntsc
Languages: Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 92
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
UPC: 012236182719
EAN: 0012236182719
ASIN: B000A6T24O
Theatrical Release Date: February 1, 1931
Release Date: September 6, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Description
Gary Cooper stars in this action packed Zane Grey classic! Welcome to the Civil War where fighting caravans of freight wagons struggle to make their way west, fighting enemies at every turn. A young frontier scout helps guide a freight wagon train across the country, fighting off Indians and evil traders. Meanwhile, his two crusty companions try and save him from falling in love with the hot-tempered French maiden Lili Damita who is determined to make her way West alone.
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| Customer Reviews:
 WAGON TRAINS AND KIOWA INDIANS July 31, 2008
It would be unfair of me to be too critical of this 1931 movie which appeared early into the 'talkie' era of movies. And based on a Zane Grey novel of the late 1920s the fictional background is somewhat sound. That said, however, the major point of the scout becoming outdated by the railroad just is not true. The railroads were not connected until four years after the Civil War in 1869 at Provo, Utah, but the era of the frontier scout continued up to and a little past 1890 at Wounded Knee in the Dakotas.
I have the latest 2 disc copy of The Big Trail so I am not unaware of that movie, but I see little resemblance between these two films, though the directors could not have been unaware of either Zane Grey's book or each other's movies.
For me the scenes of this movie are not tied together well and the resultant condition seems somewhat ragged, with Cooper being off screen almost as much as he is on. Leaving his two scout mentors soaking up a lot of time on screen. And though the movie has its action moments, much of the time very little is really happening. One standout in the movie is Lili Damita, her role and her acting cannot be understated. Cooper is young without his later varnish, but much of what he will later become does show through. While Lili Damita is very accomplished and holds her own with all the actors.
I must attest also that I have several movies from the early and mid-1930s, 24 Hopalong Cassidy movies especially, and any of those are much better in their clarity and storyline. I also treasure the early John Wayne movies (20) that are in many places really not much above 'silent movies' with only music playing as the horses clamber over the plains. So it is just not the fact of this movie having a 1931 date that is uncomfortable to me, it is really the lack of cohesion and smoothness. Even the early Gene Autry movies are much more accomplished.
I read westerns as well as enjoy western movies, but I cannot give this effort more than 3 stars. It may just be my copy of the movie on DVD, but unless some scenes have been excised or edited out, for me the movie remains very uneven. It is a movie to see if you are at all interested in westerns or if you have an interest in early Hollywood black and white movies, or even early Gary Cooper. But for the general viewer I don't think this movie will afford them that much enjoyment.
Semper Fi.
Interesting perceptions of an early Western period. August 25, 2007
This film, Originally titled BLAZING ARROWS, is the first of several based upon a Zane Grey novel published only two years prior, and the version that is most faithful to the book, while being one of the largest budgeted Westerns of the early sound era, with the viewer advised to remember that the period of the narrative (1862) antedated its audience only to the extent that the Great Depression does to spectators today. The story tells of a caravan of freight wagons journeying from Independence, Missouri, to the West Coast during a pre-railroad time, with settlers accompanying, and the procession's four month struggle with hostile Indians, very harsh winter weather, forbidding terrain and renegade betrayal, and is particularly full of interesting detail as to the methods of the freightmen and their metier. Gary Cooper portrays Clint Belmet, a Missouri guide who has been reared and trained as a member of a successive generation of scouts and trappers by two veterans of the breed, Bill Jackson (Ernest Torrence) and Jim Bridger (Tully Marshall), who are unaware that their way of life is to be ended by an advancing intracontinental rail system, only temporarily slowed by the War Between the States. Because of plot circumstances, Belmet must pretend to be married to a lone traveller, Felice (Lily Damita), and their seesaw relationship provides one of the main themes of a wideranging scenario, with Belmet and his mentors trumpeting of the glories of their fading way of life while Felice seeks to inculcate within her swain a sense of domestic virtue. The cinematography of Lee Garmes is very effective with its images of the travails of the wagon train and his work is not compromised by the editing which is crisp and appropriate for a film as episodic as is this one. The work's most serious failing is a lack of a consistent point of view, as it is essentially a comedy, due largely to a highly effectual performance from Torrence, here permitted to utilize his native Scottish burr to its fullest, and is somewhat reduced in impact during scenes of action and romance as a result of only cursory emphasis upon each.
 A Classic western from one of the very best! May 15, 2005
When Clint Belmet's mother and father were killed in Comanche raids, the lad had to grow up fast. So he took over the reins and drove supplies up and down the Santa Fe trail, with a little help from his friend Kit Carson. But Clint made an enemy of the man who loved his fiancee--a man as dangerous as the badlands themselves.
Low-rent version of "The Big Trail"... June 11, 2001
16 out of 17 found this review helpful
A semi-clone of "The Big Trail", Cooper takes over the spot DUKE played, as a frontiersman/guide for a wagon train.While "Fighting Caravans" is not as expansive as "The Big Trail", and while the young Gary Cooper is no young John Wayne, this early western is pretty entertaining. In the story, Cooper helps the wagon train fend off Indians and evil traders, while his two crusty companions try and save him from falling in love. There's plenty of action, and there's even a hint of pre-code Hollywood, as Cooper's character practically attempts to blackmail his new sweetheart into fooling around with him. Laserlight/Delta found a pretty fair print, but there are several missing frames. The image will occasionally "black out", but while annoying, does not interfere with viewing. Originally 92 minutes, this print seems to be more or less intact, missing perhaps two or three minutes. The story moves along well, and the opening credits alone are pretty snazzy for 1931. The film has much to recommend it, and while "The Big Trail" is superior, this early Cooper vehicle is worth adding to your western DVD collection. Especially for the low price the disc is being offered at, you should definitely pick this one up. Film fans should look (or listen!), for Eugene Pallette, of "The Adventures of Robin Hood" fame. He's here in a minor supporting role some seven years before he played Friar Tuck.
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