In Old California
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
William Mcgann
John Wayne
Binnie Barnes
Albert Dekker
Helen Parrish
Patsy Kelly
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In the late 1840s, Boston pharmacist Tom Craig decides to move West to open a drugstore. On the way from San Francisco to Sacramento, he runs afoul of Britt Dawson, a gunslinger who owns a Sacramento saloon and terrorizes local ranchers into signing over their land to him. Tom also meets Dawson's fiancée, singer Lacey Miller, who is impressed by Tom's gentility. Upon reaching Sacramento, Tom discovers that Dawson has ordered the local storekeepers not to rent him space for his pharmacy. Tom convinces Lacey, who owns a space next to the saloon, to become his partner, however, and soon his store is doing good business. Tom is oblivious to Lacey's romantic interest in him, and falls in love with visiting San Francisco socialite Ellen Sanford. Ellen does not love Tom, but realizes that with her influential father's help, she can transform him into a prominent businessman in San Francisco. Lacey sees through Ellen's façade of sweetness and does everything she can to keep the pair apart, but to no avail, for Tom proposes as Ellen is leaving for home. Soon after, Tom and his friend, Kegs McKeever, are able to organize the ranchers and prevent Dawson and his brother Joe from taking over the Higgins farm. Although Lacey forbids Dawson from exacting revenge, he doctors one of Tom's tonics with laudanum, and Whitey, the town drunk, dies after drinking it. Dawson organizes a mob to lynch Tom, but he is forgotten when a miner rushes into town and declares that a huge gold strike has been found. Soon the town becomes almost deserted as everyone, including the Dawsons, hurries to stake a claim. Later, when the marshal refuses to let him reopen his store, Tom prepares to join Ellen in San Francisco. Before Tom can leave, however, Dawson returns and goads him into a fistfight. The marshal refuses to listen to Tom's side of the story and incarcerates him for sixty days. While he is in jail, Lacey comes to say goodbye to him before she travels to the camps to entertain the miners. Upon arriving at the camps, Lacey learns that almost everyone is ill with typhoid fever, and sends Kegs back to Sacramento to get Tom's help. Tom is released from jail, and after organizing a shipment of medical supplies, convinces those remaining in town to come with him to the camps to help the others. Ellen, who has arrived to take Tom back to San Francisco with her, warns him that their engagement will be over if he goes to the camps, but he leaves with Kegs anyway. Dawson, Joe and their gang attempt to hijack the medical supplies wagons so that they can sell them to the highest bidder, but when Dawson learns that Lacey is in one of the camps stricken with the fever, he helps the townsfolk fight off the gang. Dawson is shot by Joe during the fracas, and Tom takes him to Lacey. While he is dying, Dawson confesses that he poisoned Tom's tonic. Soon, the fever is contained, and Tom and Lacey embrace as they watch the healthy miners returning to Sacramento.
Director
William Mcgann
Cast
John Wayne
Binnie Barnes
Albert Dekker
Helen Parrish
Patsy Kelly
Edgar Kennedy
Dick Purcell
Harry Shannon
Charles Halton
Emmett Lynn
Bob Mckenzie
Milt Kibbee
Paul Sutton
Anne O'neal
Hooper Atchley
James C. Morton
Donald Curtis
Dick Alexander
Freddie Walburn
Michael Miller
Pearl Early
Karl Hackett
Cecil Weston
Emily La Rue
Esther Estrella
Martin Garralaga
Forrest Taylor
Zeke Canova
Sam Bernard
Marty Faust
Frank Jaquet
Ruth Robinson
Robert Homans
Harry Tyler
Charles "slim" Whitaker
Frank Brownlee
Jim Corey
Rex Lease
Frank Hagney
James Farley
Wade Crosby
George Lloyd
Joe Mcguinn
Stanley Blystone
Dorothy Granger
Minerva Urecal
Jessie Arnold
Guy Usher
Harry Mckim
Max Waizman
Frank Mills
Fern Emmett
Ed Cassidy
Hal Price
Lynn Carver
Jack O'shea
Matt Willis
Heenan Elliott
Jack Carr
Lew Kelly
Crew
Gladys Atwater
J. Robert Bren
David Buttolph
Cy Feuer
Kenneth Holmes
Frances Hyland
Joseph Kane
Russell Kimball
Jack Marta
Johnny Marvin
Robert North
Howard O'neill
Adele Palmer
Gertrude Purcell
Fred Rose
Murray Seldeen
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this film was Gold Runs the River, which was the title of J. Robert Bren and Gladys Atwater's original story. According to Hollywood Reporter news items, actor Albert Dekker was borrowed from Paramount for the production, and the picture was shot on location in Kernville and Big Tujunga, California. Hollywood Reporter also reported that locations in the Sherwood Lake region of Southern California were being scouted, but it has not been determined if any of the picture was filmed there. In Old California marked the motion picture debut of actress Rhonda Fleming. Modern sources include the following actors in the cast: Frank McGlynn, Jack Kirk, Horace B. Carpenter, Olin Howlin, Chester Conklin, Ralph Peters, Frank Ellis, Bud Osborne, Art Mix, Merrill McCormack, Ed Brady, and Bob Woodward.
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1942
Released in United States 1942
