Tryin' Hard
I watching " Fighting Caravans" , one of the films based on Zane Gray's novel of the same name, which I mentioned in an earlier post . It wasn't a silent film, but it did a pretty good impression of one. It is much older and therefore cruder film than Wagon Wheels , despite a higher budget. And the ersatz Old Gay Couple are much funnier and gayer (well, not 'gay' so much as 'misogynistic', but in 1931 those distinctions were fuzzy). Its plot and the fates of its characters noted how the Oregon Trail signaled the end of an era where the Frontier was still unexplored and unsettled. That interested me because previously I would have only thought about the Oregon Trail as the beginning of "The Wild West" rather than as the end of the "Frontier West". It also opened my eyes about Gary Cooper. And a welcome sight he was. Like most contemporary folks, my impression of is based mostly on his later work. Everybody knows is the "real...