The Fighting Kentuckian

The Fighting Kentuckian
File:The Fighting Kentuckian cinema poster.jpg Original cinema poster
Directed by	George Waggner
Produced by	John Wayne
Written by	George Waggner
Starring	John Wayne Oliver Hardy Vera Ralston Philip Dorn Marie Windsor
Music by	George Antheil
Cinematography	Lee Garmes
Edited by	Richard L. Van Enger
Distributed by	Republic Pictures
Release dates	September 15, 1949 (1949-09-15) (USA)
Running time	100 min
Language	English

John Wayne and Vera Ralston in The Fighting Kentuckian (1949)

The Fighting Kentuckian (1949) is an American comedy action film starring John Wayne and Oliver Hardy. The movie was written and directed by George Waggner and made by Republic Pictures.

Plot

John Breen, a Kentucky militiaman, falls in love with French exile Fleurette De Marchand (Vera Ralston). He discovers a plot to steal the land that Fleurette's exiles plan to settle on. Throughout the film, Breen's soldiers sing:

Only six hundred miles more to go

Only six hundred miles more to go

And if we can just get lucky

We will end up in Kentucky

Only six hundred miles more to go

When the song is first heard, there are eight hundred miles to go (the tune is She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain).

Historical setting

The story is set in Alabama in 1818, including the city of Demopolis, which was founded by Bonapartists. The Bonapartists had been exiled from France after the defeat of Napoleon I at the Battle of Waterloo. Congress authorized the sale of four townships in the Alabama Territory in March 1817 at two dollars per acre, and Marengo County was created on February 7, 1818 from lands that had been taken from the Choctaw Nation. It was named after Spinetta Marengo, Italy where Napoleon defeated Austria in 1800 in the Battle of Marengo. The county seat, Linden, Alabama, was named after Hohenlinden, Bavaria where Napoleon won another victory against the Austrians. The Bonapartist colony did not succeed overall, in part due to surveyance issues that contribute to the plot of the film and in part due to practical difficulties in establishing the vineyards.

Cast

• John Wayne as John Breen
• Vera Ralston as Fleurette De Marchand
• Philip Dorn as Col. Georges Geraud
• Oliver Hardy as Willie Paine
• Marie Windsor as Ann Logan
• John Howard as Blake Randolph
• Hugo Haas as Gen. Paul De Marchand
• Grant Withers as George Hayden
• Odette Myrtil as Madame De Marchand
• Paul Fix as Beau Merritt
• Mae Marsh as Sister Hattie
• Jack Pennick as Capt. Dan Carroll
• Mickey Simpson as Jacques (wrestler/Marie's father)
• Fred Graham as Carter Ward
• Mabelle Koenig as Marie

Production notes

This is one of only five times that Hardy worked without partner Stan Laurel after they'd teamed up as Laurel and Hardy. Hardy also appeared with Harry Langdon in Zenobia (1939), with Bing Crosby in Riding High (1950), and in two cameos Barnum & Ringling, Inc. and Choo-Choo!. It was the only time that Hardy appeared in a film with John Wayne, though the two had worked together onstage a year earlier in a touring charity production of What Price Glory? starring Wayne, Ward Bond, and Maureen O'Hara, and directed by John Ford.

See also

• Oliver Hardy filmography
• John Wayne filmography

External links

• The Fighting Kentuckian at IMDb
• The Fighting Kentuckian at AllMovie
• The Fighting Kentuckian at the TCM Movie Database
• The Fighting Kentuckian at the American Film Institute Catalog