Fighting Caravans(1931).

Fighting Caravans(1931). A Western film directed by Otto Brower and David Burton. Cast: Gary Cooper, Lili Damita, and Ernest Torrence. Based on the 1929 novel Fighting Caravans by Zane Grey.

Fighting Caravans was remade three years later as Wagon Wheels, a low-budget production using stock footage from, Fighting Caravans. Cast: Randolph Scott and Gail Patrick in the lead roles.

Every character's name was changed in the remake except that of Clint Belmet, played by Cooper and Scott.

The story begins with Clint Belmet, sentenced to 30 days in jail. His partners, Bill Jackson and Jim Bridger talk a beautiful Frenchwoman named Felice, into telling the drunken marshal that Clint had married her the night before.

Clint and Felice, join the wagon train caravan carrying freight from Missouri to Sacramento, California during the civil war and before the railroads had been built.. Soon after, Felice, finds out that Bill and Jim, had lied to her... she really did not need a man to join up with the wagon train.

In a stopover, they learn that the Indians are causing trouble on the trail, Clint offers to guide the wagon train. Once on the trail, Felice's wagon goes out of control downhill and Clint comes to the rescue. After, Felice starts talking marriage, Clint, gets nervous and leaves.

He later finds out that the Kiowas and Cheyenne, have been talked into the warpath by crooked traders and are planning an attack the wagon train. Clint, Bill and Jim rush back to stop the Indians attack at the river crossing. Clint, saves the wagon train with some barrels of gunpowder, but his friends are both killed. The wagon train continues on to California.

This is a 'B' western/romance and there are some scenes that did reminded me of silent films.You might want to pass on this movie unless you are a Gary Cooper or a early western fan. Which I'm both, so I enjoyed the film..

Please click here to watch Fighting Caravans(1931) in full.

Lili Damita (July 10, 1904 – March 21, 1994) was a French actress who had appeared in 33 movies between 1922 and 1937. She was educated in convents and ballet schools in France, Spain and Portugal.

At 14, she was enrolled as a dancer at the Opera de Paris. She performed in several silent films before being offered her first leading role in, Das Spielzeug von Paris (1925) by director Michael Curtiz, whom she married in 1925 (they divorced a year later).

She was an instant success, and Curtiz directed her in two more films: Fiaker Nr 13 (1926) and Der Goldene Schmetterling (1926). Damita also performed in, (Die Grosse Abenteuerin(1927), The Queen Was in the Parlour(1927).

In 1928, at the invitation of Samuel Goldwyn she went to Hollywood, making her American debut in a film titled, The Rescue.

Her other films include: The Cock-Eyed World (1929), the semi-silent, The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1929) and This Is the Night (1932).

A comedy film directed by Frank Tuttle. It based on the play Pouche (1923) by Henri Falk and René Peter, and the English language adaptation, Naughty Cinderella (1925), written by Avery Hopwood. Cast: Lili Damita, Charles Ruggles, Roland Young, Thelma Todd, Cary Grant, and Irving Bacon. It was a remake of the 1926 film, Good and Naughty with Pola Negri.

This was Cary Grant's first motion picture. The story begins...While having a night of fun in Paris with her lover, Gerald Gray. Claire Mathewson loses her skirt in a limousine door, arriving home only in her slip, Claire is met by her husband Stephen, a javelin thrower who is supposed to be in Los Angeles for the Olympics.

Gerald and Claire insist the trip was to find Gerald a wife. Stephen, hires the down on her luck Germaine, as Chou-Chou, a glamorous actress. After watching them together, Claire becomes jealous, demanding that Germaine leave Venice. Germaine, refuses to give up her wonderful vacation. This Is The Night, the first of the Screwball comedies that Cary Grant becomes famous for later on. The humor is wonderful and Cary is very funny in this film. It may remind you a little of the silent film format.

In 1935 she married her second husband, Errol Flynn, with whom she had a son, Sean Leslie Flynn (born 1941). Following the marriage, she retired from the screen. The couple divorced in 1942. (Barbara Hershey portrayed her in the TV film My Wicked, Wicked Ways (1985) based on Errol Flynn's biography.)

Pawesome Pet Pictures: Thelma Todd.

A one-time teacher and beauty queen, Thelma went to Hollywood in the 1920s and soon became a comedienne, with many performances in comedy shorts (with Zasu Pitts, Patsy Kelly, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, and others). In the 1930s, she ran a restaurant called, "Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Cafe."

Pawsome Pet Pictures: Thelma Todd

Thelma Todd "The Ice Cream Blonde."

During the silent era, Todd performed in supporting roles that made full use of her beauty. With the talkies, Todd was given opportunity to expand her roles when producer Hal Roach signed her to perform with comedy stars Harry Langdon, Charley Chase, and Laurel and Hardy.

In 1931 she was given her own series, teaming with ZaSu Pitts for slapstick comedies. This was Roach's female version of Laurel and Hardy. The Todd shorts often cast her as a working girl having all sorts of problems and trying her best to remain charming despite the antics of her sidekick.

Thelma Todd became known as a wonderful film comedienne and Roach loaned her out to other studios to play opposite Wheeler & Woolsey, Buster Keaton, Joe E. Brown, and the Marx Brothers.

She also performed in the original 1931 film version of The Maltese Falcon, in which she played Miles Archer's widow.

During her career she performed in 119 films although many of these were short films and was sometimes publicized as "The Ice Cream Blonde."


In August 1934, she opened a successful cafe at Pacific Palisades, called Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Cafe.

Todd continued her short-subject series through 1935 and was featured in the full-length Laurel and Hardy comedy The Bohemian Girl. This was her last film she died after completing all of her scenes, but most of them were re-shot. Producer Roach deleted all of Todd's dialogue and limited her appearance to one musical number.

This video is from the film: You're Such A Comfort To Me" by Thelma Todd, Ginger Rogers, Jack Oakie and Jack Haley .