Robert J. Maxwell A massive gold rush takes diverse types of California, where they meet their destinies. Some find gold, most melt into the background, some run saloons, others gamble and win saloons from the others, some are pervicaciously greedy and deprive others of water, some wear sandals and lift weights on Muscle Beach, some organize a personal militia to fight against the statehood that would deprive them of their unethical power and their mountain of riches, some found loony religious cults.Everyone except Anthony Quinn is miscast. Ray Milland is a suave Englishman, not a wandering cowboy who needs a shave. George Coulouris isn't bad as the powerful heavy and gang leader, but Barry Fitzgerald does not belong in the small part of the grizzled side kick. That's Gabby Hayes' or Walter Brennan's role. Barbara Stanwyck is miscast too. She belongs in the city, not singing in Coulouris's gambling den and bar. She gets to sing (dubbed) two or three fully orchestrated 1947-era songs.There are a few unexpected objets trouvee in the script. Stanwyck's songs are dumb, but there is a pretty Mexican folk song, "Carmel, Carmela," sung by a tenor with a simple guitar accompaniment. And Coulouris gets a bit of sympathy from his personal background -- poverty and sadness -- during his apparently genuine proposal to Stanwyck that the ordinary bad guy is usually denied in these perfunctory scripts. I mean, after all, Coulouris was the captain of a slave ships. The horror, the horror.And, unexpectedly, the hero, Ray Milland, gets clobbered in two fist fights. True, he's outnumbered or outweighed, but that usually doesn't stop the hero from winning, even if, in the process, he winds up with a tiny and colorful trickle of blood from the corner of his lips. The viewer also acquires a bit of incidental learning regarding the history of the state of California in the lead-up to the Civil War.

dougdoepke The movie is a stab at an epic western that simply fails to gel. The best part is the "moving west" scenes of wagon trains convoying across the open southwestern terrain. These achieve an epic feel that the dramatics unfortunately fail to duplicate. The screenplay itself is pretty crowded, telling the story of California's becoming a state, no less. From settlers to gold rush to saloons to political intrigue, the story is traced out mainly through Milland, Stanwyck, and Coulouris, with Fitzgerald as a salt-of-the-earth anchor.Now, that might work, except director Farrow has little feel for the material. The various parts come across in rather limp, unexciting fashion. It's as if he's content to simply film the script without bringing its many conflicts to dramatic life. Thus, the drama is conveyed in words instead of characters. Then too, Oscar winner Milland appears either miscast or uninspired. His role really calls for a bigger personality than Milland's generally low-key wagon master. (He may have viewed a western as a comedown after his award winning role in The Lost Weekend.) Stanwyck is of course Stanwyck even though she's dolled-up to suit Technicolor filming and crowded around by the packed screenplay . Too bad the guy who could have enlivened the action remains in supporting background, namely, the commanding Albert Dekker (Pike).Anyway, I guess I now know why this epic western remains so obscure, despite its Paramount pedigree and marquee cast.

JoeytheBrit A film that starts out as camp as this – apple-pie and syrup homilies to the great state voiced over saturated colour shots of its natural landmarks – can only get better, and thankfully it does. Despite the improvement California never really reaches the big budget quality heights to which it aspires though. The colour looks good, and some of the cinematography is terrific, and John Farrow's direction is as reliable as it always was, but the plot is a little stale to say the least.Ray Milland struggles to convince in a role more suited to the likes of Robert Taylor, but he gives it his best shot and is merely unmemorable rather than annoying in the role of principled cavalry deserter and wagon leader Jonathan Trumbo, who spends most of the film fighting his desire for saloon girl Lily Bishop (Barbara Stanwyck, opposite whom Milland seems to become invisible every time they share a scene) before inevitably melting into her arms in the final scene. This being a colour film, Lily often wears red, just to let us know the colour of her past and the passions lurking beneath her frosty exterior. If George Coulouris were half as colourful as his character's name – Pharaoh Coffin – an ex-slave trader intent on making California his own little kingdom, instead of an oddly insipid nonentity he might have provided a little more zip to the proceedings, but most of the bad guy antics are left to the ever-reliable Albert Dekker. The film also features a young Anthony Quinn, impossibly handsome in a latino way, who sadly has little to do other than dance, get drunk and die. Barry Fitgerald rounds out the cast as Fabian, a wine grower on Trumbo's wagon trail who allows himself to be talked into running for governor of California so that Johnny can hammer a nail into Pharaoh's, ahem, coffin.This is old-style major studio entertainment so you pretty much know what you're going to get. Good, solid production values, some not insubstantial star power – and a story that is almost as lightweight as tiny Mr. Fitzgerald.

dianefhlbsch Definitely NOT a great movie, but very enjoyable, especially if one is a Stanwyck fan. Cinematography bounced back and forth from lush, to "quick, get it done" shots.Ray Milland did not quite cut it as the hardened trail boss and buffalo hunter. But maybe that's because his character really is not-he deserted from the army for getting involved with a married woman. Stanwyck shines as the self-reliant lady gambler and flirt who has been tossed around her whole life, with a few exceptions.Yes the movie is rather corny, but let's face it the movie industry was right in the middle of the Macarthy era and needed safe material to work with. It DID give a rather honest perspective of how many lost sight of what they really had set out for, and how others took advantage, at any cost.