Today’s quick review: Fighting Caravans. To avoid jail time, Clint Belmet (Gary Cooper) poses as the husband of Felice (Lili Damita), a young woman in a wagon train to California. Against the urgings of Bill Jackson (Ernest Torrence) and Jim Bridger (Tully Marshall), the grizzled old scouts who raised him, Clint considers making the relationship real. But while Clint and Felice get to know each other, the wagon train faces attack by a band of Kiowas.
Fighting Caravans is a Western romantic comedy starring Gary Cooper. The story follows one of the last cross-country wagon trains delivering freight to California before the completion of the railroad. Clint, a wild young man, finds himself torn between the freewheeling influence of Bill and Jim and the growing love he feels for Felice. Fighting Caravans aims to be a light tale of opposites falling in love, but its execution falls short of the mark.
Fighting Caravans’ chief problem is its characters, who are nowhere near as charming as they should be. Bill and Jim are meant to be lovable rascals, but their drunken antics only cause trouble. Clint is meant to be an untamable hero with a mischievous streak, but instead he comes across as selfish and crude. Felice fares the best of the main cast, but she is a neutral figure at best, only there to argue with Clint and gradually fall in love.
Fighting Caravans also has subtler issues with its storytelling and delivery. The acting is lackluster, with lines of dialogue that come across as wooden pronouncements. The camerawork exacerbates the problem, cutting after almost every line and giving the movie an artificial quality. The romance is clumsy, with little chemistry between the leads and plenty of artificial drama. And while the plot is serviceable, it does not do anything special.
The end result is a Western that is outclassed by many later entries into the genre. Fighting Caravans has the makings of a light love story on the Great Plains, but it has neither the tact nor the playful spirit to pull it off. The comedy misses the mark, the romance is weak, and the presentation is flawed. Fighting Caravans does tell a complete story with a few viable ideas, but there is little to recommend it over its peers.
For a more charming Western romantic comedy, try The Fighting Kentuckian. For a better Western romance in the same vein starring Gary Cooper, try Along Came Jones.
[5.7 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021861/). I give it a 5.0 for weak characters and clunky storytelling.