Today’s quick review: The Fighting Kentuckian. In 1819, John Breen (John Wayne), a Kentucky infantryman, falls in love with Fleurette De Marchand (Vera Ralston), the daughter of an exiled French general (Hugo Haas), and follows her to the French settlement of Demopolis, Alabama. With the help of his friend Willie Paine (Oliver Hardy), John tries to save Fleurette from an arranged marriage to Blake Randolph (John Howard), a powerful businessman.
The Fighting Kentuckian is a classic Western romance starring John Wayne. The plot follows John as he fights to win Fleurette’s hand in marriage. To complicate matters, John stumbles onto a plot to steal the land out from under the French settlers. Romantic escapades, intrigue, and a dash of humor follow as John tries to set things right. The Fighting Kentuckian has enjoyable aspects, but taken as a whole, it leaves something to be desired.
Oddly enough, The Fighting Kentuckian has the plot of a crime drama. Stripping away the light tone and the romance, the plot revolves around shaddy dealings in a burgeoning Alabama town. Although clueless at first, John and Willie uncover more details about the scheme and race to stop it. This gives the movie a solid backbone and, when coupled with the buoyant spirit of the movie, makes it a fun and relatively engaging watch.
However, The Fighting Kentuckian is missing a few things to tie it together. The romance between John and Fleurette is sudden even by the standards of the genre, a shallow tale of love at first sight that mainly serves to get the story rolling. The movie can be too fanciful at times, ignoring logic to get its story to work. And while the criminal side of the plot works well, John and Willie are a little too far behind the curve to be effective heroes.
The Fighting Kentuckian is a fine pick when you’re in the mood for a light, heroic story with some unique trappings. The movie does not excel in some of the areas where it should, and its peculiar blend of breezy romance and crime-tinged Western adventure will not appeal to everyone. But in spite of its oddities, it will appeal to fans of John Wayne and viewers who appreciate the lighter classics.
For a better-developed romantic Western starring John Wayne, try Angel and the Badman or Hondo. For a more serious Western with a crime-oriented plot, try Vera Cruz.
[6.5 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041361/). I give it the same for a pleasant story held back by a few quirks.