The Fighting Kentuckian
| The Fighting Kentuckian | |
|---|---|
Original cinema poster
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| Directed by | George Waggner |
| Produced by | John Wayne |
| Written by | George Waggner |
| Starring |
John Wayne Vera Ralston Philip Dorn Oliver Hardy Marie Windsor John Howard Hugo Haas Grant Withers Odette Myrtil |
| Music by | George Antheil |
| Cinematography | Lee Garmes |
| Edited by | Richard L. Van Enger |
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Production
company |
Republic Pictures
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| Distributed by | Republic Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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100 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Fighting Kentuckian is a 1949 American Western film directed by George Waggner starring John Wayne, Vera Ralston, Philip Dorn, Oliver Hardy, Marie Windsor, John Howard, Hugo Haas, Grant Withers and Odette Myrtil.
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:
When the song is first heard, there are eight hundred miles to go (the tune is She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain).
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.
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