Wells Fargo | |
---|---|
Directed by | Frank Lloyd |
Screenplay by |
Paul Schofield Gerald Geraghty Frederick Jackson |
Story by | Stuart N. Lake |
Starring | Joel McCrea |
Music by | Victor Young |
Cinematography | Theodor Sparkuhl |
Edited by | Hugh Bennett |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date
|
December 31, 1937 |
Running time
|
97 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $1.5 million |
Wells Fargo (1937) is an American Western film directed by Frank Lloyd and starring Joel McCrea, Bob Burns and Frances Dee. This is the third of four movies in which real life husband and wife McCrea and Dee starred together.
It was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Sound (Loren L. Ryder).
In the early 1840s, Wells & Fargo employee Ramsay MacKay (Joel McCrea) comes upon a broken down carriage in the countryside and gives belle Justine Pryor (Frances Dee) and her mother (Mary Nash) a lift into Buffalo, New York, though he warns them he is in a hurry to make a delivery of fresh oysters. The ladies endure a very bumpy ride, and he arrives in time to enable his employer, Henry Wells (Henry O'Neill), to impress some bankers with the speed of his service.
Wells sends him to set up a branch office in St. Louis, which is quite convenient, as the Pryors reside there. MacKay and Justine begin seeing each other, though her mother disapproves, as does Justine's more socially prominent suitor, Talbot Carter (Johnny Mack Brown).
Impressed with MacKay, in 1846, Wells sends him to open trails to California. MacKay takes along Hank York (Bob Burns), a frontiersman who only works when he has to, and Hank's constant Indian companion, Pawnee (Bernard Siegel). Among his many duties, MacKay sets out to transport gold from a mining settlement to San Francisco. One of his customers is prospector Dan Trimball (Robert Cummings). When Dan expresses his longing for his sweetheart back East, MacKay recommends Wells Fargo's new shipping venture. Elated, Dan sends for his girl. Meanwhile, when MacKay sets out with the gold, he is shot and left for dead by two robbers. Though he recovers, he is threatened by his miner customers, who do not believe he was robbed. Fortunately, he shows them a draft from Wells & Fargo that will cover all their losses.