Posts from ethanedwards in thread „California Straight Ahead! (1937)“

Nice photo

Yes it is out there, as I have a Vhs, obtained many years ago

Great pics of a movie I enjoy

California Straight Ahead! is a 1937 American film about truck drivers
starring John Wayne and directed by Arthur Lubin.
The action movie features a memorable cross-country race between trucks and trains.

This was Duke's 3rd. film of a 6 picture Universal deal,
and it was not a happy time ,the films were mediocre,
but things were about to change, because, just after
Duke returned to Republic for The Three Mesquiteers
and thereafterStagecoach

Arthur Lubin, whose films with Abbot and Costello, saved Universal
from going bankrupt, he was promoted to director of the epic
Phantom of the Opera , which was a huge success.
However, he wasn't quite so successful with the films, he made with Duke.
There were 4 films,

California Straight Ahead
I Cover The War
Idol of the Crowds
Adventure's End

The action films, were entertaining,
but were cheaply made, and proved to be
disappointing at the box office.

However I enjoyed this film, it was both fun and entertaining
I thought the 3 main actors, Duke, Louise Latimer, Robert McWade,
played well together, and with the addition of
Tully Marshall, it made for an enjoyable film.

california-straight-ahead-poster.jpg

User Review

Quote

Over The Long Haul
31 August 2007 | by bkoganbing (Buffalo, New York)

California Straight Ahead finds John Wayne as a school bus driver turned truck driver. The film was one of a series of six films that John Wayne made for Universal Pictures that was an attempt to broaden his acting horizons. Not one of these films that he did for Universal was a western.

Though this one does have some western like elements. The final climax has Wayne leading a wagon train like caravan of big rigs trying to beat the railroad to the Pacific Coast before a longshoreman's strike commences is definitely western like in its presentation for the screen.

California Straight Ahead also bears no small resemblance to the working stiff pictures that were more popular at Warner Brothers. Wayne's in a part that Pat O'Brien normally would have played. If the film had been done at MGM, Spencer Tracy would have been cast.

The Duke does not do badly as the happy go lucky Biff Smith who's a lazy fellow with little ambition, content to be a school bus driver. He's got a thing for Louise Latimer, but his lack of ambition distresses her mother, Grace Goodall, to no end. He actually gets himself canned from that job when he helps Latimer's brother, Emerson Treacy, get his cargo to Chicago after villain LeRoy Mason disables Treacy's truck. Wayne and Treacy form a partnership that later includes Harry Allen.

Mason was no stranger to John Wayne films, he appeared in several of Wayne's films as a western villain right up to and including some Three Mesquiteers series. Allen has a nice part, he plays cockney- accented James McCorkle, though there's no explanation as to how he landed from Piccadilly in the American mid-west.

California Straight Ahead, despite some big holes in the plot, is not a bad film for John Wayne. Considering some of the hard driving parts he mostly played, those early scenes in this film were something I had never witnessed from him before, even though he does eventually grow into the usual Duke character. That opening with him driving the school bus and the kids singing almost looks like the setting of a number from a Bing Crosby film.

The film's not great, but it's an interesting part for the Duke.

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INFORMATION FROM IMDb

Plot Summary
Former school bus driver Biff Smith manages a trucking company
which has its fleet pitted against a freight train in a race
to deliver aviation parts to the Pacific coast.
Summary written by Ed Stephan

Full Cast
John Wayne .... Biff Smith
Louise Latimer .... Mary Porter
Robert McWade .... Corrigan
Theodore von Eltz .... James Gifford
Tully Marshall .... Harrison
Emerson Treacy .... Charlie Porter
Harry Allen .... 'Fish' McCorkle
LeRoy Mason .... Padula
Grace Goodall .... Mrs. Porter
Olaf Hytten .... Huggins
Monte Vandergrift .... Clancy
Lorin Raker .... Secretary
Frank Ellis .... Truck driver (uncredited)
Oscar Gahan .... Truck driver (uncredited)
George Morrell .... Truck driver (uncredited)

Writing Credits
Herman Boxer story
Scott Darling screenplay

Produced
Trem Carr .... producer
Paul Malvern .... associate producer

Cinematography
Harry Neumann

Filming Location
Santa Clarita, California, USA
Newhall, California, USA