IN OLD CALIFORNIA, quite enjoyable western matinee fare from 1942 starring John Wayne, one of seven pictures he churned out that year. While the least successful at the box office of the batch—$2,200,000, 120th place—it’s a brightly delivered packet of old-fashioned fun, written by Gertrude Purcell (Destry Rides Again) and Frances Hyland,  directed with spirit by William C. McGann. *

Californ’y, pre-statehood. Easygoing new arrival ‘Tom Craig’ (Wayne) is a pharmacist from Boston who wants to ply his trade in the bustling burg of Sacramento. He sparks business partner interest in showgal-singer ‘Lacey Miller’ (Binnie Barnes) but arouses the ire of her possessive suitor, gang leader ‘Britt Dawson’ (Albert Dekker), who has bullied his way into prominence. Push, meet Shove.

The 88 minutes pack in cross-motivated romances, stealthy murder, mobs of townsfolk that switch from angry to accepting and back, an attempted lynching, a saloon-busting fistfight, the Gold Rush, a typhoid epidemic, large-scale shootouts, and a couple of okay songs. Humor plays as big a part as action, with comic relief vigorously dished out by pros Edgar Kennedy (as ‘Kegs McKeever’) and Patsy Kelly (‘Helga’, who plinks laundry off a clothesline with a .44), the best pals of the respective Wayne and Barnes teams.

“When I get a toothache I’m a raging bull! I shoot up joints! I throw bartenders outta windows! I slap widows! I kick babies!…I’m a terror.”

The joke going in—John Wayne as a pharmacist!? From Boston!?—self-kids, as in real life his father had been a pharmacist, and this is one instance where playing against type served Wayne well. Barnes is impressive, hulking Dekker a viably crafty bad guy, roaring Kennedy and snapping Kelly handily grab the laughs. The mix of mirth and menace doesn’t aim for ‘importance’, just walk-out happy entertainment, and as such hits the target.

With Helen Parrish, Dick Purcell, Harry Shannon and Charles Halton. Zesty scoring from David Buttolph.

* Duke’s crew for ’42: wild & woolly DeMille epic Reap The Wild Wind was a big hit (#5), Flying Tigers is well remembered as his first WW2 morale raiser, and The Spoilers has a classic brawl sequence. Pittsburgh is goofy, Reunion in France silly, Lady For A Night a stinker. The forgotten good-beats-bad fracas & frolic of In Old California makes for a neat rediscovery that his fans will appreciate.