This is the movie that made John Wayne a millionaire. When Republic pictures agreed to make the film,studio head Herbert J. Yates insisted that his favorite leading lady, Vera Hruba Ralston be given the female lead. John protested until Yates agreed he could form a production company and own a piece of Wake of The Red Witch,his next outing. John did and Wake gave him over a million dollars in salary. I guess he should have thanked Vera for his success. Anyway,Kentuckian is a very good film with the Republic stock company backing John and Oliver Hardy playing his sidekick. I always liked Vera Ralston and thought she looked good in period films. She actually looks like portraits of women of the era rather than a conventionally movie star. Republic excelled in action scenes and the final stampede of wagons and horses is much more exciting than they do nowadays.
Review of The Fighting Kentuckian
