A Western Story
The film begins when the lead characters are children. Mary Robbins (Jeanne Ellis, later MacDonald) is heading west with her Uncle Davy (Charley Grapewin) in a covered wagon. Gringo (Bill Cody Jr, later Eddy) is the foster son of Mexican bandit Ramirez (Noah Beery Jr). Wise Father Sienna (H. B. Warner) tries to persuade the local Indians to be friendly with the settlers while also counseling young Gringo against a life of violence. However, when Ramirez is mortally wounded by a settler’s bullet, the devastated boy decides to follow in his footsteps by becoming the disguised bandito Ramirez. Over the years, his gang’s infamy grows throughout California until he is wanted for $5000. Meanwhile, grownup Mary is running the Polka, the saloon in the mountain mining community of Cloudy. All the men in town love her because of her beauty, feisty disposition, and lovely voice. Her main admirer is Sheriff Jack Rance (Walter Pidgeon), who is intent on marrying her even though he knows she doesn’t love him. On Mary’s yearly trip to Monterey to visit her old friend Father Sienna, her coach is held up by Ramirez. Entranced by her beauty and bravery, he follows her to Monterey and masquerades as Lieutenant Richard Johnson, an officer sent to escort her to the fiesta at the governor’s rancho. Mary falls in love with the handsome stranger, whom she doesn’t recognize without his Mexican disguise.Soon after, Ramirez visits the Polka as prospector Dick Johnson in a plan to steal all the gold stored there, which Sheriff Jack planted as a trap. However, when he realizes Mary owns the saloon, he woos her instead of calling his gang. The next night, he goes to her cabin for dinner but must hide when Jack arrives, having been informed that Johnson and Ramirez are one and the same by the bandit’s jealous sweetheart, Nina Martinez (Priscilla Lawson). Furious that Dick lied about his identity and that he has another girl, Mary throws him out after Jack leaves. However, once he gets shot in the shoulder by the posse, she is desperate to save his life. She gambles with Jack for Ramirez’s life and wins, but he discovers she cheated. She agrees to marry Jack if he’ll let Ramirez go. In Monterey, the sad bride meets her beloved again at Father Sienna’s church. He has renounced his bandit’s life and vowed to start anew with the padre’s help. When Jack sees them together, he decides to let them live happily ever after.
Sheriff Joe Breen
Sheriff Jack Rance lets the bandit get away in the play, the opera, and the movie, but Sheriff Joe Breen wouldn’t let any criminal end a film without punishment, reparation, or repentance. As head of the Production Code Administration (PCA), he was the marshal of Hollywood, a Wild West town before he took over law enforcement in 1934. With the Motion Picture Production Code as his lawbooks and the PCA Seal of Approval as his six-shooters, he made sure those bad hombres at the studios didn’t corrupt law-abiding filmgoers with bad language, excessive violence, indecent romantic scenes, disgusting subject matter, and contempt for law, order, and justice. For Ramirez, a wanted bandit and therefore a “bad guy,” to ride into the sunset with his gal, he needed some thorough reforming. This Code-enforcement, which the film industry called “breening,” made the plot more complex and developed.
Firstly, the character of Ramirez received a backstory to show he isn’t all bad. We learn early in the film that he was kidnapped from his parents by Indians as a baby before being found and adopted by the original Ramirez, a drunken ruffian who became his father figure. The boy had no name besides Gringo. After the old bandito’s death, the lad became a bandit to fulfill his foster father’s dying wish and because he knew nothing else. Throughout the film, we never see or hear of Ramirez’s killing anyone, which would have required his death under the Code. In fact, although he brandishes a gun frequently, the only shooting he does is with a bow and arrow as a boy. When his gang robs Mary’s coach, they take the deputies escorting her prisoner for a week but don’t harm them. As in the opera, he can’t steal the gold from the Polka when he sees the girl’s devotion to the prospectors who mined it. He also shows a tender heart when he lets her keep her dresses and her mother’s necklace during that first robbery. His manner is always very courtly and elegant; we see he enjoys reading and music. Being a bandit is a game to him.
Even with these measures to characterize Ramirez as a misguided foundling, a voice of morality was needed to counteract the fact that the leading man is a criminal. Joe Breen redeemed many a problematic story by suggesting the addition of “compensating moral values.” These are usually best provided by a character who exemplifies right living in word and deed. In this case, the character is Father Sienna, who tries to offer Gringo a better way of living as a young boy. The lad is drawn to the kind padre’s message of peace, but he angrily rejects the idea of Christian charity when his father figure is killed after trying to welcome the settlers. Throughout his years as a bandit, however, he never forgets what Father Sienna told him. He is deeply affected when Mary echoes the priest’s words that men don’t have to rob and kill like animals to survive. Although he doesn’t renounce his life of crime until he falls in love with Mary, we see he has been anonymously giving substantial gold to Father Sienna to help him take care of the Indians, making him a Robin Hood type.
The First Spaghetti Western
This movie made clever use of the opera’s plot, adding a few new characters and scenarios to flesh out the story. Besides Father Sienna, the most prominent new character is Alabama (Buddy Ebsen), a shy, lovable blacksmith with a crush on Mary. The Professor (Brandon Tynan) takes the place of traveling minstrel Jake Wallace in the opera as the character who provides in-context music, since he accompanies Mary on the piano in two scenes. As in the opera, Ramirez has a loyal Mexican sidekick who impersonates him to trick Sheriff Rance, but his name was changed from José Castro to Mosquito (Leo Carillo). One other minor change was made for Code standards: Mary’s squaw friend, Wowkle (Ynez Seabury) is married to Billy Jackrabbit (Nick Thompson) in the movie, but he is the unmarried father of her baby in the opera.Some might say the inclusion of a Catholic priest as the voice of morality might seem like a cliché attempt of the filmmakers to butter up the Catholic Breen. Nevertheless, having a wise padre in a Western set in California makes perfect historic sense. Since the 21 Spanish missions established along the coast were the first European settlements in Alta California, it’s very believable that a gentle Spanish priest would befriend the local Indians, minister to Mexican bandits, and encourage a female pioneer to sing “Ave Maria” at his church. Although there was no such character in this opera, there easily could have been, since many classic operas include important priest roles.
With a beautiful score, an exciting story, and a moving message about generosity and the power of redemption, “The Girl of the Golden West” is a MacDonald-Eddy film that deserves to be rediscovered. Similarly, “La Fanciulla del West” is a unique opera that Puccini considered his best work when it premiered and which should be recognized for its originality. As an Italian opera set in the Wild West, it could easily be the first Spaghetti Western!
