The best part of California is the costume design. Edith Head went all out in draping Barbara Stanwyck with breathtakingly beautiful gowns. Every time she came on the screen, I gasped and exclaimed, "Look at that one!" Fashion aficionados will want to rent this one, or at least look at still pictures. But what's the actual movie about? Ray Milland, also known as a poor man's James Stewart, stars as a wagon train leader across the vast Midwest to California. When Barbara Stanwyck is literally cast out into the street by her town, implying suspected or confirmed prostitution, Ray goes against his better judgement and lets her join the group going west. For some reason, Barbara falls for Ray even though he's not very nice to her and even slaps her after she tells him he's not going to "get what he wants". Sprinkled into the plot is the goldrush craze, as well as political disagreements about impending statehood, but-no offense to rival politicians Barry Fitzgerald and George Coulouris-that's part of the plot isn't nearly as interesting as Barbara's clothing. Keep an eye out for Anthony Quinn in a very, very small part. Basically, he just dances with Barbara Stanwyck and then gets drunk with Ray Mi-bland. Unfortunately, even though his dance costume is very tight and shows off his best assets, he's not on screen for very long. Just think in six short years, Anthony Quinn and Barbara Stanwyck would be reunited on the screen, this time playing husband and wife in Blowing Wild.I'm really not a Ray Mi-bland fan, so even though I love Barbara Stanwyck, I didn't really like this movie. There's a pretty cute song in the beginning, "California or Bust", but the rest of the movie feels like a subpar western. It won't hurt you, though, if you want to give it a try.

The beginning of this film a glorification of California through music and some beautiful views in color. From then on it is a routine big budget western where only Barbara Stanwyck stands out as a woman with a strong character that uses her power of seduction. Ray Milland as Trumbo, a man who deserted (for noble reasons) is the hero and Barry Fitzgerald is Fabian, a good hearted man that becomes a politician to help Trumbo. Anthony Quinn has a very small role as Don Luis Rivera y Hernandez. The action scenes are very good, but they are not enough to prevent this western from being average. You can find the same director John Farrow and Ray Milland in a much better western, Copper Canyon (1950).

Army deserter Ray Milland leads a wagon train, including woman-of-easy-virtue Barbara Stanwyck, on its way to California, only to find the gold rush in full effect and the territory overrun by scoundrels, like megalomaniac slave-ship captain Barry Fitzgerald.The excellent photography, with equally excellent use of Technicolor, good direction by John Farrow, and Milland's brooding can't quite overcome the overly talky script, the datedness of the songs, and the fact that Stanwyck's character is quite unappealing most of the time.However, for those of us who grew up watching Ray Milland playing old curmudgeons in various B-movies of the sixties, seventies, and early eighties, it's interesting to see him in his prime, playing a rugged leading man.

Falling somewhere in director John Farrow's western filmography slightly above "Copper Canyon" (which, like this film, stars Ray Milland) and far below "Hondo", there just isn't a lot to say for good or ill about this relatively unambitious western drama. While positioning itself as a serious picture in terms of theme, it conforms in every way to standard melodrama formulas and fails to present a memorable villain or fundamental conflict. Nice technicolor photography, stylish flourishes from the director, and not even the great Barbara Stanwyck can save this film from being just slightly more than mediocre.Stanwyck plays Lily, a much maligned singer trying to make it big in California off her legs and her pipes where all the men are trying to bring in satchels of gold. Milland is Jon Trumbo, a gambler who deserted from the army and spends half the movie hiding from them and the other half brazenly running a tavern in town. Barry Fitzgerald is third billed but basically drags the movie down into unintentional farce with his mannerisms, while on the other end of the spectrum George Coulouris is cast as an intriguingly written villain but ends up underplaying the role to death.Farrow can always be relied upon for brief moments of misogyny like the one in this movie where Stanwyck is slapped and then shown rubbing her cheek as if she was getting masochistic pleasure from it. Generally speaking this is one of Stanwyck's duller roles from the 40s. So much more could be done with her in a western, as for example in Anthony Mann's "The Furies" and Sam Fuller's "Forty Guns." Here Farrow forces her into a rather dull 40s version of an independent woman that rings hollow.Milland was a good western hero; he played these roles with a bit more realism and less projected "integrity" than most B movie cowboys tended to do. Unfortunately in this movie it's like he's searching for a moment to really do some acting but just can't find it. Farrow usually has a good sense of film economy but in this film it seems like the energy of a lot of the scenes is amped too high and there's not much rhythm to the film as a whole. However the reason this film is much better than "Copper Canyon" is because Milland can make better scenes with Stanwyck in this movie than he can with Hedy Lamarr in that one. This film isn't any worse than most westerns and it's better than quite a lot of them, but you just have to feel that if they had put a big more effort into the whole thing it could have been a lot better. Stanwyck is in this dull role, and you have an actor like Anthony Quinn in a role that barely exists. Meanwhile you have Coulouris who is probably the most boring actor in the movie playing the most interesting character. I think the film could have focused more on him, but it was probably written down since they couldn't get a real star.Worthy entertainment with low expectations.