Calamity Jane is a tough and rowdy woman in the old West who owns a saloon and gambling joint (and runs a cattle rustling operation as a sideline). One day she hires a pretty but naive young woman to work as a saloon girl, and finds that the girl is bringing out the maternal instincts she never knew she had. Those instincts are put to the test when a US army cavalry troop arrives to clean up the town and the girl and the young lieutenant in charge of the troop fall in love, and Calamity Jane may know something about the lieutenant that the girl doesn't.
Acting
Louise Dresser's gravel-voiced swagger steals every frame.
Production
Depression-era sets that look cheaper than Calamity's morals.
Writing
Dialogue so salty it predates the Production Code by minutes.
Director
Edward Sloman
Richard Arlen
Lt. Tom Colton
Louise Dresser
Calamity
Frances Dee
Kate Winslow
Tom Kennedy
Jard Harmon
Martin Burton
Curly Braydon
Syd Saylor
Sgt. Weems
James Pier Mason
Scully
Jack Rube Clifford
Drunk (uncredited)
Charles K. French
Bradford (uncredited)
Edward LeSaint
Haverstraw (uncredited)
Guy Oliver
McNeill (uncredited)
Lon Poff
Clem (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was one of the last pre-Code Westerns before enforcement tightened; Dresser reportedly ad-libbed lines too spicy for the script.
The 'tough woman softens for younger girl' dynamic would vanish from Westerns for decades, resurfacing only in revisionist 1970s cinema.
US
