by Hal Erickson
synopsis
In the wake of such cinematic Calamity Janes as Jean Arthur and Doris Day, it comes as a shock to find a film in which the famed frontierswoman is played by someone who actually looks the part. Matronly, granite-visaged Louise Dresser stars as Calamity in Caught, an early-talkie psychological western. According to this film, Calamity is a cattle rustler, wanted by the US cavalry. Halfway through this movie the plotline turns into a sagebrush Madame X The young trooper (Richard Arlen) sent to track down Calamity is the woman's long-lost son! It took four writers to cook up this heady brew of motherly love and blazing six-shooters.
characteristics
- Parent
- Mother
- Kidnap
- Infantry
- Munitions
- Officer
- Rustler
- Rifle
- Gun
- Weapons
- Gambling
- Bullet
- Bar [pub]
- Army
- Ammunition