The Caravan Trail (DVD)

Two variations may be noted by Western students in 'The Caravan Trail'... First, the singing hero, Eddie Dean, is billed as one who refuses to pack a gun because he once killed a man and it hurt his feelings. This is embarrassing because he is made Town Marshal by the villains when the old Marshal gets shot in the back. He gets around it by being handy with his dukes, and by boldly inaugurating a new custom in the cactus belt. He swears in three bandit gunmen who happen to be old friends of his as the new deputies. This is what he calls fighting fire with fire, to coin a stale phrase. It ends with the former bandits killing the current bandits. Even Eddie Dean himself, lily-livered warbler that he is, has to break out his six-guns to help kill all the opposition in sight. (New York Herald Tribune, 1946) "In this musical western, filmed in color, a rarity in the 1940s, a lone cowpoke reluctantly becomes a frontier marshall so he can avenge his friend's death. He was killed by bushwhackers who have been stealing homesteaders' land. Songs include "Wagon Wheels," "Crazy Cowboy Song," and "You're Too Pretty to Be Lonesome." " Corel All Movie Guide 2