The Plainsman

Cecil B. DeMille, 1936

A Tale of Two Bills

“The Plainsman” is a movie about the frontiersmen of the Old West. It is not your typical western, even though you do have a great cowboy and Indian fight scene; it is more like a loosely based history lesson. The movie starts out with the assassination of President Lincoln. Soon the government is planning to sell guns to Indians through a middleman named John Lattimer (Charles Brickford). The guns, and the two Bills--Wild Bill Hickok (Gary Cooper) and William “Buffalo Bill” Cody (James Ellison) meet up in St Louis as they all begin their way west. We also meet Jack McCall (Porter Hall), who will eventually kill Hickok at the end of the movie. In Leavenworth Kansas, the two Bills run into Hickok’s lost love, Calamity Jane (Jean Arthur). Cody and his wife Louisa (Helen Burgess) travel with Hickok and Jane to Hays City, Kansas, where the Cody’s plan to open a hotel. History has a different plan for the two Bills.

Before traveling to Kansas, the Bills had fought with General Custer (John Miljan) during the Civil War. Hickok warns Custer that he has spotted John Lattimer with ammunition, and that Lattimer intends to sell the ammunition to the Indians. General Custer then sends Cody on a scout for Indians. Meanwhile, Jane gets kidnapped by Cheyenne Indians who are looking for information on the soldiers that are carrying bullets for their guns. Hickok attempts to pay a ransom for Jane, by giving up his musical watch and keepsake of Jane, but the Indians refuse. They take Hickok and Jane to their chief. The Indians end up finding out the location of the soldiers through Jane. The biggest action scene of the movie is the fight between the soldiers and the Cheyenne. Where I enjoyed the carefully played out fight scene, with Hickok surfing between two horses, I couldn’t help but wonder how many horses got injured during its filming.

After the fight scene the movie sort of stalls out. The people of Hays City look down on Jane and consider her a traitor for giving the Cheyenne the location of the soldiers. Cody plans to help Custer in what would be his last stand. Hickok plans to move onto Deadwood, a new booming, lawless mining town in South Dakota. Once again, history has a different plan for our two Bills.

Both Bills are on foot after Indians have stolen their horses. Somehow they manage to bump into each other as they are wandering around in the woods. Cody happens to be looking for Hickok so he can bring him back to General Custer. Custer needs Hickok’s help in fighting the battle at Little Big Horn. Not long after, the only friendly Indian in the movie bumps into the two Bills at night. He relays the news the Custer has been killed. Apparently the two Bills can also speak Cheyenne.

The two Bills arrive in Deadwood, as does John Lattimer. He is still in the business of selling ammunition to the Indians. Hickok once again becomes the hero of the movie by killing the evil Lattimer. The movie soon ends with Hickok’s death in Deadwood. After ordering the odd combination of eggs and whiskey, McCall runs into Hickok and kills him. McCall really has no other role in the movie, aside from conspiring with Lattimer to move ammunition. The man who plays him was perfect for the role, as he looks like a weasel.

My favorite character of the move was Jean Arthur as Calamity Jane. It was refreshing to see a female play a role other than a school teacher, whore, or damsel in distress. She seemed perfect for the role. She was just enough lady, if you will, and just enough tom-boy. Along with the two Bills calling each other Bill, her role was very fun to watch.

Heather Silver