Le Kentucky Combats

[Alden]

Dick told me about John Wayne fighting Napoleon and sent me a VCR of The Fighting Kentuckian. Europe, Alabama, whatever... It was at the end of The War of 1812 and had SOMETHING to do with French people.

Not a bad movie (that Wayne produced himself), and interesting to the extent it was historically accurate vs. pure golden-age-of-Hollywood bad, bad as in Oliver Hardy was Wayne's clownish sidekick bad -- 6.4 Rating on IMDB but I think u can see the B&W film on Youtube for free.

It is more of a love dramedy than comedic action adventure. At least it wasn't one of those awful Mountain Man movies. I have to admit I don't look at the guns much in movies (though I do get easily distracted by the women -- two beauties in this one).

Seen it? Whaddya think!?

 

[George]

You are entirely too kind. But then, that's what we've come to expect of you. :haha:

Spence

 

[Wes/Tex]

I love you guys...these posts keep me smiling! :wink: :haha:

 

[Artificer]

The first time I saw it was on a Black and White TV in the 60's. I was confused by the French Ex-Napoleonic Troops in Alabama. I've seen it a few times on the TV since then. I just looked it up and it was made in 1949, so it was pretty historically accurate compared to most Hollywood stuff at the time. Wouldn't mind seeing it again.

Gus

 

[Wes/Tex]

Some of the Grneadiers of the Guard did in fact immigrate to the U.S. but after Waterloo in July and not back in January. Whole silly adventure seems part of some twisted plot of Gen. Cambronne, he of "merde" fame who never said "The Old Guard dies, it never surrenders!", nor did he die gloriously at the end of the battle there as some moderns would have you think! They also went to Texas along teh coast east of where Houston now sits. Didn't last long, not the least of which could be chalked up to wool uniforms in Texas tropical summer heat! :wink: :haha:

 

[54ball]

American political elite had a great deal of sympathy for the French exiles, whom they saw as fellow Republicans oppressed by a monarchy. They were also attracted to the prospect of establishing a domestic winemaking industry that would free the United States from dependence on imported European wines.
Vine and Olive Colony
Both initiatives succeeded. In January 1817 the society had selected a settlement location on the Tombigbee River on former Choctaw lands. At the same time, Lee won the support of key politicians, including Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. On March 3, 1817, Congress passed an act "disposing of a tract of land to embrace four townships, on favorable terms to the emigrants, to enable them successfully to introduce the cultivation of the vine and olive." It granted them 92,000 acres of land near the present site of Demopolis and gave them a 14-year grace period before they had to plant a "reasonable" proportion of the land in grapes and olives and before they had to pay for their land (at a mere $2.00 per acre). In the spring of 1817, an advance party of about 40 settlers sailed from Philadelphia to Mobile and then up the Tombigbee River to the grant. They reported favorably about conditions on the grant. Encouraged, Lefebvre-Desnouettes decided to lead a larger party to Alabama, and they sailed from Philadelphia to Mobile on August 1817.
- See more at: http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1539#sthash.UraNpIvM.dpuf

In 1937, Emma Gelders Sterne published her novel, Some Plant Olive Trees, a fictional and highly romantic account of the Vine and Olive Colony. These literary mentions were joined in 1949 by a version of the story in the Republic Pictures film "The Fighting Kentuckian," an attempt to cash in on the popularity of romanticized southern themes fostered by "Gone With the Wind." In the film version, star John Wayne plays a Kentucky rifleman returning home from the Battle of New Orleans who rides to the rescue of the French as he helps the uniformed Napoleonic officers fight off an attack by unscrupulous American land speculators. "The Fighting Kentuckian" represented the peak of American interest (as well as the lowest point of historical accuracy) in the story. - See more at: http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1539#sthash.UraNpIvM.dpuf[/quote]

 

[Naphtali]

Napoleon Bonaparte's brother, Joseph, the former King of Spain, emigrated to the USA. I believe he lived in New York and was important in this country for I forget what.

 

[palladius]

He lived in New Jersey, where he lived in exile for a time after Waterloo and the fall of France.

 

[coloradoclyde]

New Jersey?.. :shocked2: ...Boy those French really knew how to punish people back then.... :haha:

 

[pargent]

:wink: