User Reviews

Marj Main had been in the biz about ten years when this part rolled around. (My favorite role for her is "The Women", not to mention all the Ma Kettles.) Of course, Beery had been in silents for YEARS, and made the transition to talkies. In "Mail", Baggot (Beery) tries to rob a wagon with Tucker (Main) on board. He interrupts another robber who also thought there was gold to be had. Darryl Hickman is Tommy, who gets a delivery, the center of all the trouble. Tucker seem to have a myriad of occupations... she drives a mail coach, and dances and sings on the saloon stage. Not really much of a plot here...or maybe too many sub plots. When Tommy's dad is knocked off, he goes to live with Baggot, which appears to be out in the woods. Kind of feels like they they had Main and Beery sitting around, so they wrote a story around em. Not the best work for either of them. Tucker decides they want the railroad to come to town, so halfway through, we go with that storyline. This film seems to have several sub stories, which come to an end when another begins. Written by Gardner Sullivan, who had started in the silents, like Beery, and had worked with him waaay back in 1924. Sullivan was also involved with "All Quiet on the Western Front", two Oscars, so that one had a much tighter storyline. It's OK, but I think they tried to work in too many stories. They should have tightened up the script and gone with less sub stories. It's still fun to see two greats like Main and Beery at work.

First, there was Dietrich singing "See What the Boys in the Backroom Will Have" in "Destry Rides Again", now there's Miss Marjorie Main leading a chorus in "The Girls of the Golden West". Probably the oddest looking leader of saloon singers ever on screen, Main is also one of the funniest. As the rough and tough woman who pretty much runs the small town she lives in, she is determined to get the railroad to come through their town to build it up. This is where drunken horsethief Wallace Beery comes into play. Having just gotten out of a hanging in another town with the help of bartender J. Carroll Naish, Beery encounters Main as she delivers the mail with the help of her handy donkey (hense, the title.) Other gangsters are out to rob Main who carries gold bullion, and while he wants to get his hands on it himself, it is Beery who ends up as her protector. When he accidentally kills the bandit father of young Darryl Hickman, Beery finds himself responsible for the kid, and they develop a friendly relationship. But secrets like this never stay secret, and Hickman is very upset to learn the truth.

The film is told through flashback as a little boy learns the story of one of his ancestors which shows Beery and Main as a statue in the town square. Hickman is a likable kid, and Naish offers some laughs as the Mexican bartender. But with Main and Beery along, it's apparent who will end up with the acting honors, and the two have great screen chemistry. It's different than Beery did with earlier partner, the blowsy Marie Dressler, but just as memorable.