Summary
In this quintessential collaboration between the nascent auteur John Ford and the ruggedly charismatic Harry Carey, Cheyenne Harry emerges not as a mere archetype of the frontier, but as a conduit for a surprisingly avant-garde narrative structure. The plot germinates in the dusty, tactile reality of a rodeo, where Harry and his cadre of rough-hewn companions strive for victory with a singular, altruistic motive: to secure the financial salvation of their compatriot, Rawhide Jack. However, once the dust of the arena settles and the prize is claimed, the film undergoes a radical tonal shift. A celebratory descent into bacchanalian excess leads to a stuporous slumber, which Ford utilizes as a threshold into a phantasmagoric dreamscape. The protagonists find themselves transported from the arid plains to a tropical purgatory—a South Sea island populated by the titular 'wild women.' This surreal detour serves as a proto-psychological exploration of the cowboy’s psyche, blending the gritty verisimilitude of Western tropes with a whimsical, almost hallucinatory escapism that defied the rigid genre conventions of 1918.
Cheyenne Harry and his pals, bent on helping their friend Rawhide Jack, attend a rodeo with the intent to win the prize and to hand the winnings over to Jack. Harry is the successful winner and after the rodeo the boys get drunk and fall asleep.
