Westward the Women (1951)

William Wellman directed this unusual Western from a story by Frank Capra. When a wagon filled with hopeful women head for California in pursuit of mail-order husbands in 1851, they have to show the same mettle as the men do in order to survive. California settler Roy Whitman (John McIntire) feels the workers toiling in his valley should have brides to keep them warm at night, so he organizes a trip to Chicago, hiring a man named Buck (Robert Taylor) to round up more than a hundred potential mates. The women welcome the opportunity for a new life and a strong man, but a variety of dangers, both human and natural, awaits them.