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THE IRON HORSE (Fox, 1924), directed by John Ford, is an story set during the middle of the 19th century America about the building of the first Transcontinental Railroad. One of the very best examples of a lavish scale western produced during the silent era, said to be the answer to Paramount's earlier production of THE COVERED WAGON (1923), but most importantly, the first major project for Ford after nearly a decade in the director's chair to now gain the recognition he truly deserves.The story opens with a prologue set in Springfield, Ill., 1853, revolving around Davy Brandon, first as a youngster (Winston Miller) with deep affection towards Miriam Marsh (Peggy Cartwright), his childhood sweetheart. Davy's father (James Gordon) is a surveyor who dreams about the crossing of the western wilderness, while Miriam's father, Thomas Marsh (William Walling), is a skeptic. However, one of the citizens, Abraham Lincoln (Charles Edward Bull), believes in this man's theory and knows he will accomplish his means. Setting out to accompany his father on a mission to survey an appropriate route through the mountains for the coming railroad, Davy bids a tearful farewell to Miriam. During their westward journey, Davy, who is hidden away because of foreseen danger, witnesses the brutal killing of his father by a white man dressed up as an Indian whose only identification if the loss of a thumb and two fingers on his right hand. After burying his father, Davy is taken in by a passing scouting party. A decade later,1862, Abraham Lincoln is now president of the United States, Davy (George O'Brien) is a Pony Express rider out to fulfill his father's dream in leading into the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, and Miriam (Madge Bellamy), now engaged to Peter Jesson (Cyril Chadwick), an Eastern surveyor working for her father, who is actually working for Deroux (Fred Kohler), the richest landowner who stands to profit if the railroad goes through instead of through the pass. After being reunited with Miriam, Jesson finds himself in stiff competition. The two men become become bitter enemies, especially after Jesson's attempts in doing away with him, complicating matters before the golden spike gets hammered into the rail on that historic day of 1869 as the railroad from east to west finally meets.The supporting players consists of Gladys Hulett as Ruby; Jack O'Brien as Dinny; along with three musketeer pals J. Farrell MacDonald as Corporal Casey; Francis Powers as Sergeant Slattery; and James Welch as Private Schultz providing comedy relief, and in smaller roles, historical figures of Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickok and John Hay played by George Wagner, John Padjan and Stanhope Wheatcroft.THE IRON HORSE (title indicating the locomotive train) plays like a D.W. Griffith production providing prologue, historical figures, flashbacks and epilogue, and like a screen adaptation to an Edna Ferber novel which tells its story through the passage of time, but not concluding in the usual manner in finding much of the characters as middle-aged sporting white hair and wrinkles, along with soap-opera ingredients (complicated love between the two central characters and the villainous third party). However, this is John Ford's storytelling, cliché as it may be, placing fictional characters against historic setting, along with the oft-told murder-mystery subplot of a son out to avenge his father's killer, yet, a historical movie that became an important part of cinema history. Ford, the future four time Academy Award winning director, with a handful of motion pictures to his credit, his best known being the westerns, would provide similar themes in his future film-making. As popular as THE IRON HORSE was back in 1924, it's amazing that Ford didn't attempt a remake, especially in the year 1939 when westerns were at its peak. However, Cecil B. DeMille attempted a similar story with UNION PACIFIC (Paramount, 1939) starring Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea. Like THE IRON HORSE, UNION PACIFIC, which tells its story in over two hours, provides villains, Indian massacres and the use of thousands of extras. George O'Brien, a rugged actor, was an ideal choice to play Davy Brandon, and although he worked under Ford's direction numerous times in latter years, as well as showing his capability as a dramatic actor in F.W. Munau's SUNRISE (1927), he never became a major leading man, however, worked steadily mostly in "B" westerns right through the early 1950s. His co-star, Madge Bellamy, provides her typical heroine caught between two men who vie for her affection with conviction, but isn't as strong a character as one would have wanted her to be. While the acting overall is satisfactory, from today's viewpoint, some heavy melodramatics, such as the method of fainting by youngster Davy after witnessing his father's massacre, or Madge Bellamy's performance in general, might provoke laughter, but overall, location scenery including the Monument Valley, a race against time, and action scenes simply make up some of its flaws.Television history to THE IRON HORSE began when it became one of the movies from the Paul Killiam collection to air on public television's 12-week series of "The Silent Years" (June-September 1975), hosted by Lillian Gish. In her profile about THE IRON HORSE (accompanied by an excellent piano score by William Perry), Gish talks about its location filming in the Nevada desert, the use of 100 cooks to feed the huge cast, and 5,000 extras consisting of 3,000 railway workers, 1,000 Chinese laborers, many horses and steers, etc. Decades later, THE IRON HORSE made it to the American Movie Classics cable channel (1997-1999) accompanied by an orchestral score and 15 minutes longer than its 119 minutes length from "The Silent Years." Distributed onto video cassette through Critic's Choice in 1997, the same print and piano score taken from "The Silent Years," it's currently seen on The Westerns Channel. DVD format available.THE IRON HORSE may not be historically accurate as promised through its opening inter-titles, but it's sure an ambitious John Ford production.
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