Pony Express Days

Pony Express Days (1940)

*** (out of 4)

Impressive Technicolor short from Warner features an young George Reeves playing the legendary "Buffalo" Bill Cody. In the film, Cody is turned down as a rider for the Pony Express but soon gets his shot when Indians kill another rider. An important message must get to California about Lincoln being elected President and without this message it could cause the state to pull from the union. Historic accuracies aside, this is a very entertaining little film that makes one wish that shorts still played a part in Hollywood today. Even though Eason directed over one-fifty films, he's probably best known for the stunts in the silent Ben-Hur but he handles the story and action here very well. He does a great job at keeping the film moving fast and the riding scenes are very well done as are the fight sequences. Reeves does a pretty good job in is role delivering a fine performance that allows him to show off his action skills but he also manages a few nice laughs as well.

George Reeves wants to be a Pony Express rider. Fortunately for him, this was during the 18 months that the organization actually existed, and he's playing "Buffalo Bill" Cody. So you know that he's going to be one, and experience as much adventure as can be crammed into a two-reel Technicolor short.

The movies gives a weird and warped view of the Old West, with everyone carrying a handgun and being white. In reality, about a third of cowboys were Mexicans and a quarter were Black, and guns were rare -- and frequently banned in towns by local laws. There weren't many people out West in those days. Once you got much west of the Mississippi the land was dry and inhospitable until you got to the Cascade Mountains. People went out west for jobs, usually in mines, and when the mines played out, they left.

That doesn't make for much in the way of adventure, and the market for adventure stories and idea of Manifest Destiny resulted in an inexhaustible market for Wild West Shows and Dime Novels about the great men who ran them -- often written by Ned Buntlne, the publicist for Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.

The impulse continued for a long time. Western shorts starring "Broncho Billy" Anderson gave way to features starring William S. Hart and a plethora of B western stars, all White, continuing through the 1970s on television. They're good works of fiction, but that's all they were.

In the years before the Civil War, young Bill Cody wants to be a Pony Express rider. His daddy was killed in an Indian attack. He's considered too heavy to be a rider but he takes a job at a station. Southern agitators are trying to rile up sympathizers in California and recruiting Indians to stop the Pony Express. With the results of Lincoln's election, the mail must get through. With the completion of the transcontinental telegraph, the Pony Express becomes obsolete. Cody goes on a buffalo hunt with his station manager Nevada Jim who gives him the nickname, "Buffalo Bill Cody". Make America Pony Again. That's the feeling of this 20 min short. It's the heroic Pony Express going against southern traitors and barbaric Indians. It has the feel of a tall tale and that's somehow fitting for Buffalo Bill. It's a sales job for the unwashed masses yearning for the good ole days.

This was a short film made in 1940, back when they used to show features like this before or in between movies.

The plot is rather rather predicable -- and to my knowledge -- pretty historically inaccurate. It is about a privately owned parcel service that tries to link up Missouri and California. They believe their business will do better if they can get news of Abe Lincolns election to CA in record time, which upsets some Southern sympathizers who believe they won't get California to join the Confederacy if they know that Lincoln won. (?) What ever one wants to make of the plot, the important thing about the film is that absolutely beautiful western scenery in stunning technicolor, which seems to have been the real draw in the first place. In a time when very few films were in color -probably none that were shown with this - the audience must have really gotten a kick out of this films painting like cinematography and vivid action sequences.

It IS available on DVD -- I ran across it on the 1st season of "The Adventures of Superman"

I recognized some stock footage of Dodge City in this short subject about the Pony Express Days. I also got the impression that the film was supposed to be a feature, but for one reason or another was cut down to a short subject and cast with many of Warner Brothers B list players.

The famous legend of the Pony Express bringing the news of Lincoln's election to California is shown here. That the existence of this mail and communication service to our West Coast did a lot to keep California in the union is simply accepted. The Pony Express knew it was on a short term existence, the telegraph was in existence for a decade and a half and it would move sooner or later across the plains as did the railroad, but only after the Civil War.

Before he was Superman, before he played Sir Galahad in a serial, George Reeves takes on the part of the Pony Express's most famous alumnus William F. Cody. Probably Stephen Baldwin in The Young Riders was a lot closer to the real Cody, but Reeves does all right with the part. That it was in fact Cody who brought the word of the election returns I'm not sure of.

Still it's a nice story about young Buffalo Bill.