The Great K & A Train Robbery

I am not a fan of silent movies and I didn't know this was a silent film when I started watching. But... it got me from the start. Tom Mix was 46 when he made this film and he did his own stunts! The opening stunt with the ropes over the raging river got me into the film. His horse " Tony " is really good. How did they get him to go across a rope bridge? Apparently Mix rode Tony for many years. The story is predictable but well done as well. The train scenes are fun to watch and although there are some scenes which seem to me over acted I found it a really enjoyable film. It is also interesting to see the furnishings of the railway cars and the steam engines, which are so obviously authentic for their time. It's a duster, not a great movie, but fun to watch. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. There are so many little things of interest throughout the film which give one a glimpse of what life was like - way back when.

Cullen, president of the K & A railroad, is at a loss to stop the robberies occurring on his line, even though he is unaware his secretary, Holt, is secretly tipping off the bandits with the shipments. Tom Morgan is called on to investigate, even though he needs to disguise himself as an outlaw in order infiltrate Tolfree's gang and hear their plans. When Cullen decides to send a shipment of bonds with him on another train, Holt tells Tolfree, who's going to lead his gang into robbery unless Tom's assistant, a hobo named Deluxe Harry, can relay the information to him in time. This is one of the more enjoyable Mix silents (of which there are still way too few) with a brisk pace, exciting chases, thrilling stunts throughout, and an exciting climax in an underground cave. A prologue to the film points out the exterior shots being in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, and they are very striking adding a lot of beauty to the picture. I think the film tried to be too mysterious with Mix' characterization and the character of the butler could have been eliminated since Deluxe Harry fit in well as the comic relief. Rating 8.

Popular actor Tom Mix was a veteran of the screen by the time John Wayne's first appearance in front of the camera, debuting in a short for Selig Polyscope's 1909 "The Cowboy Millionaire.'" By the time he was in October 1926's "The Great K & A Train Robbery," Mix was Hollywood's top Western actor, pulling in well over $7,500 per week. Wearing his trademark wide-brimmed white hat and wearing flashy clothes, Mix performed all his physical stunts. He's first seen in "The Great K & A Robbery" dangling high above the Colorado River eavesdropping on a conversation between two baddies on the edge of a cliff. Once Mix gets the lowdown on what those two desperados are up to, he proceeds to get on his trusty horse, 'Tony the Wonder Horse,' a celebrity in his own right, to chase after a speeding train with Madge Cullen (Dorothy Dwan), on board. She's the object of a kidnapping scheme by the gang looking to cash in on a big ransom payback.

Based on a Paul Leicester Ford 1896 novel, "The Great K & A Robbery," the film sees Mix as a detective investigating a series of robberies on the K & A Railroad. He discovers the president of the rail company's secretary is an insider working in cahoots with the bandits responsible for holding up his employer's trains. All the exterior action takes place in the rugged terrain of Glenwood Springs, Colorado, where scores of that town's citizenship came out to watch Mix perform his daredevil feats before the camera.

By the time the silent film era ended, Mix had been in 282 movies. His transition to sound was not quite as successful, since, because of a previous accident where a bullet entered his throat, as well as several broken noses over the years from stunt work, Mix's voice didn't have that strength of authority required for a macho cowboy he had been portraying all those years. He did make nine films for Universal Pictures when talkies entered the pictures. But his extravagant spending and a purchase of a circus which his daughter ran into the ground, resulted his finances being squandered away. In 1940, while driving to visit a sheriff in Tucson, Arizona, Mix swerved to avoid construction barriers marking a washed out bridge. A heavy suitcase in the backseat hit him square in the back of his head as his car overturned in a gully, breaking his neck. He was instantly killed at the age of 60.

Revisited this film recently. It is one of the most beautifully shot film with solid action stunts. It has breathtaking locations n amazing shots of the Colorado River. The pacing is tight but the humor is offensive, especially that of Curtis McHenry as Snowball with a gun behind his back. The chase scene where the guy fleeing on his horse on one side of the river n the train on the other side is awesome. The opening scene with a train moving fast thru the splendid Royal gorge of Colorado is breathtaking. The gang's lair, shown in the end was something really outta comic books. The horse stunts, the train sequences, the chase sequence n some of the aerial stunts r truly noteworthy.

The plot is based on the actual foiling of a train robbery by Dick Gordon. Detective Gordon (Tom Mix) is working undercover as a highwayman to catch train robbers. Apart from Tom Mix, the horse n the hobo played by Harry Gripp, all did good job.

Great K&A Train Robbery, The (1926)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

The K&A Train Company are being robbed left and right so the president hires a detective but he thinks the guy has chickened out. It turns out that the detective (Tom Mix) is actually on the case but hiding his identity because he knows that it's the president's secretary who is tipping off the bad guys. Now the detective must try and not only stop the bad guys but find a way to make sure the latest gold delivery gets to the bank. If you've ever seen a movie serial then you know the final three or four minutes is where the film really comes to life as the action picks up and it leads to a tense cliffhanger. That's pretty much what this film is as it runs just over an hour and for the most part it's just one action packed scene right after another and I couldn't help but think of the final minutes of a serial but here those exciting final minutes lasts the entire running time. It's easy to see why this movie was so popular back in the day because it features Mix doing everything he was loved for and at a pace probably a lot faster than most people had ever witnessed. Many reviewers mention how fast this movie is and it is rather amazing to see how much they packed into such a short time. The opening sequence runs twenty-minutes as the train is on the way, the robbery are set up and ready to go and then we see Mix who is hanging off a cliff waiting for his time to shine. This sequence runs twenty-minutes and features a build-up, the action and then the pay off. This is a tremendous sequence that contains so much action and drama that the middle portion of the film somewhat feels slow in comparison and yet it's still ten times faster than your typical Western. This earliest sequence certainly makes the film one of the most memorable Westerns of the silent era. There's a stunt where Mix (probably his double) goes from one cliff and has to ride down the rope to a horse waiting on the ground. This looks incredible and is just one example of why stunts in the silents were so dangerous but at the same so amazing to watch. Mix, needless to say, fits the role of the good cowboy without any problems and delivers another winning performance. Tony, his horse, is also in good form and gets to do a couple stunts himself. Dorothy Dwan plays the love interest, Will Walling her father and Carl Miller plays the snake informant. Apparently a young John Wayne is also in the cast but I couldn't spot him. THE GREAT K&A TRAIN ROBBERY was legendary in its day but it seems to have been forgotten by many today, which is a real shame because silent fans will certainly eat this up but the thing is so fast and action-packed that I can't help but think many others would get a kick out of it.