The Omaha Trail

How did they get the engine to Promontory Summit to celebrate the transcontinental railroad? I always assumed they drove it from the east over the tracks. This movie says different: they had to freight it a good part of the way, up the Missouri by boat, and then by ox cart. Apparently there was a sizable business in such freighting, and when Edward Ellis hires James Craig to do the job, fellow freighter Dean Jagger realizes it means the end of his business, and so sets out to sabotage it. Also Craig has been shining up to Jagger's girl, Pamela Blake.

All right. It's a story, and I'll accept it for the sake of a story without doing any research. It all ends with. An Indian attack and then a gun duel. But that's not the only peculiar thing about this movie. As an MGM movie it has some fancy sets, as you might expect, and a long cast list that runs from Metro contract players down to regular cast members of B movies, people like Tom London and Kermit Maynard. But it runs only 62 minutes. Was it cut down before release? If so, what subplots were lost? Or was Mayer figuring to get back into the B western business, a field MGM had abandoned with the coming of sound?

It's the last days of the ox train as the railroad spreads towards the west. Pipestone Ross Freighter runs the route from St. Louis to Habersford, Omaha. His partner is Ben Santley, father of his girlfriend Julie Santley. New employee Pat Candel has a crush on Julie. Mr. Vane hires Candel to transport his locomotive to Omaha and jump ahead of the big railroads. Ross intends to sabotage the trip.

This has an ox train and somehow brings in a locomotive engine. There is an annoying love triangle and some underhanded double dealing. The big action happens to be an attack by the Indians. It's an old fashion circling the wagons. Some of this look like stock footage from other movies. The steam is kinda silly. The acting and production is all fine. It's an old fashion and limited western.

This is routine stuff for the most part. A knowledgeable, amiable, faithful scout (Craig) leads a wagon train with a steam locomotive thru rugged hostile Indian territory. Of course we also have the wagonmaster (Jagger) who wants to prevent the building of the railway, hence he goes all out to sabotage the trip. There seems to be a lot of stock footage here, and a lot of shooting with backscreens on soundstages which only hampers the story. Craig and Jagger also appeared in the superior VALLEY OF THE SUN this same year. The cast is rounded out by Harry (M*A*S*H) Morgan, Chill Wills, Morris Ankrum, and a bevy of notables from Hollywood's Poverty Row. Worth a watch, but you won't miss anything if you cook up a pizza with one eye and view the flick with the other.