Cruze attempted to follow up the success of THE COVERED WAGON with this rousing story of the founding of the Pony Express in the early days of the Civil War. Plenty of talent is entertainingly displayed, from Wallace Beery as "Rhode Island Red" (puh-leeze!) at his coyest and the ever-delightful Betty Compson to excellent camera-work by Karl Brown. But a script devoted more to fanciful attempts by the Knights of the Golden Circle -- a sort of Ur-Ku Klux Klan -- to lynch their way to power, random road agents and the assertion that a running man with a revolver can shoot down three stationary men with rifles makes hash of the entire show.
Still, if you enjoy the sort of piffle that suffused the western for many years, you will enjoy this Cecil B. Demille sort of western And if you can find a clean copy of this work it is a delight to the eyes.
Still, if you enjoy the sort of piffle that suffused the western for many years, you will enjoy this Cecil B. Demille sort of western And if you can find a clean copy of this work it is a delight to the eyes.