Despite it's humble and simple origins, this eleven minute silent film is wonderful for it's attempt at telling a story using the Western genre as it's format. The version I saw on Turner Classics contained a number of surprising elements that I wasn't expecting from a picture made in 1903. The first of these was the complete silence of the picture, no musical accompaniment of any kind, making this an unusual, one of a kind experience. Then, when the outlaws in the story blew up the strongbox in the train's mail car, a bright flash of orange and yellow lit up the screen making me wonder how the effect was achieved. Other viewers here comment on the process so I'll defer to those who know better.
The use of color is done sparingly but to wonderful effect, and when I first saw the young girl in red attempting to wake up the injured mail clerk, the first thing I thought of was Little Red Riding Hood. The process is used again on the dresses of the dancing women and during the posse chase when gunshots are highlighted in a colorful powder flash similar to the earlier strongbox explosion. The very last frames of the cowboy shooting directly at the viewer was done in color as well, a neat touch to bring the brief story to a conclusion.
The story itself was a forerunner to all those thousands of B Westerns that were soon to follow in the Thirties and Forties with endless horse chases and gunfights to excite movie goers of all ages. As expected, the bandits get their due in the film as they are all done in by the dance hall posse that quickly assembled to chase down the bad guys. The other main highlight of the picture had to be the crowd of train passengers who were forced off the train at gunpoint during the robbery.
Oh, I shouldn't forget this item of note, it was kind of interesting. When the robbers made their way on the train, one of the engine crew came out to fight off an outlaw, and in the tussle that followed, he was beaten up by the bad guy. The transition that then occurred was kind of neat, because you couldn't tell exactly when the live actor turned into the dummy that was thrown off the train!
The use of color is done sparingly but to wonderful effect, and when I first saw the young girl in red attempting to wake up the injured mail clerk, the first thing I thought of was Little Red Riding Hood. The process is used again on the dresses of the dancing women and during the posse chase when gunshots are highlighted in a colorful powder flash similar to the earlier strongbox explosion. The very last frames of the cowboy shooting directly at the viewer was done in color as well, a neat touch to bring the brief story to a conclusion.
The story itself was a forerunner to all those thousands of B Westerns that were soon to follow in the Thirties and Forties with endless horse chases and gunfights to excite movie goers of all ages. As expected, the bandits get their due in the film as they are all done in by the dance hall posse that quickly assembled to chase down the bad guys. The other main highlight of the picture had to be the crowd of train passengers who were forced off the train at gunpoint during the robbery.
Oh, I shouldn't forget this item of note, it was kind of interesting. When the robbers made their way on the train, one of the engine crew came out to fight off an outlaw, and in the tussle that followed, he was beaten up by the bad guy. The transition that then occurred was kind of neat, because you couldn't tell exactly when the live actor turned into the dummy that was thrown off the train!