Despite only operating for about a year and a half, it's amazing the number of films about the Pony Express. The messenger service only lasted a short time before it went backrupt...and soon telegraph would replace it, which was so much faster and more cost effective. This short color film from Warner Brothers is about this service and focuses on one of their riders, Buffalo Bill (George Reeves). Oddly, Cody was only 15 when he began working for the Express...and Reeves clearly wasn't!
So is this a good history lesson? In some ways, no. The importance of the service is way overstated in the film...such as saying how it 'opened the west'...though California was already a state long before this and as I mentioned above, the service was very short-lived. Also, I could find no evidence that Cody himself delivered the message that Lincoln had won the 1860 election, as they said in the film. HOWEVER, Cody often exaggerated his early life and God only knows what he actually did before becoming the famous showman! And, the film DID admit that the service lasted only a short period and lost money! Overall, the story is reasonably interesting even if much of it is fiction or exaggerated.
So is this a good history lesson? In some ways, no. The importance of the service is way overstated in the film...such as saying how it 'opened the west'...though California was already a state long before this and as I mentioned above, the service was very short-lived. Also, I could find no evidence that Cody himself delivered the message that Lincoln had won the 1860 election, as they said in the film. HOWEVER, Cody often exaggerated his early life and God only knows what he actually did before becoming the famous showman! And, the film DID admit that the service lasted only a short period and lost money! Overall, the story is reasonably interesting even if much of it is fiction or exaggerated.