Director James Cruze valiantly attempted to follow up his sensational success with The Covered Wagon (1923) with an even slightly longer epic, The Pony Express. Presumably because the movie did not fully recover its huge negative cost at the box office (although it received enthusiastic reviews), it has a poor reputation which still clings to the movie today. Admittedly, it's difficult to judge what the ten-reel movie was like from the five-reel Kodascope cutdown, but nevertheless, it looks good. And George Bancroft gives a standout performance as the notorious Jack Slade. Some of the other characters are fictitious but Ricardo Cortez could well represent a typical post express rider, while Betty Compson (whose role is extremely small in the Kodascope version) is convincing enough as the heroine. Ernest Torrence comes across effectively as the mad preacher, while unsubtle Wallace Beery treats us to some occasional comic relief. But – at least in this version – it's Bancroft's movie. The Grapevine Video DVD print is watchable but somewhat dark.
Review of The Pony Express
