The Iron Horse
About The Iron Horse
Surveyor David Brandon leaves Springfield with his son Davy to find a route west, after Thomas Marsh mocks the idea and a young Lincoln hears the plan. In the Cheyenne Hills a white man with two fingers, dressed as a Cheyenne, kills Brandon. Davy hides and is taken in by frontiersmen. In 1862 Congress authorizes the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific. After the Civil War the Union Pacific reaches North Platte, with Chinese labor, veterans of both armies, and buffalo meat from William F. Cody. Cheyenne fighters hit a payroll train. Marsh wants a shorter line through the Black Hills, across land Deroux holds, and his daughter Miriam asks the unpaid crews to stay.
Cast & crew
More about The Iron Horse
John Ford directed. Fox put it together quickly after Paramount's The Covered Wagon and gave Ford his first large budget, which he went past. Charles Kenyon wrote it. George Schneiderman photographed it. Ernö Rapée is credited with the music. George O'Brien plays Davy and Madge Bellamy plays Miriam. Premiere listings give 28 August 1924, with later dates of 31 May 1925 and 4 October 1925.
Themes
Background
The story uses the Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific, and the crews that included Chinese immigrants and veterans of both sides of the Civil War.
In film history
Fox's answer to The Covered Wagon, and the Western that fixed Ford's name with the genre.
Making
Ford spent more than the first large budget Fox had given him. The picture was a major box-office success and tied him to Westerns.
Audiences
It was a major box-office success.
Look
George Schneiderman shot the plains work, the Cheyenne Hills attack, and the railroad camps.
Music
Ernö Rapée is credited with the music for the silent film.
Preservation
In the public domain. Selected for the National Film Registry in 2011.
Notes
- Jean Arthur, George Brent, J. Farrell MacDonald, and Gladys Hulette are in the cast.
- The film is in the public domain.
- In 2011 the Library of Congress placed it on the National Film Registry.
Scenes
- A two-fingered white man dressed as a Cheyenne kills Brandon while Davy watches.
- Miriam asks freezing, unpaid crews to keep laying track.
Influenced by
- The Covered Wagon (1923)
