The Pony Express
About The Pony Express
In 1860 the gambler Jack Weston, marked for death by Senator Glen's Knights of the Golden Circle, becomes a Pony Express rider at Julesburg. He and stage superintendent Jack Slade both want Molly Jones. Slade has agreed to send California a forged dispatch saying Abraham Lincoln lost the election. Weston gets the true dispatch through, a raid on the town by Charlie Bent's band is broken by soldiers, and Molly marries Weston. After war is declared, Weston joins the army as the volunteers march out singing.
Cast & crew
More about The Pony Express
James Cruze directed for Famous Players–Lasky, with Adolph Zukor and Jesse Lasky producing. Walter Woods wrote the scenario. Henry James Forman and Woods wrote a novel of the same name at the same time as the film, and the two came out together. Karl Brown photographed. Paramount released the picture on September 20, 1925. Betty Compson, Cruze's wife, plays Molly.
Themes
Background
The story uses the 1860 election and the short life of the Pony Express as the hinge for a secession plot aimed at California.
Making
Cruze made it after The Covered Wagon, again for Paramount, and cast Compson opposite Ricardo Cortez. The novel was written to meet the film, not the other way around.
Look
Karl Brown shot the 110-minute Western, including the Julesburg raid and the relay of the election dispatch.
Music
Hugo Riesenfeld composed the silent-film score. The closing march uses the lyric “We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand strong.”
Preservation
Prints are held by George Eastman House, the UCLA Film & Television Archive, and the Pacific Film Archive. The film was issued on DVD in 2012 and again in 2021.
Notes
- The negative is 10 reels, 9,929 feet.
- George Bancroft plays Jack Slade, Wallace Beery plays Rhode Island Red, and Ernest Torrence plays Ascension Jones.
- Frank Lackteen plays Charlie Bent, and Al Hart plays Senator Glen.
- Duke Kahanamoku is an uncredited Indian chief, and Toby Wing appears as a child.
- Hugo Riesenfeld wrote the score.
- Prints are at George Eastman House, the UCLA Film & Television Archive, and the Pacific Film Archive. DVD editions came out in 2012 and 2021.
Scenes
- Weston escapes the Knights of the Golden Circle and signs on as a rider.
- He swaps runs so the true election news goes west.
- Soldiers break up Charlie Bent's raid on Julesburg.
- The volunteers march off singing “We are coming, Father Abraham.”
Influenced by
- The novel The Pony Express by Henry James Forman and Walter Woods, written with the film
Also available
- George Eastman House
- UCLA Film & Television Archive
- Pacific Film Archive
