This film may feature some real characters they weren't involved in the founding of the real Pony Express... still as a work of fiction it is entertaining enough. The film opens with 'Buffalo' Bill Cody left stranded in the middle of the prairie after his horse is killed in an Indian attack. Luckily for him the stage coach passes by not long afterwards and he gets on board. There are two people inside already; Evelyn Hastings and her brother Rance. They haven't been travelling long when they meet what appears to be a group of soldiers; they claim that they have been sent to arrest the Hastings for treason but Bill realises that they aren't who they claim to be. The Hastings do however wish for California to break away from the United States as they believe their state is too distant from the rest of the country to be cared about. Bill, and his friend 'Wild' Bill Hickok, however are doing something about bringing it closer to the rest of the Union... not in distance but in the time it takes news to get through. They are working on setting up a string of relay stations across the country so that news may be passed from rider to rider rather than relying on the slow stage coach. Rance Hastings and his collaborators are determined to prevent the express running, and to make matters worse a local Indian chief is determined to kill Cody. Not surprisingly there is also a romantic subplot; tomboy Denny Russell is clearly in love with Cody but gets jealous when he appears to be more interested in Evelyn.
Charlton Heston was not yet a major star when this was made although he is clearly the star of the film; he puts in a solid performance... although I don't know how somebody in 1860 could have a smile like that; he looked like he was in a toothpaste commercial with his brilliant white teeth! Rhonda Fleming, playing Evelyn, was clearly meant to be the leading lady however she was upstaged by the short-haired Jan Stirling who played the feisty Denny. There was a good amount of action spread throughout the film including plenty of gunfights, a fight between Cody and an Indian chief using tomahawks and even an explosion. The story is fairly standard with separatists and Indians clearly meant to be viewed as the bad guys, although the latter are at least bad guys with honour; while those wishing to do their bit to preserve the Union being obvious heroes; the final shoot out did feature one surprise but I won't spoil that here. At a hundred and one minutes it is clearly too long for a B-western however it does have a B-western feel to it; it might be best looked at that way as it passes the time well enough but it will never be a classic of the genre.
Charlton Heston was not yet a major star when this was made although he is clearly the star of the film; he puts in a solid performance... although I don't know how somebody in 1860 could have a smile like that; he looked like he was in a toothpaste commercial with his brilliant white teeth! Rhonda Fleming, playing Evelyn, was clearly meant to be the leading lady however she was upstaged by the short-haired Jan Stirling who played the feisty Denny. There was a good amount of action spread throughout the film including plenty of gunfights, a fight between Cody and an Indian chief using tomahawks and even an explosion. The story is fairly standard with separatists and Indians clearly meant to be viewed as the bad guys, although the latter are at least bad guys with honour; while those wishing to do their bit to preserve the Union being obvious heroes; the final shoot out did feature one surprise but I won't spoil that here. At a hundred and one minutes it is clearly too long for a B-western however it does have a B-western feel to it; it might be best looked at that way as it passes the time well enough but it will never be a classic of the genre.