There are just enough accurate historical elements to make this story interesting, but don't go betting the ranch on Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok working together to help establish the Pony Express. Cody did work as an Express rider, but he was only fifteen years old at the time! A young Hickok met Cody once prior to 1860, and later joined him in a stage production in 1873, but quit well before Cody formed his 'Wild West Show' in 1882.
I've seen a handful of films now with the Pony Express as the principal theme, and was intrigued by the story's mention of the numbers involved - a hundred ninety relay stations, five hundred seventy horses and eighty riders making the trip between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California. Virtually the same math showed up in the 1939 film "Cavalcade of the West" starring Hoot Gibson. The newspaper headline in the movie dated April 3rd, 1860 was historically correct, that was the day the first rider took off from St. Joseph westward bound. What wasn't mentioned, and it wouldn't have worked for this story, was that a Pony Express Rider left San Francisco on the same day heading East to St. Joe! That relay made it in ten days as well.
Adding some intrigue to this story was the idea that there were behind the scene elements who wanted to see the Pony Express concept fail, for both political and financial reasons. Stage companies delivering the mail saw a threat to their business because delivery time would be virtually cut in half. There was also a political motivation involved with those who didn't want California to join the United States, particularly on the Confederate side. That was given some prominence in the story with each rider on the maiden run voicing California's rejecting slavery.
As far as the principals involved, Charlton Heston made for a resolute Buffalo Bill Cody, while Forrest Tucker was pretty much Wild Bill Hickok in name only. Neither portrayal was physically accurate to the historical characters, but if you didn't know that, it's not a deal breaker. Jan Sterling's 'Denny' character immediately brought to mind Calamity Jane, while Rhonda Fleming brings some credibility to her turn from the anti-Express faction to those supporting Hickok. The romance angle between them doesn't get very far in the story, which is just as well; I liked Sterling better as the tomboyish Denny.
If you'd like to explore some more films dealing with the Pony Express, there's the one mentioned earlier, along with another picture from the same year, 1953, with Gene Autry titled "Last of the Pony Riders". Roy Rogers did one as well early in his career with the 1939 movie "Frontier Pony Express". That one's interesting from the standpoint of the story line in this film, it has Roy's character as a Pony Express rider who's approached by a Confederate Senator who's attempting to establish California as a separate republic. Even Trigger gets in on the action, as a reliable Pony Express mount he's requested by fellow riders by name!
I've seen a handful of films now with the Pony Express as the principal theme, and was intrigued by the story's mention of the numbers involved - a hundred ninety relay stations, five hundred seventy horses and eighty riders making the trip between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California. Virtually the same math showed up in the 1939 film "Cavalcade of the West" starring Hoot Gibson. The newspaper headline in the movie dated April 3rd, 1860 was historically correct, that was the day the first rider took off from St. Joseph westward bound. What wasn't mentioned, and it wouldn't have worked for this story, was that a Pony Express Rider left San Francisco on the same day heading East to St. Joe! That relay made it in ten days as well.
Adding some intrigue to this story was the idea that there were behind the scene elements who wanted to see the Pony Express concept fail, for both political and financial reasons. Stage companies delivering the mail saw a threat to their business because delivery time would be virtually cut in half. There was also a political motivation involved with those who didn't want California to join the United States, particularly on the Confederate side. That was given some prominence in the story with each rider on the maiden run voicing California's rejecting slavery.
As far as the principals involved, Charlton Heston made for a resolute Buffalo Bill Cody, while Forrest Tucker was pretty much Wild Bill Hickok in name only. Neither portrayal was physically accurate to the historical characters, but if you didn't know that, it's not a deal breaker. Jan Sterling's 'Denny' character immediately brought to mind Calamity Jane, while Rhonda Fleming brings some credibility to her turn from the anti-Express faction to those supporting Hickok. The romance angle between them doesn't get very far in the story, which is just as well; I liked Sterling better as the tomboyish Denny.
If you'd like to explore some more films dealing with the Pony Express, there's the one mentioned earlier, along with another picture from the same year, 1953, with Gene Autry titled "Last of the Pony Riders". Roy Rogers did one as well early in his career with the 1939 movie "Frontier Pony Express". That one's interesting from the standpoint of the story line in this film, it has Roy's character as a Pony Express rider who's approached by a Confederate Senator who's attempting to establish California as a separate republic. Even Trigger gets in on the action, as a reliable Pony Express mount he's requested by fellow riders by name!