Pony Express Days (1940)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

B. Reeves Eason

Writer:

Charles L. Tedford (original screenplay)

Release Date:

13 July 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Short | Action | Adventure | Biography | History | War | Western

Plot:

A youthful Buffalo Bill Cody joins the newly-formed Pony Express as a station hand and replaces the regular rider when he is shot by Southern sympathizer.

Plot Keywords:

Pony Express | Archive Footage | California | Violence | Nebraska

Cast

George Reeves	...	Bill 'Billy' Cody aka Buffalo Bill
David Bruce	...	Johnny Frey
Frank Wilcox	...	Bolliver Roberts
J. Farrell MacDonald	...	Nevada Jim (as J. Farrell McDonald)
Joe King	...	Colonel Joseph Randall (as Joseph King)
Addison Richards	...	Tipton Walton

Also Known As:

Buffalo Bill and the Pony Express (USA) (original script title)
Wild West Days (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

20 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

UK:U | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:Approved (PCA #6269)

Filming Locations:

Burro Flats, Simi Hills, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Vitaphone release #9834-9835.

Quotes:

[last lines]
Nevada Jim: [to Johnny] I'm goin' back to huntin' buffalo where a man can use his brains. My young friend Buffalo Bill is comin' along with me.
[to Bill]
Nevada Jim: Ain't yuh, hunh?
Johnny Frey: [to Bill] So, you've been believin' ol' Nevady's lies all along?
Nevada Jim: Hunh?
Bill 'Billy' Cody: Buffalo Bill Cody? It's got kinda a nice sound, doesn't it, Johnny?

Soundtrack:

Oh! Susanna

George Reeves as a young Buffalo Bill

This was a short film made in 1940, back when they used to show features like this before or in between movies.

The plot is rather rather predicable -- and to my knowledge -- pretty historically inaccurate. It is about a privately owned parcel service that tries to link up Missouri and California. They believe their business will do better if they can get news of Abe Lincolns election to CA in record time, which upsets some Southern sympathizers who believe they won't get California to join the Confederacy if they know that Lincoln won. (?) What ever one wants to make of the plot, the important thing about the film is that absolutely beautiful western scenery in stunning technicolor, which seems to have been the real draw in the first place. In a time when very few films were in color -probably none that were shown with this - the audience must have really gotten a kick out of this films painting like cinematography and vivid action sequences.

It IS available on DVD -- I ran across it on the 1st season of "The Adventures of Superman"