Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

jpdoherty Paramount's PONY EXPRESS (1953) is a reasonably good fifties western. Produced for the studio by Nat Holt - it was made the same year as their pivotal contribution to the genre "Shane". And while never reaching the lofty heights of Steven's classic it was competently written for the screen by Charles Marquis Warren. Glowingly photographed in Technicolor by veteran Ray Rennehan and directed with a certain flair by Jerry Hopper it was all played out by a well chosen cast in some handsome Utah locations.It is 1860 and Buffalo Bill Cody (Charlton Heston) and Wild Bill Hickok (Forrest Tucker) are sent to California to set up a Pony Express system that will deliver mail from St. Joe. Missouri to Sacramento in the inconceivable time of ten days beating the Stagecoach time by 16 days. Of course the Stagecoach relay station owners are not going to take this destruction of their business lying down and set out to prevent, by any and every means, this "high speed" service from ever getting off the ground. Not only must Cody and Hickok fight off many attacks by unscrupulous gangs working for the business men but also must keep the trail free for the express riders from marauding Sioux Indians whose chief Yellow Hand (Pat Hogan) has a long standing feud with Cody. The feud culminates in a fierce Tomahawk fight to the death with Cody being the victor. (This famous duel is not as well depicted here as it was in Fox's "Buffalo Bill" (1944) where Anthony Quinn as Yellow Hand and Cody (Joel McCrea) meet half-way across a river to do combat. It was a much more elaborate and exciting sequence.) However I suppose we have to be thankful it was included at all here in this version.Performances are generally OK across the board. Heston makes a likable Cody but Forrest Tucker's Wild Bill Hickok is somewhat underwritten and in his mode of dress he looks like he just stepped off the set for a Gene Autry or Roy Rogers B movie. This is really my only crib with the film. Neither leading character looks authentic enough! Cody's hair should have been longer and where was his familiar goatee beard? Hickok's hair is short back and sides which should have been shoulder length and he is without that famous handlebar moustache as well as the three quarter length skirt coat - things the famous frontiersman was known for. However after awhile you get used to the way they look. The female lead is played by the ravishing Rhonda Fleming. An actress of limited talent she really doesn't have much to do except stand around and do what she always did best.....simply look ravishing. Better is Jan Sterling as a feisty gun tottin' tomboy, (obviously loosely based on Calamity Jane) who has the hots for Cody and vies, not very successfully, with Fleming for his attention. The best things about the movie are some good shootouts with baddies and Indians and the exciting scenes of the Pony Express riders racing across the deserted plains.A memorable aspect of the picture is the fine score by Paul Sawtell. Sawtell was one of the busiest composers in Hollywood's Golden era. Born in Poland in 1906 he arrived in Hollywood in the forties and started scoring films at RKO Pictures. He had a voluminous output of over two hundred scores which crossed over all genres from Noirs like "Raw Deal" (1948) to the Tarzan films of the forties, the Randolph Scott westerns "Fighting Man Of The Plains" (1952) and "Comanche Station" (1960), war pictures such as "The Hunters" (1957) and the science fiction epic "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea" (1961). His main theme from the TV spin-off of the latter gained great popularity in the sixties. His score for PONY EXPRESS has a splendid main theme. First heard over the titles it is given some spirited variations throughout the picture and excitingly used in the closing scene as Cody, at full gallop, takes off on a mail delivery across a vast open plain. There is also a stately theme to underscore the colourful Indian sequences. Paul Sawtell died in 1971.PONY EXPRESS is not by any means a brilliant western but it is an enjoyable colourful oater that is worth watching and remains a fair addition to the genre's fifties output

James Hitchcock Although the Pony Express, a mail service between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California, only operated for 18 months between April 1860 and October 1861, it has become part of the legend of the American West. Previous mail services had relied upon the stagecoach, but the Pony Express used relays of horse riders which made it during the brief period of its operation, before it was replaced by the telegraph, the fastest means of communication between California and the eastern states.The film, set in 1860, tells a highly fictionalised, historically inaccurate, account of the origins of the Pony Express. It credits the formation of the service to "Buffalo Bill" Cody and Wild Bill Hickok, two real-life western heroes. In reality, although both men (at least by their own accounts) rode for the Pony Express, neither of them played any part in its creation, and both were considerably younger than the characters portrayed here; Cody would only have been fourteen in 1860. Cody, Hickok and their men have to battle not only hostile Indians but also separatists who are promoting California's secession from the United States and who try to sabotage the mail service in order to achieve this end. There is also a love-triangle involving Cody, his girlfriend Denny Russell, and Evelyn Hastings, the beautiful sister of one of the separatist leaders.This was one of Charlton Heston's early films, made at a time when he had not yet established himself as a major star, and it is far from being one of his best. Although there are some decent action sequences, "Pony Express" never really rises above the level of the average Western. One reviewer describes Charles Marquis Warren as one of the worst western scriptwriters. I will not comment on the general truth of that allegation, as I have only seen two films for which he is credited as writer, but I must say that both of those films are mediocre ones. (The other was "Only the Valiant"). The script for "Pony Express" is a poor one; the story, especially towards the end, is difficult to follow and the sudden tragic ending to a romantic action/adventure film strikes a jarring note. As was common (although not universal) in Westerns from this period, "Only he Valiant" being another example, the Indians are cast as villains with no attempt to understand their point of view, and the importance of the Pony Express is perhaps over-emphasised; it is hard to credit, as we are asked to accept here, that California could have been persuaded to take the momentous step of seceding from the Union by the late arrival of a mail delivery. 5/10

Spikeopath Directed by Jerry Hopper and starring Charlton Heston, Forrest Tucker and Rhonda Fleming, Pony Express is adapted from a story written by Frank Gruber. It revolves around the birth of the Pony Express and how it linked California to the rest of the United States, thus preventing it from becoming a separate republic. Buffalo Bill Cody (Heston) and Wild Bill Hickok (Tucker) are the principal characters in the formation of the St Joseph-Sacramento speed run that has long since passed into folklore. Very much a fictionalised account of the "Express" and its principals, this tale deals in an attempt to form a separatist movement from the Union and the trials and tribulations that Cody & Hickok go thru in order to successfully launch the "Express". Cue Indian attacks, with the Indians being armed by corrupt business men, and sinister plotting by the seemingly affable Hastings siblings (Michael Moore & Fleming). A loose remake of the 1924/25 silent film of the same name, Hopper's movie suffers from being overlong and for spending too much time with the Hastings sub-plot. It's only when we get to the last quarter that the film gathers apace, until then we are left with only Heston's gusto and Fleming's sexuality to hold our attention. Director Hopper struggles to craft any energy from the number of dialogue driven set-ups, and even a Mano-Mano fight to the death between Cody and Yellow Hand (Pat Hogan) is undeniably flat. Thank god then for Heston giving it brio. A few years away from career defining roles, he seems to be enjoying himself and puts ebullient life into the film when it starts to sag. Fleming too is a highpoint. When not asked to lead off awful films like Bullwhip, Fleming was a more than capable actress, helped enormously by her sexiness and ability to own her scenes. She raises temperatures here considerably with one particular scene as both Jan Sterling (as Tomboy Denny) and herself each take a bath. Thankfully the finale doesn't follow suit with what has gone before it, with Hopper gaining a little redemption with this action quarter. The momentum is built up as we approach the first "Express" run, a gunfight is well staged and the shots of the horses bolting along the plains are a joy; in particular one shot as man and beast speed off under a blood red sky (well done cinematographer Ray Rennahan). Then it's the inevitable showdown where Heston flexes his gun toting muscles and a surprise development earns the picture an extra plaudit. So a real mixed bag for sure then. Well worth a watch for Heston purists and Fleming lusters. And indeed for Western fans who are versed in the lower grade genre entries so prominent in the 1950s. But it clearly doesn't fulfil its potential and the snippets of good only further make one feel a touch annoyed once the end credit booms out from the screen. 5.5/10

bkoganbing Does anyone remember The Young Riders television series? Though that one got into the never never land of our old west mythology eventually at least it got it right about one thing. The Pony Express riders were in fact young teenage boys. William F. Cody was all of 13 when he was riding for them. James Butler Hickok, later nicknamed Wild Bill, was in his early twenties. So when we see Charlton Heston doing all he's doing as Buffalo Bill in this film Pony Express, he's really playing a thirteen year old living out a fantasy dream of having both Rhonda Fleming and Jan Sterling chasing him.Pony Express may in fact be one of the last of that grand tradition of B westerns where famous characters from the American frontier are taken and put into plots that had nothing to do with reality. Cody's famous fight with Cheyenne chief Yellow Hand is also included here although that in fact took place in the 1870s not in 1860.In this film, Charlton Heston and Forrest Tucker as Wild Bill Hickok stumble upon a plot to detach California from the United States while the north and south sectional conflict edges closer to civil war. Part of that plan is stop the Pony Express and its promise of quick mail delivery. Rhonda Fleming's brother is part of the dastardly scheme and Jan Sterling plays a Calamity Jane like character who has eyes for Cody, but Cody has them for Fleming.This film also marked the farewell appearance of Porter Hall who has a small role as another frontier character, legendary mountain man Jim Bridger. It's possible that Bridger, Cody, and Hickok may have all met at the same time, but I doubt it was under the circumstances shown.Don't let the A list cast fool you. What you have in Pony Express is one of that dying group of B westerns which were getting a new life on television at this time.