Review: Pony Express

Fictionalised account of the creation of the title mail route, featuring ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody (Charlton Heston) and ‘Wild Bill’ Hickok (Forrest Tucker). They encounter a scheming brother and sister duo (Rhonda Fleming and Michael Moore), who team up with rival business owners Henry Brandon and Stuart Randall to get in the way of progress. Also conflicting with our heroes are a tribe of Native Americans, led by Pat Hogan. Meanwhile, tomboy Denny (Jan Sterling) has eyes for Cody, and isn’t too keen on flame-haired Evelyn (Fleming) seemingly expressing interest in him and vice versa.

 

Very minor 1953 western from director Jerry Hopper (A TV veteran of “Perry Mason”, “Gilligan’s Island”, and “Gunsmoke”) is hardly a stinker, but is certainly very lucky to have the very well-cast Rhonda Fleming and Jan Sterling. Both underrated actresses they’re terrific, as is the lovely colour cinematography by Ray Rennahan (“Whispering Smith”, “The Paleface”, and a lot of TV). Otherwise there’s not much of interest going on here, with particularly underwhelming villainy from Michael Moore (who only appeared in about a half dozen films) and TV veteran Stuart Randall.

 

Charlton Heston certainly has charisma and commanding presence, but isn’t a very good fit for ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody, and Forrest Tucker is all kinds of wrong as ‘Wild Bill’ Hickok. Heston eventually won me over on sheer force of charisma, but Tucker just won’t do and the character frankly fades into the background after a while. It’s a problem. Pat Hogan (who died in his 40s of undisclosed causes) was a legit Native American despite his rather Anglo name, which puts him ahead of the usual painted up white or Hispanic actor in these sorts of roles, but it’s not much of a part. The music score by Paul Sawtell (“The Fly”, “The Last Man on Earth”) is solid, but familiar and the action is fairly decent, but the plot is fairly dull and uninvolving. It’s hard to get into a film when the villains are stock and the plot doesn’t grab you.

 

The women are terrific, Heston is OK, but bland villains, a miscast Forrest Tucker and an uninteresting plot sink this one. It’s not awful, it’s just nondescript and nowhere near close to being historically accurate, either. Based on a Frank Gruber (“The Mask of Dimitrios”) story, the screenplay is by Charles Marquis Warren (a writer for three big western TV shows “Rawhide”, “Gunsmoke”, and “The Virginian”).

 

Rating: C

 

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