Pony Express *** (1953, Charlton Heston, Rhonda Fleming, Jan Sterling, Forrest Tucker) – Classic Movie Review 10,147

Director Jerry Hopper’s 1953 Western film Pony Express stars Charlton Heston and Forrest Tucker as Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok, who try to found the Pony Express amid the hostility of stagecoach station owners and Sioux Indians.

Despite a stirring tale interestingly set against the attempt to make California independent, and a capable cast, it is strictly a formula Fifties Western.

However, it is a good formula, and Pony Express is still plenty enjoyable with its highly fictionalised story (by Frank Gruber) setting a new spin round the real events. With Tucker and Heston on sprightly form, entertainment is guaranteed for Western fans. Ray Rennahan shoots in lovely Technicolor.

Also in the cast are Michael Moore, Porter Hall, Richard Shannon, Henry Brandon, Stuart Randall, Pat Hogan, Eric Alden, Charles Hamilton, LeRoy Johnson, Lewis Martin, Howard Joslin, Jim Burk, Robert J Miles, Bob Scott, Bob Templeton, Willard H Willingham, John Mansfield, James Davies, Frank Wilcox, Howard Gardiner, William Hamel, Len Hendry and Jerry James.

It is a remake of James Cruze’s famous silent Western The Pony Express (1925), with Betty Compson, Ricardo Cortez and Ernest Torrence.

There is no evidence that Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok ever worked for the Pony Express as riders.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,147

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