a5c7b9f00b 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. Young Bill Cody wants to be a Pony Express rider, but is too heavy. When one of the riders is shot by Southern sympathizers while delivering vital mail, Cody must ride the route himself. This was a short film made in 1940, back when they used to show features like this before or in between movies.<br/><br/>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.<br/><br/>It IS available on DVD – I ran across it on the 1st season of "The Adventures of Superman" I recognized some stock footage of Dodge City in this short subject about the Pony Express Days. I also got the impression that the film was supposed to be a feature, but for one reason or another was cut down to a short subject and cast with many of Warner Brothers B list players.<br/><br/>The famous legend of the Pony Express bringing the news of Lincoln's election to California is shown here. That the existence of this mail and communication service to our West Coast did a lot to keep California in the union is simply accepted. The Pony Express knew it was on a short term existence, the telegraph was in existence for a decade and a half and it would move sooner or later across the plains as did the railroad, but only after the Civil War. <br/><br/>Before he was Superman, before he played Sir Galahad in a serial, George Reeves takes on the part of the Pony Express's most famous alumnus William F. Cody. Probably Stephen Baldwin in The Young Riders was a lot closer to the real Cody, but Reeves does all right with the part. That it was in fact Cody who brought the word of the election returns I'm not sure of.<br/><br/>Still it's a nice story about young Buffalo Bill.
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