1st watched 10/25/2013 -- 7 out of 10(Dir-John Ford): Epic silent movie about the path to the completion of the transcontinental railroad seen thru the eyes of the son of a dream-filled mid-westerner, played by George O'Brien in adulthood. This movie does a pretty good job of portraying the conflicts in the effort -- while throwing in some romance with a few fist fights. John Ford, the King of the Western, directed this early movie and is not afraid to show men having emotion and being aggressive as males are expected to be. George's character, Dave Brandon, travels with his father to the west in search of helping the railroad get built, but his father is killed by a white man dressed as an Indian and traveling with their tribe. This man becomes the evil character in the film an we find out he also is tight with the railroad executives and owns a lot of land. We believe his intention is to make sure the railroad goes thru his areas so they will thrive and make him money although it is not really dramatized. This piece is somewhat historical in nature with some comedy, romance and violence thrown in coming a lot from the romantic triangle between Brandon, his childhood girlfriend and her new fiancé. The fight scenes are a little corny and sometimes un-necessary but some of the emotions come out due to this and help the film, in my opinion. Ford makes the film entertaining and not just a bland documentary which it could have been. His ability to entertain an audience shines and the film also teaches which is a positive thing as well. Overall -- a worthwhile film although not perfect.

One of greatest John Ford's film, I have ever saw. This epic-scale silent western was hugely influential on outdoor films that followed it due to its large production. The Iron Horse was a massive production that employed over 6,000 people; two temporary cities were built to accommodate them, with 100 cooks on hand to serve meals. The project of Fox was the response to the film The Covered Wagon (1923), the Paramount, which was a huge box office hit draw. Shot on location in Arizona in Monument Valley. John Ford love the location so much due to its romantic scenery, that he film most of his westerns there after this. Surprising this movie wasn't directed by John Ford himself, but Kevin Brownlow and David Gill, but you can truly see Ford's influence in the film. The film is about Davy Brandon (George O'Brien) who follows his father's dream that the entire North American continent will be linked by railroad East to West. However, to make this dream a reality, a clear trail must be found through the Rocky Mountains. However, the trial is dangerous with Indians raids, led by a white man name Peter Jesson or Two fingers (Cyril Chadwick). In some versions he is known as Bauman or Deroux, but its Jesson's first right. Trust me. He is named 'Two fingers' due to the lack of fingers on his right hand. Chadwick really had only two fingers on the one hand having lost the others in a mining accident before he became an actor. When legislation signed by President Abraham Lincoln has made it an official mandate. Davy is hired on as a railroad surveyor by Thomas Marsh (Will R. Walling), the father of his childhood sweetheart Miriam (Madge Bellamy). While Davy hopes to win Miriam's heart, he discover that Miriam is already married and shocked to discover her husband is Peter Jesson, now working with the railroad as a civil engineer. As the Union Pacific crew presses on to their historic meeting at Promitory Point, Davy must find a way to earn Miriam's love and uncover Peter's murderous past. The Iron Horse has become one of the biggest successes of Fox, in the era of silent films. The film overall theme is the rebirth of a nation, by its unification physical and symbolic, after the terrible Civil War that divided the country. The film presents an idealized symbol image of the construction of the American first transcontinental railroad. It culminates with the scene of driving of the golden spike at Promontory Summit on May 10, 1869. A historical real life date. There is a note in the title before this scene that the two original locomotives from 1869 event are used in the film, although this is false - both engines (Union Pacific No. 119 and Central Jupiter) were scrapped before 1910. Still, it's pretty close to what it must have felt to be there witnessing East meeting West. The movie nearly mirrors the ending to Union Pacific (1939). I can't help wondering how many times C. B. DeMille watched the Indian attack on the train before he borrowed many elements from it to use in Union Pacific? I think this movie influence that later film. Still, I can do without the title cards telling us that we are watching a film, or how they film it. It took me out of the film, a bit since it's pretty much telling you, don't get too into the film, it's just a bunch of actors acting. It's breaks like that, that detract the audience from the real story and action. Come on, you don't need that. Make the film seems like it's really happening. The film had some very interesting characters/ I love the unabashed masculine chivalry and heroism by the hero, Davy. Despite the oddly wild air swinging badly done fight scenes. I love the loving, strong-willed, independent women as seem in Miriam. It's odd seeing an old film where women are shooting guns and going to battle. The supporting comedic characters were also funny. You get a bit of the Victor Mclaglen and Ward Bond lovable misfits that permeated Ford's later films in Sgt. Slattery and Cpl. Casey. You get a really funny part in similar scenes such as the dentist, getting the guys to join the fight by having a stampede, and a lot of weird Irish jokes. The action was well-done. It was just as good as any modern film. There are two versions of this film. John Ford used two negative, simultaneously, which was a common practice at the time. One was for use in the United States that runs for 149 minutes and the other for other countries which 133 minute runtime. The international has a lot secondary takes and other shots unused in the editing room just to note. Still, the movie goes a little too long after the Indian battle in the American version. The International version is more tightly edited. Many years the only copy that was shown was the international version. For years, the American version wasn't available for viewing. All early Fox Films original negatives were destroyed in a fire in 1937 until it was found. The negative American original, was restored in 2007 and a new musical background was commissioned and now both can be seen. The score is likewise very good. Just wish, we could had heard the traditional tune of the railroad songs like 'Drill Ye Tarrier, Drill". There is a black & white version, Hand-coloring and a tan brown version. Watch the tan version, it looks like a dusty Western, indeed. Unless you are a silent film enthusiast or an aficionado of Westerns then you are probably unfamiliar with this movie so check it out. Overall I am very happy to have this in my collection

Previous to directing The Iron Horse, John Ford had been known as the director of a few dozen B westerns, most of them probably lost by now and most of them starring Harry Carey. In getting the assignment for The Iron Horse, Ford got his first really big budget to work with from Fox Films. The end result was a film which along with Paramount's The Covered Wagon became the models for the big epic westerns. And it launched a whole new career for John Ford that netted four Oscars as a Best Director, though not one of them was for a western.The story of The Iron Horse begins here in Springfield, Illinois where the children of Will Walling a contractor and surveyor James Gordon are playing while their fathers are meeting with none other than Abraham Lincoln at that time just a state legislator. Both would like to see a transcontinental railroad and Gordon is going to make good on it by going west and surveying the best route through the Rocky Mountains. But out west the surveyor is killed by hostile Indians led by a white man with only two fingers on his right hand. But the boy hides and is missed and grows up to be frontiersman George O'Brien.Twenty years later in the midst of the great Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signs the legislation authorizing the building of such a railroad though the real work doesn't start until the war is over. By that time Will Walling is working on building the Union Pacific and his daughter has grown up to be Madge Bellamy. She's engaged to Cyril Chadwick another surveyor, but Chadwick has some mixed loyalties.Those of you who saw the epic DeMille production Union Pacific will recognize from this point some of the same plot situations. No doubt Cecil B. DeMille borrowed quite a bit from The Iron Horse, but I will say DeMille wrecked his train during the Indian attack and it was a beauty. But Ford with all the extras involved could say that his was to use the cliché, a cast of thousands.The real evil villain here just as Brian Donlevy was in Union Pacific is Fred Kohler. He's behind a lot of the scheming as he's a large landowner where the Cheyenne Indians seem to function as a personal army. Now that was a bit much to swallow. As was the fact that when the grown up George O'Brien first makes his appearance he is identified as a Pony Express rider. Everyone knows that the Pony Express was a year long phenomenon that the Civil War closed down and the telegraph and railroad put out of business permanently. But Ford was also interested in the poetry of the west rather than the facts. Still the action of The Iron Horse holds up remarkably well today and the careers of both John Ford and George O'Brien were made with this film.

THE IRON HORSE is a plot heavy western with what appears to be an authentic historical background, well photographed in crisp B&W photography that is not as primitive as one might expect from a film made in 1924. It bustles with excitement whenever any action scenes are taking place, accompanied by a "silent" music score that actually fits the story and never becomes tiresome.GEORGE O'BRIEN has the lead but doesn't enter the film until at least fifty minutes is taken up with a prologue involving old Abe Lincoln himself and the friendship of two children who are soon separated but destined to meet again midway through the story when they're adults. The girl is played as a young woman by MADGE BELLAMY. She and O'Brien become romantically attached although she's now the fiancé of one of the villains of the piece. There's also a subplot involving the man who killed O'Brien's father, Bauman (FRED KOHLER), who is a white man joining the Indians for attacks on the "iron horse".Some of the acting is strictly silent film technique and there's the usual John Ford inclusion of comedy relief from actors like J. FARRELL MacDONALD, long stretches of captioned "talk" for scenes that run too long with exposition, but decent work from O'Brien and Bellamy as the leads.It's pioneering in the Ford mold, obviously a film that employed a huge cast to portray the building of the Union Pacific railway to the west, telling a fictional story of romance and danger with authority.Worth viewing, although at two hours and ten minutes it can sometimes try your patience. All the hard work that went into the making of the film is evident throughout.