Pony Express (1953)

Buffalo Bill (Charlton Heston) and Wild Bill Hickock (Forrest Tucker) team up to insure the inauguration of the Pony Express from Missouri to California is a success. Meanwhile, there are those who want the Pony Express to fail and leave California distanced from the rest of the States in the hopes it will secede from the Union and will stop at nothing to prevent the Pony Express from reaching Sacramento. This highly fictionalized account of the creation of the Pony Express should have been a modest and tight minor western. But the film is padded out with unnecessary trapping (like a romantic triangle between Heston, Rhonda Fleming and Jan Sterling) that slows down the telling of the tale that should have been fifteen minutes shorter. As it is, it's a rather routine oater, handsomely shot in Technicolor by Ray Rennahan, helped along by its energetic four leads. Directed by Jerry Hopper, better known for his work in episodic TV than film. With Henry Brandon, Stuart Randall and Michael Moore.