The Big Trail
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| The Big Trail | |
|---|---|
| Image:BigTrail.jpg Movie Poster for The Big Trail | |
| Directed by | Raoul Walsh |
| Produced by | Winfield R. Sheehan |
| Written by | Hal G. Evarts (story) Marie Boyle Jack Peabody Florence Postal Fred Sersen |
| Starring | John Wayne Marguerite Churchill Tyrone Power, Sr. El Brendel |
| Music by | Arthur Kay |
| Cinematography | Lucien Andriot Arthur Edeson |
| Editing by | Jack Dennis |
| Distributed by | Fox Film Corporation |
| Release date(s) | 1 November 1930 |
| Running time | 125 min. |
| Country | Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Big Trail (1930) is a film starring John Wayne in his first leading role and a lavish early widescreen movie shot on location across the American West.
In 2006, the United States Library of Congress deemed this film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Contents |
[edit] Background
Filming began in April 1930. During production, John Wayne, a completely unknown actor recently promoted from prop man (and renamed) by director Raoul Walsh, fell sick from dysentery and was nearly replaced as the lead.
Legend has it that the director Raoul Walsh had co-star Tyrone Power, Sr. almost beaten to death for forcing himself on the leading lady, Marguerite Churchill. Power would die just a year later from a heart attack.
Although the 23-year-old Wayne delivered an intriguing and charismatic performance as wagon train scout Breck Coleman, the expensive shot-on-location movie was financially unsuccessful as a result of being the first widescreen release during a time when theatres wouldn't change over due to the encroachments of the Great Depression. After making The Big Trail, Wayne found stardom only in low-budget serials and features (mostly B-westerns). It would take another nine years - and the film Stagecoach - to return Wayne to mainstream movies.
The Big Trail was shot in an early widescreen process using 70mm film called Fox Grandeur which was first used in Fox Movietone Follies of 1929. Widescreen, along with Technicolor, were picked up by movie studios as the next big technological advancement for films in 1929. In 1930, a large number of films were produced which featured either widescreen or color. Color fared a lot better than widescreen because no special equipment was needed to view color films whereas theatres needed to buy special projectors and screens in order to project widescreen films.
Late in 1930, however, when the effects of the Depression were finally beginning to be felt by the public, studios abandoned the use of widescreen and color in an attempt to decrease costs. Because only a small number of theatres could play widescreen films, two versions of the widescreen films were always simultaneously filmed, one in 35 mm and one in the 70 mm Grandeur process. By doing this, the film would be able to be played throughout the country in 35mm at the same time it was being played in deluxe theatres capable of screening widescreen films.
The wagon train drive across the country was pioneering in its use of camerawork and the stunning scenery from the epic landscape. An extraordinary effort was made to lend authenticity to the movie, with the wagons drawn by oxen and lowered by ropes down canyons when necessary. Tyrone Power's character's clothing looks grimy in a more realistic way than has been seen in movies since, and even the food supplies the immigrants carried with them were researched. Locations in five states were used in the film caravan's 2000 mile trek.
The original 70mm nitrate elements deteriorated in the 1960s, but a fine-grain CinemaScope-converted print of the 70mm version was found in 1972 and kept in the Library of Congress, and thus the film was restored to its full widescreen glory in the 1980s and re-screened at the Museum of Modern Art, and modern viewers wondered what audiences in 1930 had been thinking, since The Big Trail holds up astonishingly well given its age.
Amazingly enough, the 70mm version has been seen on cable television while only the 35mm version has been released to video and DVD.
Another widescreen western was also produced the same year, Billy the Kid, starring Wallace Beery as Pat Garrett and Johnny Mack Brown as Billy the Kid. No widescreen prints of Billy the Kid survive, however, only a standard-width version shot simultaneously.
In December 2006 the film was recognized as a culturally, historically and aesthetically significant film by the National Film Registry [1]
[edit] Principal Cast
| Breck Coleman | John Wayne |
| Ruth Cameron | Marguerite Churchill |
| Gus, comical Swede | El Brendel |
| Zeke, Coleman's sidekick | Tully Marshall |
| Red Flack, wagon boss | Tyrone Power |
| Dave "Davey" Cameron | David Rollins |
| Pa Bascom | Frederick Burton |
| Bill Thorpe, Louisiana gambler | Ian Keith |
| Lopez, Flack's henchman | Charles Stevens |
| Gus's mother-in-law | Louise Carver |
| Indian Chief | John Big Tree |
| Sid Bascom | Ward Bond |
| Indian | Nino Cochise |
| Indian | Iron Eyes Cody |
[edit] Foreign language versions
A fairly common practice in the early sound era was to produce at least one foreign language version of a film for release in non-English speaking countries. There were at least four foreign language versions made of The Big Trail, using different casts and different character names:
- French: La Piste des géants (1931), directed by Pierre Couderc, starring Gaston Glass (Pierre Calmine), Jeanne Helbling (Denise Vernon), Margot Rousseroy (Yvette), Raoul Paoli (Flack), Louis Mercier (Lopez). La Piste des géants at the Internet Movie Database
- German: Die Große Fahrt (1931), directed by Lewis Seiler and Raoul Walsh, starring Theo Shall (Bill Coleman), Marion Lessing (Ruth Winter), Ullrich Haupt (Thorpe), Arnold Korff (Peter), Anders Van Haden (Bull Flack), Peter Erkelenz (Fichte), Paul Panzer (Lopez). Die Große Fahrt at the Internet Movie Database
- Italian: Title unknown, starring Franco Corsaro and Luisa Caselotti.[2]
- Spanish: La Gran jornada (1931), directed by David Howard, Samuel Schneider, and Raoul Walsh, starring Jorge Lewis (Raul Coleman), Carmen Guerrero (Isabel Prados), Roberto Guzmán (Tomas), Martin Garralaga (Martin), Al Ernest Garcia (Flack), Tito Davison (Daniel), Carlos Villarías[3] (Orena), Charles Stevens[4] (Lopez). La Gran jornada at the Internet Movie Database
[edit] Further reading
- Elyes, Allen. John Wayne. New York, NY. A.S. Barnes and Co., 1979.
[edit] References
- ^ Librarian of Congress Adds Home Movie, Silent Films and Hollywood Classics to Film Preservation List
- ^ Luisa Caselotti's younger sister, Adriana Caselotti, was the voice of Snow White in Walt Disney's animated classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).
- ^ Villarías is best known for playing the title character in the Spanish language version of Dracula (1931).
- ^ Stevens plays the same part in both the English and Spanish versions of The Big Trail.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- "Wide Film Cinematography:Some Comments on 70mm Camerawork From a Practical Cinematographer," Arthur Edeson, A.S.C., American Cinematographer - September, 1930
- The Big Trail at the Internet Movie Database
- The Big Trail at All Movie Guide
Image:United States film.png American films of the 1930s |
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