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.
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.