The greatest movie ever made..!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Fairly ordinary 1860s Western tells a fictional account of how the Pony Express Mail Delivery System was founded, helped along by Buffalo Bill Cody (Charlton Heston) and Wild Bill Hickok (Forrest Tucker). A young Heston's determined and self-assured characterization makes for some enjoyment early on in the picture, though the second half becomes somewhat routine with typical "Cowboys and Indians" confrontations. Forrest Tucker doesn't invest as much in his Hickok personage. The leading women are Rhonda Fleming and Jan Sterling, both of whom are rivals who are sweet on Buffalo Bill. Sterling's is the more engaging of the two, and we can't help but feel sorry for her as the young tomboy whose infatuation for Heston goes unrequited. ** out of ****

Paramount's PONY EXPRESS (1953) is a reasonably good fifties western. Produced for the studio by Nat Holt - it was made the same year as their pivotal contribution to the genre "Shane". And while never reaching the lofty heights of Steven's classic it was competently written for the screen by Charles Marquis Warren. Glowingly photographed in Technicolor by veteran Ray Rennehan and directed with a certain flair by Jerry Hopper it was all played out by a well chosen cast in some handsome Utah locations.It is 1860 and Buffalo Bill Cody (Charlton Heston) and Wild Bill Hickok (Forrest Tucker) are sent to California to set up a Pony Express system that will deliver mail from St. Joe. Missouri to Sacramento in the inconceivable time of ten days beating the Stagecoach time by 16 days. Of course the Stagecoach relay station owners are not going to take this destruction of their business lying down and set out to prevent, by any and every means, this "high speed" service from ever getting off the ground. Not only must Cody and Hickok fight off many attacks by unscrupulous gangs working for the business men but also must keep the trail free for the express riders from marauding Sioux Indians whose chief Yellow Hand (Pat Hogan) has a long standing feud with Cody. The feud culminates in a fierce Tomahawk fight to the death with Cody being the victor. (This famous duel is not as well depicted here as it was in Fox's "Buffalo Bill" (1944) where Anthony Quinn as Yellow Hand and Cody (Joel McCrea) meet half-way across a river to do combat. It was a much more elaborate and exciting sequence.) However I suppose we have to be thankful it was included at all here in this version.Performances are generally OK across the board. Heston makes a likable Cody but Forrest Tucker's Wild Bill Hickok is somewhat underwritten and in his mode of dress he looks like he just stepped off the set for a Gene Autry or Roy Rogers B movie. This is really my only crib with the film. Neither leading character looks authentic enough! Cody's hair should have been longer and where was his familiar goatee beard? Hickok's hair is short back and sides which should have been shoulder length and he is without that famous handlebar moustache as well as the three quarter length skirt coat - things the famous frontiersman was known for. However after awhile you get used to the way they look. The female lead is played by the ravishing Rhonda Fleming. An actress of limited talent she really doesn't have much to do except stand around and do what she always did best.....simply look ravishing. Better is Jan Sterling as a feisty gun tottin' tomboy, (obviously loosely based on Calamity Jane) who has the hots for Cody and vies, not very successfully, with Fleming for his attention. The best things about the movie are some good shootouts with baddies and Indians and the exciting scenes of the Pony Express riders racing across the deserted plains.A memorable aspect of the picture is the fine score by Paul Sawtell. Sawtell was one of the busiest composers in Hollywood's Golden era. Born in Poland in 1906 he arrived in Hollywood in the forties and started scoring films at RKO Pictures. He had a voluminous output of over two hundred scores which crossed over all genres from Noirs like "Raw Deal" (1948) to the Tarzan films of the forties, the Randolph Scott westerns "Fighting Man Of The Plains" (1952) and "Comanche Station" (1960), war pictures such as "The Hunters" (1957) and the science fiction epic "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea" (1961). His main theme from the TV spin-off of the latter gained great popularity in the sixties. His score for PONY EXPRESS has a splendid main theme. First heard over the titles it is given some spirited variations throughout the picture and excitingly used in the closing scene as Cody, at full gallop, takes off on a mail delivery across a vast open plain. There is also a stately theme to underscore the colourful Indian sequences. Paul Sawtell died in 1971.PONY EXPRESS is not by any means a brilliant western but it is an enjoyable colourful oater that is worth watching and remains a fair addition to the genre's fifties output

Although the Pony Express, a mail service between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California, only operated for 18 months between April 1860 and October 1861, it has become part of the legend of the American West. Previous mail services had relied upon the stagecoach, but the Pony Express used relays of horse riders which made it during the brief period of its operation, before it was replaced by the telegraph, the fastest means of communication between California and the eastern states.The film, set in 1860, tells a highly fictionalised, historically inaccurate, account of the origins of the Pony Express. It credits the formation of the service to "Buffalo Bill" Cody and Wild Bill Hickok, two real-life western heroes. In reality, although both men (at least by their own accounts) rode for the Pony Express, neither of them played any part in its creation, and both were considerably younger than the characters portrayed here; Cody would only have been fourteen in 1860. Cody, Hickok and their men have to battle not only hostile Indians but also separatists who are promoting California's secession from the United States and who try to sabotage the mail service in order to achieve this end. There is also a love-triangle involving Cody, his girlfriend Denny Russell, and Evelyn Hastings, the beautiful sister of one of the separatist leaders.This was one of Charlton Heston's early films, made at a time when he had not yet established himself as a major star, and it is far from being one of his best. Although there are some decent action sequences, "Pony Express" never really rises above the level of the average Western. One reviewer describes Charles Marquis Warren as one of the worst western scriptwriters. I will not comment on the general truth of that allegation, as I have only seen two films for which he is credited as writer, but I must say that both of those films are mediocre ones. (The other was "Only the Valiant"). The script for "Pony Express" is a poor one; the story, especially towards the end, is difficult to follow and the sudden tragic ending to a romantic action/adventure film strikes a jarring note. As was common (although not universal) in Westerns from this period, "Only he Valiant" being another example, the Indians are cast as villains with no attempt to understand their point of view, and the importance of the Pony Express is perhaps over-emphasised; it is hard to credit, as we are asked to accept here, that California could have been persuaded to take the momentous step of seceding from the Union by the late arrival of a mail delivery. 5/10

Does anyone remember The Young Riders television series? Though that one got into the never never land of our old west mythology eventually at least it got it right about one thing. The Pony Express riders were in fact young teenage boys. William F. Cody was all of 13 when he was riding for them. James Butler Hickok, later nicknamed Wild Bill, was in his early twenties. So when we see Charlton Heston doing all he's doing as Buffalo Bill in this film Pony Express, he's really playing a thirteen year old living out a fantasy dream of having both Rhonda Fleming and Jan Sterling chasing him.Pony Express may in fact be one of the last of that grand tradition of B westerns where famous characters from the American frontier are taken and put into plots that had nothing to do with reality. Cody's famous fight with Cheyenne chief Yellow Hand is also included here although that in fact took place in the 1870s not in 1860.In this film, Charlton Heston and Forrest Tucker as Wild Bill Hickok stumble upon a plot to detach California from the United States while the north and south sectional conflict edges closer to civil war. Part of that plan is stop the Pony Express and its promise of quick mail delivery. Rhonda Fleming's brother is part of the dastardly scheme and Jan Sterling plays a Calamity Jane like character who has eyes for Cody, but Cody has them for Fleming.This film also marked the farewell appearance of Porter Hall who has a small role as another frontier character, legendary mountain man Jim Bridger. It's possible that Bridger, Cody, and Hickok may have all met at the same time, but I doubt it was under the circumstances shown.Don't let the A list cast fool you. What you have in Pony Express is one of that dying group of B westerns which were getting a new life on television at this time.