The Big Trail
Encyclopedia
The Big Trail is a lavish early widescreen
movie shot on location across the American West
starring John Wayne
in his first leading role and directed by Raoul Walsh
.
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
.
, which from the early 1840s to 1869 was the main overland route from Missouri to the Pacific Northwest. Breck Coleman (John Wayne
) is a young trapper who just got back to Missouri from his travels near Santa Fe, seeking to avenge the death of an old trapper friend who was killed the winter before along the Santa Fe Trail
for his furs, by Red Flack (Tyrone Power, Sr.
) and his minion Lopez (Charles Stevens
). At a large trading post owned by a man named Wellmore, Coleman sees Flack and suspects him right away as being one of the killers. Flack likewise suspects Coleman as being somebody who knows too much about the killing. Coleman is asked by a large group of settlers to scout their caravan west, and declines, until he learns that Flack and Lopez were just hired by Wellmore to boss a bull train along the as-yet-unblazed Oregon Trail to a trading post north of Oregon, owned by another Missouri fur trader. Coleman agrees to scout for the train, so he can keep an eye on the villains and kill them as soon as they reach their destination. The caravan of settlers in their Prairie schooners would follow Wellmore's ox-drawn train of Conestoga Wagon
s, as the first major group of settlers to move west on the Oregon Trail. The action takes place between 1837 and 1845. This is historically accurate, as the first major wave of settlers on the Oregon Trail was in 1843 (though the details were completely different).
Coleman finds love with young Ruth Cameron (Marguerite Churchill
), whom he'd kissed accidentally, mistaking her for somebody else. Unwilling to accept her attraction toward him, Ruth gets rather close to a gambler acquaintances of Flack's, Thorpe (Ian Keith
), who joined the trail after being caught gambling. Coleman and Flack have to lead the settlers west, while Flack does everything he can to have Coleman killed before he finds any proof of what he'd done. The three villains' main reason for going west is to avoid the hangman's noose for previous crimes, and all three receive frontier justice instead. The settlers trail ends in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, where Coleman and Ruth finally settle down together amidst giant redwoods.
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 would not 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
-western
s). It would take another nine years—and the film Stagecoach—to return Wayne to mainstream movies. Actor Ward Bond
had a minor role in the film that had him on camera for much of the movie and foreshadowed many future appearances in Wayne projects, especially in films
directed by John Ford
. Bond developed a successful career playing character roles and later portrayed wagonmaster Seth Adams in the similarly themed TV Western Wagon Train
. Bond, basically an extra
in The Big Trail, can be seen somewhere in the frame in an extraordinary number of scenes.
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 better than widescreen because no special equipment was needed to view color films whereas theatres needed to buy special projectors and screens to project widescreen films.
Late in 1930, however, when the effects of the Depression were 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 movie's scenes were often filmed at very different angles for the widescreen and standard releases, with the best angles reserved for the widescreen version. A good example is the scene of Breck Coleman talking with the children, the same sequence simultaneously shot from starkly different angles.
The wagon train drive across the country was pioneering in its use of camera work 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 2,000 mile trek.
In the early 1980s, the Museum of Modern Art
in New York City
, which housed the 65mm nitrate camera negative for The Big Trail, wanted to preserve the film but found that the negative was too shrunken and fragile to be copied and that no film lab would touch it. They went to Karl Malkames, an accomplished cinematographer and a leading specialist and pioneer in film reproduction, restoration, and preservation. Malkames was known to be a “problem solver” when it came to restoring early odd-gauge format films. He immediately set about designing and building a special printer to handle the careful frame-by-frame reproduction of the negative to a 35mm anamorphic (CinemaScope
) fine grain master. The printer copied at a speed of one frame a second. This was a painstaking year-long undertaking that Malkames oversaw from start to finish. It is solely because of him that this film survives in this version.
The 70mm version was seen on cable television
at a time when only the 35mm version had been released to VHS
and DVD
. A two-disc DVD was released in the US on May 13, 2008, containing both versions. This movie comes on Fox Movie Channel sometimes.
Another widescreen western was also produced the same year, Billy the Kid
, starring John Mack Brown
as Billy the Kid
and Wallace Beery
as Pat Garrett
. No widescreen prints of Billy the Kid survive; only a standard-width version shot simultaneously remains.
In the editing of the films, some scenes were edited out for one version but allowed to remain in the other version. The 35mm version was edited to be shorter (108 minutes rather than 122 minutes), so many scenes in the 70mm version are not found in the 35mm film. However, there are a few scenes in the 35mm version not found in the 70mm.
The 70mm version has been released on VHS as well as DVD in its widescreen original, but also reformatted to fit a traditional TV screen, despite the availability of the 35mm version which is closer to that format. The 35mm version is included along with the 70mm version in the 2008 2-disc DVD release.
the dialogue. There were at least four foreign language versions made of The Big Trail, using different casts and different character names:
Widescreen
Widescreen images are a variety of aspect ratios used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than the standard 1.37:1 Academy aspect ratio provided by 35mm film....
movie shot on location across the American West
Western United States
.The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time...
starring John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
in his first leading role and directed by Raoul Walsh
Raoul Walsh
Raoul Walsh was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the brother of silent screen actor George Walsh...
.
In 2006, the United States Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
deemed this film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
.
Plot
The story is about a large caravan of settlers in the very earliest days of the Oregon TrailOregon Trail
The Oregon Trail is a historic east-west wagon route that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon and locations in between.After 1840 steam-powered riverboats and steamboats traversing up and down the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers sped settlement and development in the flat...
, which from the early 1840s to 1869 was the main overland route from Missouri to the Pacific Northwest. Breck Coleman (John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
) is a young trapper who just got back to Missouri from his travels near Santa Fe, seeking to avenge the death of an old trapper friend who was killed the winter before along the Santa Fe Trail
Santa Fe Trail
The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century transportation route through central North America that connected Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1822 by William Becknell, it served as a vital commercial and military highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880...
for his furs, by Red Flack (Tyrone Power, Sr.
Tyrone Power, Sr.
Frederick Tyrone Edmond Power was an English-born American stage and screen actor, who acted under the name Tyrone Power.-Early life:Power was born in London in 1869, the son of Harold Littledale Power and Ethel Lavenu...
) and his minion Lopez (Charles Stevens
Charles Stevens (actor)
Charles Stevens was an American actor.The grandson of Geronimo, Stevens appeared in nearly 200 films between 1915 and 1961...
). At a large trading post owned by a man named Wellmore, Coleman sees Flack and suspects him right away as being one of the killers. Flack likewise suspects Coleman as being somebody who knows too much about the killing. Coleman is asked by a large group of settlers to scout their caravan west, and declines, until he learns that Flack and Lopez were just hired by Wellmore to boss a bull train along the as-yet-unblazed Oregon Trail to a trading post north of Oregon, owned by another Missouri fur trader. Coleman agrees to scout for the train, so he can keep an eye on the villains and kill them as soon as they reach their destination. The caravan of settlers in their Prairie schooners would follow Wellmore's ox-drawn train of Conestoga Wagon
Conestoga wagon
The Conestoga wagon is a heavy, broad-wheeled covered wagon that was used extensively during the late 18th century and the 19th century in the United States and sometimes in Canada as well. It was large enough to transport loads up to 8 tons , and was drawn by horses, mules or oxen...
s, as the first major group of settlers to move west on the Oregon Trail. The action takes place between 1837 and 1845. This is historically accurate, as the first major wave of settlers on the Oregon Trail was in 1843 (though the details were completely different).
Coleman finds love with young Ruth Cameron (Marguerite Churchill
Marguerite Churchill
Marguerite Churchill was an American movie actress with a film career spanning from 1929 to 1952.She was daughter of a producer who owned a chain of theaters but he died when she was ten years old. She was educated in New York at the Professional Children's School and the Theatre Guild Dramatic...
), whom he'd kissed accidentally, mistaking her for somebody else. Unwilling to accept her attraction toward him, Ruth gets rather close to a gambler acquaintances of Flack's, Thorpe (Ian Keith
Ian Keith
-Life and career:Born Keith Ross in Boston, Massachusetts, Ian Keith was a veteran character actor of the legitimate theater, and appeared in a variety of colorful roles in silent features of the 1920s. His stage training made him a natural choice for the new "talking pictures"; he played John...
), who joined the trail after being caught gambling. Coleman and Flack have to lead the settlers west, while Flack does everything he can to have Coleman killed before he finds any proof of what he'd done. The three villains' main reason for going west is to avoid the hangman's noose for previous crimes, and all three receive frontier justice instead. The settlers trail ends in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, where Coleman and Ruth finally settle down together amidst giant redwoods.
Cast
- John WayneJohn WayneMarion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
as Breck Coleman - Marguerite ChurchillMarguerite ChurchillMarguerite Churchill was an American movie actress with a film career spanning from 1929 to 1952.She was daughter of a producer who owned a chain of theaters but he died when she was ten years old. She was educated in New York at the Professional Children's School and the Theatre Guild Dramatic...
as Ruth Cameron - El BrendelEl BrendelEl Brendel was a vaudeville comedian turned movie star, best remembered for his dialect schtick as a Swedish immigrant. His biggest role was as "Single-0" in the sci-fi musical Just Imagine , produced by Fox Film Corporation...
as Gus, a comical Swede - Tully MarshallTully MarshallWilliam Phillips was an American character actor known as Tully Marshall, with nearly a quarter century of theatrical experience behind before he made his first film appearance in 1914.-Career:...
as Zeke, Coleman's sidekick - Tyrone Power, Sr.Tyrone Power, Sr.Frederick Tyrone Edmond Power was an English-born American stage and screen actor, who acted under the name Tyrone Power.-Early life:Power was born in London in 1869, the son of Harold Littledale Power and Ethel Lavenu...
as Red Flack, wagon boss - David Rollins as Dave "Davey" Cameron
- Frederick BurtonFrederick Burton (actor)Frederick Burton , was an American actor. He appeared in 122 films between 1914 and 1947.He was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA and died in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles...
as Pa Bascom - Ian KeithIan Keith-Life and career:Born Keith Ross in Boston, Massachusetts, Ian Keith was a veteran character actor of the legitimate theater, and appeared in a variety of colorful roles in silent features of the 1920s. His stage training made him a natural choice for the new "talking pictures"; he played John...
as Bill Thorpe, Louisiana gambler - Charles StevensCharles Stevens (actor)Charles Stevens was an American actor.The grandson of Geronimo, Stevens appeared in nearly 200 films between 1915 and 1961...
as Lopez, Flack's henchman - Louise CarverLouise CarverLouise Carver was an American actress who performed in grand opera, stage, nickelodeon, and motion pictures.-Biography:...
as Gus's mother-in-law - John Big Tree as Indian Chief
- Ward BondWard BondWardell Edwin "Ward" Bond was an American film actor whose rugged appearance and easygoing charm were featured in over 200 movies and the television series Wagon Train.-Early life:...
as Sid Bascom - Nino Cochise as Indian
- Iron Eyes CodyIron Eyes CodyIron Eyes Cody was an American actor. He frequently portrayed American Indians in Hollywood films. In 1995, Cody was honored by the American Indian community for his work publicizing the plight of Native Americans, including his acting in films...
as Indian
Production
Filming began in April 1930. During production, John Wayne fell sick from dysenteryDysentery
Dysentery is an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery can be fatal.There are differences between dysentery and normal bloody diarrhoea...
and was nearly replaced as the lead.
Legend has it that the director Raoul Walsh
Raoul Walsh
Raoul Walsh was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the brother of silent screen actor George Walsh...
had co-star Tyrone Power, Sr.
Tyrone Power, Sr.
Frederick Tyrone Edmond Power was an English-born American stage and screen actor, who acted under the name Tyrone Power.-Early life:Power was born in London in 1869, the son of Harold Littledale Power and Ethel Lavenu...
almost beaten to death for forcing himself on the leading lady, Marguerite Churchill
Marguerite Churchill
Marguerite Churchill was an American movie actress with a film career spanning from 1929 to 1952.She was daughter of a producer who owned a chain of theaters but he died when she was ten years old. She was educated in New York at the Professional Children's School and the Theatre Guild Dramatic...
. Power would die just a year later from a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
.
Although the 23-year-old Wayne delivered an intriguing and charismatic performance as wagon train
Wagon train
A wagon train is a group of wagons traveling together. In the American West, individuals traveling across the plains in covered wagons banded together for mutual assistance, as is reflected in numerous films and television programs about the region, such as Audie Murphy's Tumbleweed and Ward Bond...
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 would not change over due to the encroachments of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. After making The Big Trail, Wayne found stardom only in low-budget serials and features (mostly B
B movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
-western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
s). It would take another nine years—and the film Stagecoach—to return Wayne to mainstream movies. Actor Ward Bond
Ward Bond
Wardell Edwin "Ward" Bond was an American film actor whose rugged appearance and easygoing charm were featured in over 200 movies and the television series Wagon Train.-Early life:...
had a minor role in the film that had him on camera for much of the movie and foreshadowed many future appearances in Wayne projects, especially in films
Wagon Master
Wagon Master is a 1950 Western film directed by John Ford and starring Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr., Joanne Dru, and Ward Bond.-Plot:Learning of their ability as experienced horsemen, Mormon Elder Wiggs , hires Travis Blue and Sandy Owens to guide a small group of Mormons across the West to the...
directed by John Ford
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
. Bond developed a successful career playing character roles and later portrayed wagonmaster Seth Adams in the similarly themed TV Western Wagon Train
Wagon Train
Wagon Train is an American Western series that ran on NBC from 1957–62 and then on ABC from 1962–65...
. Bond, basically an extra
Extra (actor)
A background actor or extra is a performer in a film, television show, stage, musical, opera or ballet production, who appears in a nonspeaking, nonsinging or nondancing capacity, usually in the background...
in The Big Trail, can be seen somewhere in the frame in an extraordinary number of scenes.
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
Fox Movietone Follies of 1929
Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 was a black-and-white and color American musical film released by Fox Film Corporation.-Preservation status:...
. Widescreen, along with Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
, 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 better than widescreen because no special equipment was needed to view color films whereas theatres needed to buy special projectors and screens to project widescreen films.
Late in 1930, however, when the effects of the Depression were 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 movie's scenes were often filmed at very different angles for the widescreen and standard releases, with the best angles reserved for the widescreen version. A good example is the scene of Breck Coleman talking with the children, the same sequence simultaneously shot from starkly different angles.
The wagon train drive across the country was pioneering in its use of camera work 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 2,000 mile trek.
In the early 1980s, the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, which housed the 65mm nitrate camera negative for The Big Trail, wanted to preserve the film but found that the negative was too shrunken and fragile to be copied and that no film lab would touch it. They went to Karl Malkames, an accomplished cinematographer and a leading specialist and pioneer in film reproduction, restoration, and preservation. Malkames was known to be a “problem solver” when it came to restoring early odd-gauge format films. He immediately set about designing and building a special printer to handle the careful frame-by-frame reproduction of the negative to a 35mm anamorphic (CinemaScope
CinemaScope
CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...
) fine grain master. The printer copied at a speed of one frame a second. This was a painstaking year-long undertaking that Malkames oversaw from start to finish. It is solely because of him that this film survives in this version.
The 70mm version was seen on cable television
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
at a time when only the 35mm version had been released to VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
and DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
. A two-disc DVD was released in the US on May 13, 2008, containing both versions. This movie comes on Fox Movie Channel sometimes.
Another widescreen western was also produced the same year, Billy the Kid
Billy the Kid (1930 film)
Billy the Kid is a 1930 American film directed in widescreen by King Vidor about the relationship between frontier outlaw Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett , the man who later killed him.-Cast:...
, starring John Mack Brown
Johnny Mack Brown
Johnny Mack Brown was an All-American college football player and film actor originally billed as John Mack Brown at the height of his screen career.-Early life:...
as Billy the Kid
Billy the Kid
William H. Bonney William H. Bonney William H. Bonney (born William Henry McCarty, Jr. est. November 23, 1859 – c. July 14, 1881, better known as Billy the Kid but also known as Henry Antrim, was a 19th-century American gunman who participated in the Lincoln County War and became a frontier...
and Wallace Beery
Wallace Beery
Wallace Fitzgerald Beery was an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Bill in Min and Bill opposite Marie Dressler, as Long John Silver in Treasure Island, as Pancho Villa in Viva Villa!, and his titular role in The Champ, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor...
as Pat Garrett
Pat Garrett
Patrick Floyd "Pat" Garrett was an American Old West lawman, bartender, and customs agent who was best known for killing Billy the Kid...
. No widescreen prints of Billy the Kid survive; only a standard-width version shot simultaneously remains.
Two versions
Beyond the format difference, the 70mm and 35mm versions vary substantially from each other. They were shot by different cameras, and footage for each format was edited separately in the cutting room. Some scenes were shot simultaneously by both cameras, the only difference being the angle (with the better angle usually given to the 70mm camera). Some scenes were shot first by one camera, and then retaken with the other camera. The 70mm cameras could not focus well up close, so the shots were mainly panoramas with very few close-ups. The 35mm cameras could move in and focus at short distances. Thus scenes in the 70mm version might show two characters talking to each other in the same take, while in the 35mm would have close-up shots cutting back and forth between the two characters.In the editing of the films, some scenes were edited out for one version but allowed to remain in the other version. The 35mm version was edited to be shorter (108 minutes rather than 122 minutes), so many scenes in the 70mm version are not found in the 35mm film. However, there are a few scenes in the 35mm version not found in the 70mm.
The 70mm version has been released on VHS as well as DVD in its widescreen original, but also reformatted to fit a traditional TV screen, despite the availability of the 35mm version which is closer to that format. The 35mm version is included along with the 70mm version in the 2008 2-disc DVD release.
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, an approach later replaced by simply dubbingDubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
the dialogue. 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 (19311931 in film-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:*Best Picture: Cimarron - MGM*Best Actor: Lionel Barrymore - A Free Soul*Best Actor: Wallace Beery - The Champ*Best Actor: Fredric March - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde...
), directed by Pierre Couderc, starring Gaston Glass (Pierre Calmine), Jeanne Helbling (Denise Vernon), Margot Rousseroy (Yvette), Raoul Paoli (Flack), Louis Mercier (Lopez).
- German: Die Große Fahrt (1931), directed by Lewis Seiler and Raoul WalshRaoul WalshRaoul Walsh was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the brother of silent screen actor George 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).
- Italian: Il grande sentiero (1931), starring Franco Corsaro and Luisa Caselotti.
- Spanish: La Gran jornada (1931), directed by David Howard, Samuel Schneider, and Raoul WalshRaoul WalshRaoul Walsh was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the brother of silent screen actor George Walsh...
, starring Jorge LewisGeorge J. LewisGeorge J. Lewis was a Mexican-born actor who appeared in many films and eventually TV series from the 1920s through the 1960s, usually specializing in westerns...
(Raul Coleman), Carmen Guerrero (Isabel Prados), Roberto Guzmán (Tomas), Martin Garralaga (Martin), Al Ernest Garcia (Flack), Tito Davison (Daniel), Carlos Villarías (Orena), Charles Stevens (Lopez).
Further reading
- Elyes, Allen. John Wayne. South Brunswick, N.J.: A.S. Barnes and Co., 1979. ISBN 0498024873.
External links
- Magnified Grandeur - The Big Screen, 1926-31, David Coles, 2001
- "Wide Film Cinematography: Some Comments on 70mm Camerawork From a Practical Cinematographer", Arthur Edeson, A.S.C., American CinematographerAmerican CinematographerAmerican Cinematographer is a monthly magazine published by the American Society of Cinematographers.American Cinematographer focuses on the art and craft of cinematography, going behind the scenes on domestic and international productions of all shapes and sizes...
, September 1930. - The Big Trail at Rotten TomatoesRotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...