Wagon Tracks

Colorized Western Movie: Wagon Tracks - Buckskin Hamilton guides a wagon train across the wasteland, caring well for the pioneers he escorts, but hoping to solve the murder of his brother by one of the travellers.

Wagon Tracks (1919)
Director: Lambert Hillyer
Writers: C. Gardner Sullivan
Stars: William S. Hart, Jane Novak, Robert McKim
Genre: Adventure, Mystery, Western
Country: United States
Language: English
Release Date: July 29, 1919 (United States)
Filming Location: Sacramento River, Sacramento, California, USA(Photo caption)

Synopsis:
Desert guide Buckskin Hamilton learns that his brother Billy has been killed, supposedly by Jane Washburn in self-defense. As he leads a long wagon train, Buckskin suspects that Jane’s gambling brother Donald, and his confederate, Guy Merton, are responsible. When the entire train is put on short allowance in the desert, Buckskin shows tenderness for the helpless, and wins the admiration of Jane, who confesses that Billy did not annoy her. Buckskin forces Donald and Merton to walk in the desert until heat and thirst cause the crazed men to believe that Donald killed Billy. When an Indian is killed by an emigrant, the band of Indians demand a life for a life, and Buckskin selects Donald. Donald tries to escape and is killed by the Indians. The wagon train reaches its destination. Jane, who has grown to love Buckskin, tries to stop him from continuing the trail, but he carries out his duty, telling her that he may return someday.

Reviews:
“There is a great power in this movie. William S. Hart abandons his familiar cowboy gear to play the role of a Mountain Man guiding a wagon train across the west while trying to discover the truth about his young brother’s murder. If the language veers between the poetic scene-setting titles, and the eye-dialect dialogue, there is great strength in Joseph August’s photography and compositions.

More than that, in the context of the silent film, Hart is a great actor. A stage star, he understood that the camera catches the smallest movement of the eye, His gestures, while melodramatically overwrought, are never overly wide. He infuses the character with truth.

Perhaps this style of movie-making is a mystery to the modern movie-goer. When the shiphands sing ‘Weep No More, My Lady’, and the titles show the lyrics, they obviously have more importance than sound effects added by a Foley artist for artistic verisimilitude. Perhaps the melodramatic plots are as snicker-worthy as the sort of modern story in which villains commit murder for no discernible reason, but because they are crazed mass murderers, and the enforcers of the law catch them, not because it is their job, but because one of the victims is a relative and ‘this time it’s personal’ … but I don’t think so.

Both sorts of story are mythic in structure, telling us the truths we want to hear. It may well be that the modern movie-goer will have no patience for Hart’s movies in general and WAGON TRACKS in particular. If that is the case, alas, they are missing a fine story, beautifully told, with striking black and white photography. Their loss.”

• written by “boblipton” on IMDb.com
  

Also Known As (AKA):
(original title) Wagon Tracks
France La caravane
Germany Der Siedlertreck(DVD Title)
Germany Western Perlen 33 - Der Siedlertreck(DVD box title)
Japan 開拓者(Japanese)
Sweden Vägen till Santa Fé
United Kingdom Wagon Tracks
United States Wagon Tracks

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