The Telegraph Trail

1933

Action / Adventure / Drama / Western

2
IMDb Rating 5.8/10 10 712 712

indian uprising

Plot summary

A greedy businessman-turned-renegade foments an Indian uprising against the coming telegraph to perpetuate his economic stranglehold on the territory.

Director

Tenny Wright Photo
Tenny Wright

Top cast

John Wayne Photo
John Wayne as John Trent
Marceline Day Photo
Marceline Day as Alice Keller
Otis Harlan Photo
Otis Harlan as Uncle Zeke Keller
Ben Corbett Photo
Ben Corbett as Benny - Wagon Driver
720p.WEB
497.88 MB
960*720
English 2.0
NR
us  
29.97 fps
12 hr 53 min
Seeds 23

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Eventuallyequalsalways 6 / 10

More Comedy than Western

This kid-friendly Oater was obviously intended for the Saturday morning double-features which droves of kids attended in the 30's and 40's. Mom & Dad dropped you off while they did the weekly shopping and you had a double-feature, a couple of cartoons, a 3-Stooges short and a Movietone news to entertain you, all for a dime. I know because I saw hundreds of them. Anyway, about this picture, it pays very little homage to the so-called plot which involves something to do with the new invention of the telegraph bringing communication across the continent. It has hundreds of extras (they must have been cheap to hire in those days) dressed as settlers, cavalry or Indians backing up the star (John Wayne) and the requisite pretty lady played by Marceline Day. In those days, the studio executives must have been convinced that the Cowboy and his faithful horse sidekick (ala Roy Rogers and Trigger) was a winning formula, so they paired John Wayne with a beautiful white stallion named Duke. The major attraction of this movie is the continual series of sight gags and gaffes which we never noticed as kids. In one scene, John Wayne is on top of a telegraph pole sending a message back to the Fort and a crowd of 10-12 Indians rides up and begins shooting at him. Wayne pulls his trusty six-shooter, fires once, and kills the Indian with the headdress. THEN WAYNE PUTS HIS GUN BACK IN HIS HOLSTER! What kind of direction was that? Can you believe John Wayne ever quit fighting a hoard of enemies in his life? Well, he does in this movie. I guess it was because he wanted to wait until the Indians fired off a volley at him; this would allow him to pretend to be hit so that he could fall off the pole (ouch!) and fake his death. Naturally, the gullible Indians were fooled, so they rode off at an accelerated gallop (all the galloping scenes are speeded up about 20% to make things more exciting), and before they have gone 50 yards, we see John Wayne getting to his feet. Then we find out that he wanted the feathered headdress so he could strip off his shirt (showing the manly Wayne chest), don the headdress and, pretending to be an Indian, join the Indians attacking the settlers, and then slip through the line of wagons (in a circle, naturally) and reenter the camp where he can join up with the beautiful girl. Of course, he can't begin fighting the circling Indians until he ducks into a tent and grabs a beautiful fringed-leather shirt and puts it on. One must be properly dressed when fighting Indians! All in all, this movie is fun to watch and if you are an old codger like me, it will bring back lots of wonderful memories of all those Saturday mornings long ago.
Reviewed by Art-22 5 / 10

Some enjoyable intentional and unintentional comedy in this routine B-western with John Wayne.

This early John Wayne western has the frequently used plot of some baddies convincing indians that the white men are up to no good, in this case by building a telegraph line to connect the east and west. But I still had some fun watching it, mostly because of the comedy by both Frank McHugh and Otis Harlan. In their funniest scene, they get drunk while the indians are attacking and they are bleary-eyed enough to think one bullet fells as many as 8 indians. The scene itself, in the middle of a battle in which many are killed, indicates director Tenny Wright did not direct with a heavy hand; I sensed a light-hearted touch throughout, which was a welcome change from most of these westerns. I also laughed whenever some clichéd event occurred, such as the love interest, Marceline Day, overhearing the the baddies talking about the upcoming ambush and getting the information to Wayne. And Wayne's horse, Duke, enters the fight by kicking indians when he was in a tent and observes their silhouettes against the tent wall. No wonder he was billed second in the opening credits, but I still wondered how the other actors felt about being outbilled by a horse.
Reviewed by bkoganbing 7 / 10

Who Says Trigger's the Smartest Horse in the West

At this point in his career John Wayne was doing B films for Warner Brothers and it was decided to give him a smart horse like Roy Rogers's Trigger. And what do they name the horse? Duke. That's something Wayne must have had a hand in.Here John Wayne is an army scout and he gets Frank McHugh as an army corporal/telegrapher as sidekick. When a good friend of their's is killed while sending a message for help by wire during an Indian attack, these two are sent to take personal charge of the construction of the last leg of the telegraph.There's a nasty villain played by Frank Hagney who runs a shipping outfit and with his Indian friends wants to keep the telegraph out. How the telegraph would affect his business is never quite made clear, but this is a B western so plot holes back then were a pretty common occurrence.Wayne and McHugh are very effective together, too bad they never got to work together again. For those who've never seen the entire film, the last minute of The Telegraph Trail are seen in Footlight Parade in a scene where James Cagney is in a movie theater observing his competition as he's a director of stage musicals. Ironically enough Frank McHugh is also in the cast of Footlight Parade which makes one wonder how the Warner Brothers slipped up there.By the way, for the only time I can recall in any of his films, John Wayne sports a two gun holster. Butts reversed in the manner of Wild Bill Elliott. If anyone can recall another film he did like that, I'll correct this review. I would recommend The Telegraph Trail for Wayne fans to see how well he and Frank McHugh connect. Another twist in his career and Frank McHugh could have had a grand career as western sidekicks.
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