I saw this for the first time recently.
The film is about a caring desert guide Hamilton (William S. Hart) who has been hired to lead passengers across a dangerous desert.
Hamilton is awaiting a train which has the passengers n also his younger brother who is a doctor.
Unknown to Hamilton, a crooked gambler has killed his younger brother on the train n made it look like an accident.
The gambler has convinced his sister that the accident happened due to her.
Hamilton guides the passengers including the murderer across the desert hoping to solve the murder of his brother.
The film has some top notch cinematography n acting, ther r no shootouts but a picture of a gun keeps popping up on the screen whenever ther is a talk about the murder.
Also the torture by the Red Indians is implied while they keep dancing around the fire the whole night.
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dglink22 March 2017A tidy western from the early days of silent films, "Wagon Tracks" stars William S. Hart as a buckskin-clad scout for a wagon train crossing the plains to Santa Fe. As Buckskin Hamilton, Hart pursues the truth behind the shooting death of his younger brother on a Mississippi river boat. Conveniently, the suspects and witnesses to the killing are traveling with Hamilton on the same wagon train. The plot is simplistic, the inter-titles border on florid, and the villain wears black and sports a dark mustache.
Made before the heights of silent film-making in the mid-1920's, "Wagon Tracks" is close to what many consider a typical silent film. The interior backdrops appear fake and flimsy, the acting is at times over-wrought, men are men, and women are, well, the weaker sex. Despite the age-related flaws, the nearly century-old film is worthwhile for many reasons. Among them, fine location photography, appropriate tinting to reflect time of day, and a formidable silent western star, William S. Hart. While not matinée-idol handsome, Hart was the epitome of the strong silent type, who preferred his horse over women, and, as Hamilton, his performance is not above showing emotion or nuance. Robert McKim is an appropriately dastardly villain, Lloyd Bacon is a weakling accomplice, and Jane Novak the easily manipulated female lead.
While "Wagon Tracks" is not a film to introduce silent movies to a new audience, this short western with a legendary star is a good follow-up for those who have sampled silent cinema and want to explore more films of the pre-sound era. -
kidboots1 September 2014William S. Hart had a habit of proposing to his leading ladies and Jane Novak was no exception. Part of her attraction may have been that she was more interested in appearing in wholesome family films than the more sensational roles on offer. That seemed to fit in with Hart's Victorian views on women but although she appeared with him in five films and was at one time engaged to him, a marriage never took place.
Jane Washburn (Novak) is convinced she murdered Billy Hamilton in a struggle with a gun. Her brother Donald (good old Robert McKimm) puts the story about that she was fighting for her honour and in her dazed state she believes him, but the reality is the men were fighting in a crooked game of cards. Billy found them out and the fight broke out. Buckskin Hamilton (Hart), Billy's brother, who is down at the docks to meet him on the paddle boat sees through the old "death before dishonour" gambit. The titles are beautiful - "velvet nights and purple - ", "the race against the sun with the toiling blistered wagons" - Hart's titles are often complicated and florid but here they are stripped away and only the beauty remains.
They have joined a wagon train and Buck's natural leadership qualities have him voted the wagon master. Observing Buck on the journey, cheerfully giving his water ration to his horse and dogs, Jane begins to realise what a "real man" is like and courageously tells the truth about his brother. The critics of the day thought the mood was a lot darker than the usual Hart and indicated that "manly" Americans would look down on the overdone dramatics. I think this is one of Hart's best combining the emotional acting - when he realises his brother has been killed and by a young, innocent girl, with a gripping tale of revenge.
"I'm leavin' tonight with two men - mebbe we'll come back, mebbe we won't"!! He takes the two men out into the desert determined to make them half crazed with thirst and heat so they will confess their crime. Meanwhile back at the wagon train there has been a fatal shooting of an Indian who was admiring a scarf. They demand a life for a life and Buck, now returned, gives the guilty man the choice between death at his own hands or fronting up to the Indian party.
One of Hart's best. -
briantaves30 October 2011WAGON TRACKS is an odd merger of a larger theme with a minor story, an epic crammed into five reels. William S. Hart continued under producer Thomas Ince, as I outline in my Ince biography, and in this case making a film that director Lambert Hillyer claimed led to Paramount's THE COVERED WAGON in 1923. The intertitles are filled with the soaring rhetoric of the pioneering spirit, looking to the future on the sand-rimmed trail of the Santa Fe. Complimenting the intertitles is some memorable outdoors photography as Hart guides a wagon train west.
The plot concerns how Hart, as Buckskin Hamilton, learns how his brother has been killed, and vows revenge. He refuses to believe the sweet-faced woman who claims responsibility and says it was an act of self-defence. Watching Burckskin share his water first with his horse and dog, and singing a lullaby to a baby, transforms her expectations of men. She realizes for the first time "what true manhood means," for her brother and fiancée are both cads who cheat at cards.
She reveals that it was in this way that Buckskin's brother was shot. He hauls out both the cardsharks into the desert, enduring the heat with them until they turn on each other and disclose the truth. Returning to the camp, her brother is killed by Indians demanding a sacrifice, although Buckskin tried to save him. When they arrive at their destination, there is no happy ending. Hart, the guide, is as alone amidst the west as he had been in the opening, returning back to guide another wagon train. -
scsu197529 November 2022Buckskin Hamilton sets off to meet a boat carrying his kid brother Billy. Other passengers on the boat include Washburn, Washburn's sister Jane, and Washburn's partner Merton. Billy catches Washburn cheating at cards. Billy and Washburn struggle over a gun, with Jane interceding. Washburn shoots Billy, but makes Jane think she did it. Buckskin arrives to find his brother dead, and Jane confesses she shot him by accident. Buckskin is not convinced of her story. He directs a wagon train, with Washburn, Jane, and Merton along for the trip. Buckskin manages to wrangle the real story out of Washburn and Merton, and the villain is punished.
This is a solid western, with some nice photography. Scenes were shot in the Mojave Desert, and the Sacramento River stood in for the Mississippi River. For a change, there is no love story to weigh down the plot. Hart is just a wee bit over the top in a few scenes, but is very convincing when he shows grief at his brother's death. His best scenes are when he takes Washburn and Merton into the desert, to make them crack.
Jane Novak, as Jane, is quite lovely. Robert McKim, as Washburn, and future director Lloyd Bacon, as Merton, lend excellent support. This is definitely a film worth seeing. -
boblipton17 September 2002There 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. -
If you wish to view a complete, beautifully tinted print of this movie, your goal is Unknown Video. This original print runs 78 minutes, versus the Kodascope cutdown of 64 minutes. Superbly photographed on location by Joe August, and boasting a charismatic support cast headed by the lovely Jane Novak and also including none other than later movie director Lloyd Bacon as the villain, "Wagon Tracks" is not only stunningly directed on real locations by Lambert Hillyer, but superbly photographed by Joseph August. This expensively produced movie really grips the viewer from start to finish. It's a shame the complete 78 minutes version is no longer available and even worse that current prints are not tinted, as was the original movie and the Unknown Video DVD.
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bsmith555221 March 2017"Wagon Tracks" is basically a covered wagon film featuring the legendary William S. Hart.
"Buckskin" Hamilton (Hart) a frontiersman, is headed east to meet up with his younger brother Billy (Leo Pierson) who has just graduated medical school. Billy has gotten himself into a poker game on a river boat with gamblers David Washburn (Robert McKim) and Guy Merton (Lloyd Bacon). Billy catches Washburn cheating and in the ensuing struggle is shot dead. Washburn's sister Jane (the lovely Jane Novak) who was present is convinced by her brother that she pulled the trigger during the struggle.
Buckskin arrives and learns of the tragedy but has his doubts about the guilt of the young and innocent looking Jane. As it happens all four principles are travelling west on the same wagon train. Buckskin is recommended Captain of the train by fellow frontiersman Brick Muldoon (Bert Sprotte).
Buckskin suspects that one of the two gamblers is responsible for his brother's death. Along the way, one of the wagons carrying half of the train's water is wrecked and the train is forced to ration the remaining water. Later the train is visited by a group of Indians and one of their number is shot down by a pioneer believing that Jane is in danger. The Chief demands an "eye for an eye" otherwise the they will attack.
During all of this, Buckskin decides to force his brother's killer to reveal himself. He forces Washburn and Merton to "take a walk" with him across the wasteland thereby forcing the innocent man to reveal the true killer. But then...............................................
Hart was known for the authenticity in his films. His costume was probably an authentic costume of the times. The other principles are equally realistically costumed. I'm not certain, but this film could have been the first covered wagon film pre-dating "The Covered Wagon" by four years.
Although Hart was romantically involved with Novak at the time, there is no romance as such in this story. There is little action outside of the murder and the finale of the film. And, whatever happened to the Indian attack?