Customer Reviews

Wagon Wheels

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Great wagon train epic. Randolph Scott gets great support from many fine actors including sidekicks Raymond Hatton and Olin Howland. Fantastic theme song that will stick in your mind for days. A woman hating scout (Scott) and his two sidekicks lead a wagon train of easterners into Indian country. Major action scenes, pictures of the majestic wagons, romance, and Monte Blue as a half-breed villain you'll not soon forget. This is one you'll watch again and again.

I agree with the other reviewers, my only complaint is with the quality of the dvd. It is overly dark in some scenes, and the sound at times is hard to hear. Over all it is worth purchasing when you consider the price. The film contains stock footage from several Paramount movies including the Gary Cooper version entitled Fighting Caravans.

A well made film from 1934, this movie has everything a good western should have: a good guy wearing the white hat and a bad guy wearing the black, chivalry, campfire songs, humor, and a great cowboys v. indians shootout. This movie was ahead of it's time in 1934, and a pioneer to great westerns and action films that followed. This is a classic that was influential and should not be forgotten.

Wagon Wheels, 1934 film

The background to the credits has a picture of James K. Polk to date this around 1846. They talk about the settlement of Oregon. Nan wanted to go to Oregon. A family will leave Indiana, there is another from Tennessee. All hope for a better life in Oregon. They travel in a wagon train for mutual help and society. Each immigrant will get two sections of land for free. A single woman is rejected because she does not have the right equipment, a heavy wagon. Will this migration affect the fur traders? Will they try to stop it? The wagon train leaves Missouri on the Oregon Trail. [This film shows horses and mules. The real wagon trains used oxen, more powerful than horses and they could live off vegetation that would starve a horse. There was no tabu against eating cattle.] This group left on May 1, the traditional start of summer when grass was provided fodder for draft animals. Miss Abigail sings.

Men guard the wagons at night. The Santa Fe stage whizzes by at 6 miles an hour. This wagon train goes 12 miles all day. Roving bands of Indians attack them. One scout knows the arrow is not from a local Indian tribe. Some talk about turning back, but they will push on. They reach the snowy Rocky Mountains. "He's the sole survivor of that party." They descend the western side of the Rockies. Murdock arranges an attack on the wagon train. They heavy rains stops travel. Mud. But they must push on now. When they cross the river the Indians attack. [Note the use of post-Civil War pistols and rifles.] The wagon train fights off the attack. They arrive in Oregon at last. They must file on their claims for two sections of land. The Federal government helped people then. "But Abby, I can't write." They will stake their claims. There will be a happy ending in this new country.

"Jim Burch" was a bearded Raymond Hatton, better known in the "Rough Riders" series with Buck Jones and Tim McCoy. No comment on those two sisters. This was adapted from Zane Grey's novel "Fighting Caravans". It is a condensed and simplified version.

I knew this was a black and white flick, but because it is such an old movie, the quality of the film is terrible. It is very dark and hard to see the night scenes. The ordering process was great, no problem with that at all.

WAGON WHEELS (1934) - Randolph Scott, Gail Patrick, Billy Lee, Raymond Hatton, Monte Blue, Olin Howard

Handsome Randy is trail boss on the first 1844 caravan to Oregon. Very good Charles Barton recreation of the era, adapted from Zane Gray's "Fighting Caravans," has a lovely version of "Wagon Wheels" by The Guardsmen with an intro the Sons of the Pioneers never sang. Excellent fight sequences, night shots, costumes and equipage. With one or two more reels at the end, this hour film would've been a classic. Watch closely for Ann Sheridan's cameo. Presented by PARAMOUNT's Adolph Zukor.

Anything with Randolph Scott has to be good, and this is one of those classics, wish someone will remake this one with modern cinima.

WAGON WHEELS (1934) - Randolph Scott, Gail Patrick, Billy Lee, Raymond Hatton, Monte Blue, Olin Howard

Handsome Randy is trail boss on the first 1844 caravan to Oregon. Very good Charles Barton recreation of the era, adapted from Zane Grey's "Fighting Caravans," has a lovely version of "Wagon Wheels" by The Guardsmen with an intro the Sons of the Pioneers never sang. Excellent fight sequences, night shots, costumes and equipage. With one or two more reels at the end, this hour film would've been a classic. Watch closely for Ann Sheridan's cameo. Presented by PARAMOUNT's Adolph Zukor.

From the product description:

# Language: English
# Subtitles: Spanish

False. No Subtitles included.