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OPEN CLASSIC CINEMA · 519

The Covered Wagon

192398 minUnited States
Western
Video edition
YouTube
Original language
No spoken dialogue. Intertitles: English.
This copy runs
97:50
Subtitles
No subtitle track in this language

Languages and subtitles

No subtitle track in this language

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Synopsis

Two wagon trains join for the difficult journey from Kansas to Oregon. Rival scouts compete for leadership and for a young woman's affection while hunger, weather and conflict strain the settlers. News of gold in California threatens to divide the caravan, testing the authority of a guide whose own past remains under suspicion.

Cast

DirectorsJames Cruze

Inspirations

James Cruze adapted Emerson Hough's novel as a large-scale account of westward migration. The production helped establish the epic Western as a major studio attraction, while its settler-centred view treats Indigenous resistance through the conventions of the period.

Sources and availability

General references identify the work and its copy. A reference beside an editorial section is linked to the claims checked in that section.

Wikipedia — film referenceDuke Center for the Study of the Public Domain — US term reference

Work catalogued as public domain in the United States.

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Availability checked on September 10, 2026.

Photograph credit

Photographs cropped, resized and optimized as WebP, displayed in monochrome.

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