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OPEN CLASSIC CINEMA · 548

The Iron Horse

1924150 minUnited States
Western
Video edition
Wikimedia Commons
Original language
No spoken dialogue. Intertitles: English.
This copy runs
149:21
Subtitles
No subtitle track in this language

Languages and subtitles

No subtitle track in this language

Wikimedia Commons · John Ford; The Iron Horse · Public domain

Synopsis

A surveyor's dream of a transcontinental railway survives his murder through the son who witnesses it. Years later, the young man joins the enormous undertaking to connect the continent. Rival interests, personal revenge and a renewed childhood attachment unfold as the competing construction crews approach their meeting point.

Cast

DirectorsJohn Ford

Behind the scenes

Fox backed John Ford's Western as a response to the success of The Covered Wagon. Extensive Nevada location work and a large workforce gave the railway construction physical scale. Its national-progress narrative reflects the era's selective view of settlement and Indigenous displacement.

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.

The public-domain references concern the original films in the United States. Rights can differ for other countries, editions, restorations, music or translations. Sources are listed on each film page.

Availability checked on September 13, 2026.

Photograph credit

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

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