George O'Brien
- Davy Brandon
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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
The synopsis and editorial text were written for this collection. The references below were cross-checked to identify the film and its copy; each editorial section identifies its reference.
Work catalogued as public domain in the United States.
The reference concerns the original work. Restorations, colorization, translations and other territories may have different conditions. This site uses the player enabled by the channel.
Availability checked on September 10, 2026.
Photograph credit
Photographs cropped, resized and optimized as WebP, displayed in monochrome.
- George O'Brien — Witzel · Public domain
- Madge Bellamy — Edwin Bower Hesser · Public domain
