This is a largely fictional account of Ramsay MacKay (McCrea) who rises from a humble wagon driver in pre-Civil War New York state to become, after much travail, one of the Vice Presidents of Wells Fargo, the Butterfield Overland Stage Company, American Express, the Bank of America, the Ford Motor Company, AT&T, American Airlines, Ben and Jerry's, and Microsoft Corporation. Yes, he reaches dizzying heights.
But it costs him dearly over the years. He marries Frances Dee and is alienated from her by the conflict between the Union, for which he works, and the Confederacy, which is her homeland. It takes more than ten years just so straighten that ONE misunderstanding out so the movie can end happily. And there are plenty other misunderstandings and deaths along the way.
The movie fits into the end of a genre, which might be called the rough-hewn biography of an individual or a corporation. The genre flourished in the 30s. There were stories of Reuters, Lloyds of London, Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch, Walter Reed and others. Those were more or less historical. Some were completely fictional, like Howard Hawks' "Come And Get It." They were all pretty much the same -- simple and entertaining -- except that, I guess, "Citizen Kane" fits in there somewhere too.
Joel McCrea is as likable as ever. It's not his fault that I always have to look up the spelling of his last name. He married his co-star here, Frances Dee, and they stayed married for some fifty-seven years. Lucky Joel. She really sparkles and looked just fine well into middle age.
I wish this had come off better than it did. I can't quite pin down the reasons why it's less satisfying than others of its type. I suppose, for one thing, the editing is really clumsy. A stagecoach rushes into a town and the citizens turn out to cheer its arrival. And I swear that for several minutes I couldn't figure out whether we were in San Francisco or St. Louis. The actual BUSINESS of Wells Fargo isn't made clear enough. The telegraph lines figure prominently but seem to have nothing to do with the rest of the movie. Butterfield's Overland Stage and the Pony Express are worked adventitiously into the plot. Lloyd Nolan shows up and then promptly disappears. We see quite a lot of Mister Wells but I can't remember meeting Mister Fargo, although he's in there somewhere because he's listed in the credits. In 1868, Mister Wells was generous enough to build a college for ladies in the Finger Lakes Region of New York.
No reflection on any of the actors. For the most part they hit their marks and say their lines professionally. An exception is the twenty-seven-year old Robert Cummings, who is not yet ready for prime time. There are several scenes of action. As incidents in themselves, they're reasonably well done. It's the script that torpedoes the production.
But it costs him dearly over the years. He marries Frances Dee and is alienated from her by the conflict between the Union, for which he works, and the Confederacy, which is her homeland. It takes more than ten years just so straighten that ONE misunderstanding out so the movie can end happily. And there are plenty other misunderstandings and deaths along the way.
The movie fits into the end of a genre, which might be called the rough-hewn biography of an individual or a corporation. The genre flourished in the 30s. There were stories of Reuters, Lloyds of London, Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch, Walter Reed and others. Those were more or less historical. Some were completely fictional, like Howard Hawks' "Come And Get It." They were all pretty much the same -- simple and entertaining -- except that, I guess, "Citizen Kane" fits in there somewhere too.
Joel McCrea is as likable as ever. It's not his fault that I always have to look up the spelling of his last name. He married his co-star here, Frances Dee, and they stayed married for some fifty-seven years. Lucky Joel. She really sparkles and looked just fine well into middle age.
I wish this had come off better than it did. I can't quite pin down the reasons why it's less satisfying than others of its type. I suppose, for one thing, the editing is really clumsy. A stagecoach rushes into a town and the citizens turn out to cheer its arrival. And I swear that for several minutes I couldn't figure out whether we were in San Francisco or St. Louis. The actual BUSINESS of Wells Fargo isn't made clear enough. The telegraph lines figure prominently but seem to have nothing to do with the rest of the movie. Butterfield's Overland Stage and the Pony Express are worked adventitiously into the plot. Lloyd Nolan shows up and then promptly disappears. We see quite a lot of Mister Wells but I can't remember meeting Mister Fargo, although he's in there somewhere because he's listed in the credits. In 1868, Mister Wells was generous enough to build a college for ladies in the Finger Lakes Region of New York.
No reflection on any of the actors. For the most part they hit their marks and say their lines professionally. An exception is the twenty-seven-year old Robert Cummings, who is not yet ready for prime time. There are several scenes of action. As incidents in themselves, they're reasonably well done. It's the script that torpedoes the production.
