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(1930, Anamorphic Widescreen) John Wayne, Marguerite Churchill, El Brendel, Tully Marshall, Tyrone Power, Sr., Ian Keith. A massive wagon train journeys from the Mississippi River toward the untamed wilderness of the Oregon Territory. Wayne, while working as a scout for the wagon train, also hunts for the thugs who murdered his friend. Look for Tyrone Power Sr. as the brutish trail boss, whom Wayne suspects is really the killer. The climax comes in the snow-covered forests of Oregon. A beautiful film to look at, this sprawling Raul Walsh-Fox Films western epic portrays the fierce hardships and challenges faced by settlers, including scorching deserts, raging blizzards, dangerous river crossings, and attacks by marauding Indians. But perhaps the most eye-popping scene in the whole film is the death-defying task of lowering wagons down sheer steep cliffs—wow! Despite its massive scale, The Big Trail was a box-office flop because most theaters in the Depression era were not equipped for the film’s revolutionary widescreen format—a great film nevertheless (7.2 on IMDB). Wayne looks so young! From a spectacular 35mm print
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