A cheery couple of horse traders, played by Ben Johnson and Harry Carey Jr, accompany a wagon train of Mormons to their Promised Land. En route they encounter romance, a trio of drunken n'er do wells, a Navajo tribe and the unwelcome attention of a gang of wanted criminals. Short Ford film is entertaining and engaging from the off.
You get the feeling watching his films that you're seeing the true west. Instead of heroes and villains you feel you're meeting real people. And the scenes with horses and wagons - i.e. 90% of the picture - also seem tough and realistic. It was photographed by Bert Glennon, with Archie Stout on second unit.
With Joanne Dru, Ward Bond, Charles Kemper (injured criminal), Alan Mowbray, Jane Darwell, Ruth Clifford, Russell Simpson (stern Elder), Hank Worden.
Ford wrote the original story, which is credited to Frank Nugent and Patrick Ford. 'Along with The Fugitive and The Sun Shines Bright, Wagon Master came closest to being what I had wanted to achieve.'
I read somewhere that the BBC acquired the rights to the entire RKO library, but some of them aren't in broadcastable quality. (This was an independent production but distributed by RKO.)
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