The Big Trail

1930. USA. Directed by Raoul Walsh. With Marguerite Churchill, Tully Marshall, Tyrone Power, Sr. In a chapter of Walsh's autobiography titled "Columbus Only Discovered America," the director recounts plucking Marion Michael Morrison out from under John Ford's wing, renaming him after General Mad Anthony Wayne, and giving him his first starring role. The film, gorgeously shot in the experimental widescreen Grandeur process, has the equally gorgeous young Wayne lead a wagon train on the Oregon Trail. Despite a tendency toward awkwardness, the young Duke manages to exude sufficient grace and authority to make one wonder why it took Ford a decade to rediscover him in Stagecoach (1939). 121 min.