PONY EXPRESS (1953) **1/2 This could have been a very difficult movie to watch, if Charlton Heston wasn't in it. I'm not saying that it's his greatest performance-or even a great performance-but he just so has that Wild West rugged individualist thing going, always meaning to be good but also knowing when you can't. As is so often the case in Heston's projects-historical films and political utterances-there is precious little accuracy, but unless you're just mad at the guy generally there's no reason his well meaning, sure somewhat arrogant, heroic antics can't be enjoyed here. Inadvertent questions are raised. Rhonda Fleming is way too good looking to be a villainess in a '50s Hollywood film, so I guess the question is…was Buffalo Bill so manly that he didn't have time for women? or never bothered figuring out how they might be of interest? Fleming does a lot with a slight enough role, and unless they were worried about her acting circles around Charlton (which wouldn't have been done in this role, I think) the writer's neglect for her character is every bit as bewildering as Charlton's. In conclusion, and defense of Buffalo Bill, this is not a historically accurate representation of anything that ever happened in the Wild West, though there does feel to be a good bit of poetic truth. So don't go getting yourself an "F" by using it as source material for your report on the Pony Express, or an exposé on the disappearance of the greatest genetic strain of Western manhood because the greatest ones couldn't be interested in women, at the expense of their horses.
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