Western Wednesdays: In the Days of the Thundering Herd (1914)

     In the Days of the Thundering Herd was released on November 30th, 1914. Directed by Colin Campbell and Francis J. Grandon. It was produced by the Selig Polyscope Company and distributed by the General Film Company. This film stars Tom Mix as Tom Mingle, a Pony Express rider who accompanies his girl Sally (Bessie Eyton) to California, where her father has discovered gold.

     When the wagon train is attacked by Indians everyone is killed except for Tom and Sally who are taken captive. The Indian chief (played by Wheeler Oakman) is attracted to Sally while his sister, Starlight (played by Red Wing), is enamored with Tom. Starlight eventually helps them to escape and they come upon a band of buffalo hunters. The hunters help Tom fend of the pursuing Indians while Sally goes to get help from a larger camp they were told about by Starlight. She arrives with reinforcements in the nick of time and the Indians are beaten but the chief and his sister are both killed in the fighting.
  

     In the Days of the Thundering Herd is filled with thrilling sequences: Tom's rescue of Sally from stampeding buffalo; the massacre of the wagon train; the massive final battle in the canyon. Interestingly, Starlight was actually played by a Native American actress, a Winnebago woman named Lillian St. Cyr (Red Wing was her stage name). Lillian was the first Native woman to star in a feature film (Cecil B. DeMille's The Squaw Man, released earlier the same year). She gives, perhaps, the best performance in this movie.

     Nonetheless, my biggest problem with the film is Starlight's character, I find her actions to be non-nonsensical. Having her aid Tom in Sally in, eventually, wiping out most of her people is a pretty hard pill to swallow. There's also a character (Sally's brother) who is introduced but is never seen or mentioned after the film's opening, making his scenes feel sort of pointless.

     This was Mix's first five reel feature. Later on it was re-edited to three reels and re-released as The Wagon Train. This version, which is about 15 minutes shorter, is the one I watched. As a result of the cutting the movie feels very rushed incomplete and the editing is very haphazard. The plot is also confusing at times. For instance, according to the IMDB synopsis there were scenes of Tom being made to "run the gauntlet" (a popular trope in frontier westerns) and then trying to escape with Starlight's help. In the version I watched, he escapes with no real explanation only to be recaptured.

    One of Tom Mix's earliest pictures, In the Days of the Thundering Herd is a strange one. Though Tom is ostensibly the star it's Bessie Eyton's Sally who is really the main character and her decisions drive the story. Tom is saved by her and Starlight multiple times throughout the movie. His most heroic moment in this version is his rescue of Sally at the beginning of the picture.

     In the end, though it has some stirring scenes In the Days of the Thundering Herd is too incoherent to really work. I'm sure I would enjoy the original cut more but, sadly, it has not been released on home video.

Score: 4/10