Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Scene 1: The Interior of The Railroad Telegraph Office
Scene 1: The Interior of The Railroad Telegraph Office
The bandits hide behind the water tower near the station as the train slowly
pulls up and takes on water - due to the false order. The desperadoes
stealthily sneak on board the train (between the tender, the car attached to
the steam locomotive that carries fuel and water, and the express mail car)
just before it pulls away.
The car's mail messenger is busy at work in the mail car as the train moves
along. Through the open side door of the car, moving scenery can be seen.
The worker is alarmed when he hears an unusual sound. He peeks through
the door's keyhole leading to the tender and locomotive cab and sees the
two bandits trying to break through the express car door. After being
startled, he quickly recovers and locks the strong box containing the
valuables, and throws the key out of the open side door. He draws his
revolver and crouches behind the work desk, just as the robbers break down the door and enter.
After a pistol duel, the messenger is killed.
Scene 4: The tender and the interior of the locomotive cab, looking toward the front of the
train:
The train is moving about 40 mph. While the two
bandits have been robbing the mail car, another
bandit climbs over the tender and holds the
engineer at gunpoint. A fourth bandit struggles with
the fireman, who has seized a coal shovel for
defense and climbed up on the tender. They have a
fist-fight on the tender until they fall. The bandit has
the advantage - he lands on top of the fireman. He takes a lump of coal and strikes the fireman on
the head until he is unconscious. Then after overpowering him, he hurls the victim's body off the top
of the moving train. [This was a startling special effect, although it was only a dummy figure.] The
two bandits force the engineer to bring the train to a stop.
At gunpoint, the engineer is forced to leave the locomotive, and walk back
to uncouple the locomotive from the rest of the passenger cars. They walk
back to the front of the train and board the locomotive. The engineer is
forced to pull the train ahead about 100 feet, leaving the rest of the cars
behind.
Scene 6: An exterior scene showing the coach section of the train - the holdup.
Scene 7: The bandits board the locomotive and leave the scene of the holdup:
The bandits board the locomotive with large bags of valuables. They force the engineer to start the
train and move off into the distance to the left.
Farther along on the tracks, several miles from the scene of the hold up, the four robbers force the
engineer to stop the locomotive. They jump from the train and escape down the side of the hill next
to the tracks (the camera pans after them).
The bandits run through a beautiful valley, approaching closer into view.
They cross a narrow stream. In a unique, lengthy pan shot, the camera
slowly pans to the left where they mount their tethered, waiting horses in a
nearby wood, and ride off toward the wilderness.
(The director of the film uses an inventive technique called jump-cutting or inter-cutting, to cover
simultaneous actions in different locales.)
Suddenly, the door bursts open and the exhausted telegraph operator runs
in. (The film technique of an ellipsis is introduced here - a leap forward in
time by the omission of non-essential material.) He alerts them to the
robbery that has occurred, causing an abrupt end to the dance. Enlisting a
posse, the men grab their rifles and follow him out the door. They hastily
leave the dance hall.
The film closes with a medium shot close-up of the bandit chief (with green-tinted shirt and red-
tinted kerchief in some versions) (George Barnes) with his hat pushed back on his head. He points
and shoots his revolver point-blank, directly into the camera (and, of course, at the audience). This
caused a tremendously terrifying sensation at the time.