Oregon Movies, A to Z

Where is the West? People have been looking for it in the movies since the birth of the medium.

Edwin Porter located it in the wilds of New Jersey. Move up to the harder stuff with The Covered Wagon, shot on location all over Utah, Nevada, California and Oregon.

The Covered Wagon was directed by James Cruze (born Jens Vera Cruz Bosen), who began his career in movies as an actor. Born in Utah, Cruze was a lapsed Mormor who was, reportedly, part Ute. He played an Indian in The Covered Wagon, in scenes which were cut.

The Covered Wagon was made to be a blockbuster. Big stars, big production values and no surprises. If you feel bored by the plotline, remember the original audience probably did too. What you are watching is big stars paying their rent.

What, you don’t recognize these stars? Start your tutorial with Ernest Torrence, the actor who plays the lovable thug sidekick to the spectacularly virtuous leader of the wagon train, J. Warren Kerrigan.

See Torrence as a villain in Tol’able David (1921), as a street person in Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), as husband to a jaw droppingly sexually liberated Clara Bow in Mantrap (1926). His last film, I Cover The Waterfront (1933), also was directed by Cruze.

There! Now you’ve given yourself a background in the evolution of screen acting, silent to sound.

I claim The Covered Wagon as an Oregon film on the basis of two things: Oregon is the mantra these land hungry pedestrians chant to get themselves across the the Great Plains, and Oregon appears as itself, revealed in all its tree filled glory, in the final scene, as the goal achieved.