William S. Hart had a habit of proposing to his leading ladies and Jane Novak was no exception. Part of her attraction may have been that she was more interested in appearing in wholesome family films than the more sensational roles on offer. That seemed to fit in with Hart's Victorian views on women but although she appeared with him in five films and was at one time engaged to him, a marriage never took place.

Jane Washburn (Novak) is convinced she murdered Billy Hamilton in a struggle with a gun. Her brother Donald (good old Robert McKimm) puts the story about that she was fighting for her honour and in her dazed state she believes him, but the reality is the men were fighting in a crooked game of cards. Billy found them out and the fight broke out. Buckskin Hamilton (Hart),Billy's brother, who is down at the docks to meet him on the paddle boat sees through the old "death before dishonour" gambit. The titles are beautiful - "velvet nights and purple - ", "the race against the sun with the toiling blistered wagons" - Hart's titles are often complicated and florid but here they are stripped away and only the beauty remains.

They have joined a wagon train and Buck's natural leadership qualities have him voted the wagon master. Observing Buck on the journey, cheerfully giving his water ration to his horse and dogs, Jane begins to realise what a "real man" is like and courageously tells the truth about his brother. The critics of the day thought the mood was a lot darker than the usual Hart and indicated that "manly" Americans would look down on the overdone dramatics. I think this is one of Hart's best combining the emotional acting - when he realises his brother has been killed and by a young, innocent girl, with a gripping tale of revenge.

"I'm leavin' tonight with two men - mebbe we'll come back, mebbe we won't"!! He takes the two men out into the desert determined to make them half crazed with thirst and heat so they will confess their crime. Meanwhile back at the wagon train there has been a fatal shooting of an Indian who was admiring a scarf. They demand a life for a life and Buck, now returned, gives the guilty man the choice between death at his own hands or fronting up to the Indian party.

One of Hart's best.

There is a great power in this movie. William S. Hart abandons his familiar cowboy gear to play the role of a Mountain Man guiding a wagon train across the west while trying to discover the truth about his young brother's murder. If the language veers between the poetic scene-setting titles, and the eye-dialect dialogue, there is great strength in Joseph August's photography and compositions.

More than that, in the context of the silent film, Hart is a great actor. A stage star, he understood that the camera catches the smallest movement of the eye, His gestures, while melodramatically overwrought, are never overly wide. He infuses the character with truth.

Perhaps this style of movie-making is a mystery to the modern movie-goer. When the shiphands sing 'Weep No More, My Lady', and the titles show the lyrics, they obviously have more importance than sound effects added by a Foley artist for artistic verisimilitude. Perhaps the melodramatic plots are as snicker-worthy as the sort of modern story in which villains commit murder for no discernible reason, but because they are crazed mass murderers, and the enforcers of the law catch them, not because it is their job, but because one of the victims is a relative and 'this time it's personal' ... but I don't think so.

Both sorts of story are mythic in structure, telling us the truths we want to hear. It may well be that the modern movie-goer will have no patience for Hart's movies in general and WAGON TRACKS in particular. If that is the case, alas, they are missing a fine story, beautifully told, with striking black and white photography. Their loss.

I saw this for the first time recently. The film is about a caring desert guide Hamilton (William S. Hart) who has been hired to lead passengers across a dangerous desert. Hamilton is awaiting a train which has the passengers n also his younger brother who is a doctor. Unknown to Hamilton, a crooked gambler has killed his younger brother on the train n made it look like an accident. The gambler has convinced his sister that the accident happened due to her. Hamilton guides the passengers including the murderer across the desert hoping to solve the murder of his brother. The film has some top notch cinematography n acting, ther r no shootouts but a picture of a gun keeps popping up on the screen whenever ther is a talk about the murder. Also the torture by the Red Indians is implied while they keep dancing around the fire the whole night.