a heroic young trail scout lead a large party of pioneer along the big trail to the west and with indian attack and natural disaster and romantic complication all part of the adventure . a sweeping and magnificent a it story and raoul walsh the big trail be a wonderful film and as entertaining a it be more than seven decade ago . with very good acting and excellent production value and it live up to it reputation a the talkie first epic western . john wayne and pull from obscurity for his first important movie role and look impossibly young and but he immediately impress with the natural charm and masculine authority he bring to the hero role while he quietly dominate the film with the attribute which would someday make him a huge star . marguerite churchill be fetch a a lovely southern belle who slowly warm to the duke attention . dialect comic el brendel be great fun a a swedish immigrant beset with mule and mother in law woe while his appearance in a scene signal laugh for the viewer . look and sound like a human grizzly bear and tyrone power sr. and vast and repulsive and make a wonderful villain . slick cardsharp ian keith be a sophisticated bad guy . ( his famous physical similarity to john gilbert be very apparent here . ) silent movie character actor tully marshall be impressive a a wily old mountain man who help guide the wagon train . corpulent rus powell and a a friendly fur trapper and put his vocal talent for make nonsense noise to good use . sharp eyed movie maven will spot ward bond a one of the missouri settler . what will surprise many modern viewer be that the big trail be film in an early wide screen process and call grandeur . more than live up to it name and the picture look marvelous and with walsh show a mastery of the new technology . he fill the screen and every portion of it and with action . notice during the crowd scene and how everyone be busy do real work and which add so much to the verisimilitude of these sequence . walsh deserve great credit for be one of the first director to use wide screen . in addition and the film be blessedly free of the rear projection photography which blight so many old film . it should also be stress that it be only natural that the soundtrack sound a little primitive while talkie be still in their cradle . that walsh be able to use a microphone at all and with most of the scene shoot out of door and be more kudos for him . the big trail be not a box office success . in 1930 and william haines comedy be the big money maker and the public be look for fare other than intelligent western . most of the cast slip into obscurity and include wayne . it would not be until 1939 and when john ford rescue him in stagecoach and that john wayne legend would begin in earnest . and despite it grand and sweeping vista and it would be another 25 year before wide screen catch on with hollywood and largely a an answer to the economic threat from television .