The Great Train Robbery is a 1903 American silent short western film written, produced, and directed by Edwin S. Porter.
Plot[]
Two bandits break into a railroad telegraph office, where they force the operator at gunpoint to stop a train and order its engineer to fill the locomotive's tender at the station's water tank. They then knock the operator out and tie him up. It is boarded by the bandits. Two bandits enter an express car and open a box of valuables with dynamite. The others kill the fireman and force the engineer to halt the train and disconnect its locomotive. The bandits then force the passengers off the train and rifle them for their belongings. One passenger tries to escape but is instantly shot down. The bandits escape in the locomotive.
The bound operator awakens but collapses again. His daughter arrives and she restores him to consciousness by dousing him with water. There is some comic relief at a dance hall, where an Eastern stranger is forced to dance while the locals fire at his feet. The door suddenly opens and the telegraph operator rushes in to tell them of the robbery. The men quickly form a posse and chase the bandits through the mountains. The posse finally overtakes the bandits and kills them all and recovers the stolen mail.
A standalone scene titled "Realism" presents a medium close-up of the leader of the outlaws, who empties his pistol point-blank directly into the camera.
Cast[]
- Alfred C. Abadie - as a sheriff
- Broncho Billy Anderson - as a bandit / the shot passenger / the "Tenderfoot Dancer"
- Justus D. Barnes - as the bandit who fires at the camera
- Walter Cameron - as a sheriff
- Donald Gallaher - as a little boy
- Frank Hanaway - as a bandit
- Adam Charles Hayman - as a bandit
- Tom London - as the locomotive engineer
- John Manus Dougherty, Sr. - as the fourth bandit
- Robert Milasch - as a trainman / bandit
- Marie Murray - as a dance-hall dancer
- Mary Snow - as a little girl
- George Barnes (uncredited)
- Morgan Jones (uncredited)