THE BIG TRAIL to Screen in Restored 70MM at Park Theatre

The Park Theatre will present the restored widescreen edition of Raoul Walsh's landmark Western The Big Trail (1930), starring John Wayne in his first leading role, on Sunday, October 18, at 2 p.m. The screening will take place on the giant screen in the theatre's main auditorium. Tickets are $10/$9.

Nearly a quarter-century before CinemaScope transformed Hollywood, acclaimed director Raoul Walsh brought an extraordinary widescreen vision to movie audiences. At just 23, Wayne plays Breck Coleman, a young scout guiding a wagon train across the American frontier while pursuing the men responsible for a friend's murder. Romance, perilous river crossings and the relentless challenges of the journey unfold against sweeping Western landscapes. The cast includes Marguerite Churchill, Tyrone Power Sr., Tully Marshall, El Brendel and Ward Bond.

Produced by Fox Film Corporation during the earliest years of talking pictures, The Big Trail was among the pioneering features photographed in 70mm Fox Grandeur, an experimental process producing an image more than twice as wide as it was high. Cinematographer Arthur Edeson used that expansive canvas to capture immense landscapes, bustling wagon trains and foreground and background action within the same composition. The production also photographed a separate conventional 35mm version for theatres unable to exhibit Grandeur.

The film's most breathtaking sequences include wagons and animals being lowered by ropes down a steep cliff. These images offer an opportunity to see how ambitious widescreen filmmaking already was in 1930. Yet the innovation arrived at a difficult moment: theatres had recently invested heavily in sound equipment, and the Depression left little money for another costly conversion. Few audiences experienced the Grandeur edition, and widescreen would not become a Hollywood standard until the 1950s.

For decades, the conventional version largely defined the film's reputation. In the early 1980s, preservation work led by Peter Williamson at New York's Museum of Modern Art, in collaboration with Ralph Sargent and others, brought the rare Grandeur edition back into view. The restoration recovered the expansive compositions that distinguish this version, allowing later generations to rediscover Walsh's remarkable visual achievement. The Park Theatre's presentation features this restored widescreen edition of the film originally photographed on 70mm stock.

Critics have celebrated that rediscovery. Time Out described the film as restored to its 'spectacular wide-screen glory.' Reviewing the restored version in 1988, Fred Camper of the Chicago Reader found its distinctive use of widescreen 'well worth seeing.' MoMA film curator Dave Kehr praised its 'scale and immediacy that remains unique.'

The enthusiasm for its imagery reaches back to the original production. Writing in the September 1930 issue of American Cinematographer, Edeson explained that 'the epic sweep of the picture demands that it be painted against a great canvas.' On The Park Theatre's giant auditorium screen, audiences can discover the cinematic ambition behind those words.

The Big Trail is a black-and-white Western directed by Raoul Walsh. The restored widescreen edition runs approximately 122 minutes. Tickets ($10/$9) for the October 18 screening are available at theparktheatre.org or by calling the box office at (603) 532-8888. The Park Theatre is located at 19 Main Street in downtown Jaffrey, New Hampshire.

About The Park Theatre

The Park Theatre is a nonprofit performing arts center located at 19 Main Street in Jaffrey, New Hampshire. It is New England's unique showplace for live entertainment and film. The theatre presents live music, comedy, theatre, dance, film, and community programming throughout the year. The venue is fully accessible, and it is roughly 90 minutes from Boston and 60 minutes from Worcester. The Lounge at The Park is open for beer, wine, and cocktails before the show (ID required).