I love The Big Trail for it's incredible cinematography, but the acting is pretty bad. You can definitely see what Wayne will become, his presence is immediate even though he is "wooden" in many scenes. I did like Tully Marshall's performance as Zeke. For fans of this movie, there are a couple of videos on YouTube of silent, behind the scenes footage shot during the production with closeups of all the main cast members:
SATURDAY MORNING WESTERN ROUNDUP: “THE BIG TRAIL” - YouTube
Big Trail (1930) Behind the Scenes Part 2 of 2 - YouTube
Amazing video, too bad no sound.
