One fictional Ramsay MacKay(Joel McCrea) begins with a local mail and package delivery service in upstate NY. Soon, he joins WF, which is about to expand it's stagecoach services west to St. Louis. Of course, it would soon initiate stage service between St. Louis and San Francisco, which MacKay was involved in. The film deals almost exclusively with the role of WF in transportation and mail, ignoring it's importance to banking, especially in CA. In fact, it was the major bank company in early CA. The film dramatizes the occasional attack of stagecoaches by Native Americans, who also burned down a station, killing all the people. Historically, this happened at least once, during the Paiute War of 1860, at Williams Station, NV. Also, an incident is dramatized in which a Confederate cavalry unit held up a stage, confiscating a large amount of gold, so that it wouldn't contribute to the Union war effort. I was unable to find information confirming that this actually happened. Actually, the great majority of gold and silver from CA-NV was transported by ship to the East. On the other hand, gold from Colorado and Montana probably was often sent south or east on stages. Of course, it wasn't long before railroads began to compete with stages for freight, mail and passengers. However, stages would continue for some years to service feeder routes to the railroads. .....Getting back to the story, Bob Burns makes his frequent appearance known by his distinctive voice and gab. He often serves to do odd jobs for MacKay, but doesn't play his bazooka, as he sometimes did in films. Near the end, he gives a rousing speech at a dinner about the accomplishments of WF....Francis Dee, soon to become Mrs. McCrea off the set, played MacKay's love interest, as Justine. He meets her in NY state, and later delivers a package to her home in St. Louis. They marry, but have disagreements about his time spent on the road, and working for a company that exclusively served the Union(her family being from the South). Eventually, they split, although not divorced. MacKay happens to arrive at Justine's house the day before the birthday for their 17y.o. daughter, who invites him to her party. He declines, saying he must leave immediately. However, he does show up, and suggests to Justine that they get back together......MacKay opens a WF office in San Francisco, and delivers mail out in the gold fields, returning with gold to keep in his safe for the miners.....A little bit is mentioned about competition in CA , and the eventual merger with Wells Fargo of several of their big competitors.....Paramount sank $1.5 million into this film, which was a tidy sum in those days. Don't know how it fared at the box office. See it on YouTube.

This film is a very fictionalized account of the early days of Wells Fargo---long before it metastasized into the gigantic mega-bank that charges innumerable service fees like it does today. However, instead of focusing on the big-wigs at the company, it focuses on a fictional man, Ramsay (Joel McCrea) and his many difficulties he had establishing banking, transportation and mail services in the wild west. It also focuses on his marriage--one that eventually became very rocky and problematic.The problem with this film is that it is extremely episodic--with giant jumps in time here and there. As a result, it comes off more like a Cliff Notes version of a story instead of a rich and complete on. Compacting the story much more would have helped immensely, as the characters come off as very stiff and distant to the audience. Not a bad film but one that really should have been a lot better considering the large budget and cast. More money should have been spent on the script and less on extras and sets.

Fans of McCrea looking for a standard shoot-em-up should look elsewhere. That would be okay if the movie were as good as most McCrea westerns, but it's not. Too much time is spent trying to get Ramsay's (McCrea) love life straightened out. The trouble is this tends to crowd out the interesting other two themes— namely, opening highways to the West and action and adventure along the way. Now, with so much going on, narrative transitions from one thread to the next become important. But, I agree with reviewer Maxwell-- this key element in the storyline is handled very clumsily. It's sometimes hard to follow developments because of muddy segues, plus a sloppy script that appears to want to do too much with too many marginal characters. On a different note, what's with IMDb listing Lloyd Nolan in the credits. If he's in the picture, I couldn't spot him, and he's not someone easy to miss. Maybe he got edited out. On the plus side are actors McCrea, winsome wife Dee, and a fearsome Mary Nash, some good crowd scenes, and several edifying historical facts. Still, I too, was left wondering just what Wells-Fargo did as a day-to-day business, which seems an odd omission given the movie's title. Anyway, to me, the movie was a disappointment despite a bigger than average budget and an effort at historical sweep.

Since getting a channel exclusively devoted to Westerns, I've seen movies that are never seen on regular channels, like Wells Fargo.Joel McRea, whom I'd enjoyed immensely in These Three, is impressive in a Western. He's rugged and tough, but goes beyond the stereotype, and is sensitive and understanding. He ages from his 20's to his 60's believably. The story of courier service extending out west makes me want to read more about these pioneers of exploration.