The Covered Wagon (1923)

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Although there are scenes that show huge buffalo herds with what looks like thousands of animals, large buffalo herds didn't exist at the time this film was made (1923). The buffalo had been hunted almost to extinction during the late 19th century, with millions of them being slaughtered, and its numbers hadn't yet increased enough to comprise large herds. Cameraman Karl Brown used small lead castings of various sizes of buffalo, placed the larger ones toward the camera and used diminishing sizes in the background for depth. All the castings were mounted on a series of moving chains, those in the rear moving very slowly while the rows of chains moved increasingly faster as they neared the foreground. The castings were hinged so that they moved with an undulating motion, which made them appear to be actual buffalo running. The chains were placed out of view and the mechanical buffalo were placed in front of a painted background containing distant buffalo. The result was a scene of "thousands" of buffalo, when in reality most of them were basically statues.
In an early cut of this film prior to its release, director James Cruze appeared in a brief cameo heavily disguised as an Indian. Screenwriter Jack Cunningham wrote him a memo saying that, even if viewers didn't recognize him from his days as an actor, he looked too "white" alongside the genuine Indians who appeared in the film. Cunningham prevailed, and the scene was deleted.
J. Warren Kerrigan had fallen out of favor with the industry by the time he was cast in this film. James Cruze, with who he had a long friendship and professional relationship, cast him more or less as a favor.
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