The film: With close to 50 films already under his belt at age 30, American director John Ford (Stagecoach, The Grapes of Wrath) had his first major success with The Iron Horse, a two-hour silent epic about the construction of America's first transcontinental railroad in the 1860s.

Many claims of authenticity were made by the production company at the time of the film's release, including that some of the elderly Chinese extras had actually worked on the railway, and that the two locomotives used in filming were the original articles. The latter claim was untrue, as both had been scrapped years earlier, but for the most part the historical setting of The Iron Horse is unusually convincing. Those employed as extras were often playing themselves - notably the cowboys and Indians, many of whom turned to Hollywood for scarce employment opportunities.

George O'Brien (Sunrise, Fort Apache), in his first leading role, became one of Hollywood's most successful early screen stars, and after The Iron Horse was Ford's first-choice actor before he switched to John Wayne, with whom he made 25 films. (Ford and O'Brien travelled around Asia together, and in March 1931 arrived in Hong Kong on a steamer from Manila.) O'Brien plays the son of a murdered railroad surveyor, and it's his quest for revenge against a dishonest landowner and his romance with a childhood sweetheart that hold the narrative together.

Ford, the first director to win back-to-back Oscars, was an influential filmmaker - many would say the most influential of all time - and that influence began here with a film that set new standards for the western genre and for filmmaking in general.

The extras: Part of the highly acclaimed Ford at Fox collection (available either in the box set or by itself), this double-disc DVD features the international and US releases of the film, which run 133 and 149 minutes respectively. The international version is the better restored of the two, and it is over this that the interesting commentary by film writer and historian Robert Birchard is recorded.

There is also a short feature looking at the newly created music track, which is the only score on offer here (although with a choice of Dolby stereo or 5.1 surround), a restoration comparison and a selection of stills, original advertising and other visual materials.