Tycoon

(1947)

128 minutes

Directed by Richard Wallace

Written by Bordan Chase, C.E. Scoggins and John Twist

Produced by Stephen Ames

Cinematography by W. Howard Greene and Harry J. Wilde

Distributed by RKO Pictures

Drama / Adventure / Romance

Cast:

John Wayne as Johnny Munroe

Laraine Day as Maura Alexander Munroe

Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Frederick Alexander

Judith Anderson as Miss Braithwaite

James Gleason as Pop Mathews

Anthony Quinn as Ricky Vegas

Grant Withers as Fog Harris

Paul Fix as Joe

Fernando Alvarado as Chico

Harry Woods as Holden

Michael Harvey as Curly Messenger

Charles Trowbridge as Señor Tobar

Martin Garralaga as Chávez

Young and brash engineer Johnny Munroe is working to finish a dangerous tunnel for a railroad through the Peruvian Andes Mountains.  Johnny risks his professional career to pursue a forbidden love affair with Maura Alexander, the daughter of the tycoon who is bankrolling the project.  After a disastrous tunnel collapse, Johnny risks it all in a dramatic race against time to finish the railroad before the violent rainy seasons come.
 
Notes:

Tycoon was RKO’s most expensive movie, costing 3.209 million, and was a commercial flop, losing 1.035 million.

Originally Maureen O'Hara was to play the female lead in the film; however, she was assigned to Sinbad the Sailor (1947) instead.

Tycoon used Lone Pine, California to represent the Peruvian Andes.

Part of the massive RKO budget was used to create the mock railroad and train tunnel.  RKO built a fake mountain for the filming of Tycoon.