Themes: Survival in the Wilderness, Sheriffs and Outlaws, Daring Rescues
Main Cast: Claire Trevor, John Wayne, Andy Devine, Thomas Mitchell, George Bancroft, John Carradine
Release Year: 1939
Country: US
Run Time: 100 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
Although there were Westerns before it, Stagecoach quickly became a template for all movie Westerns to come. Director John Ford combined action, drama, humor, and a set of well-drawn characters in the story of a stagecoach set to leave Tonto, New Mexico for a distant settlement in Lordsburg, with a diverse set of passengers on board. Dallas (Claire Trevor) is a woman with a scandalous past who has been driven out of town by the high-minded ladies of the community. Lucy Mallory (Louise Platt) is the wife of a cavalry officer stationed in Lordsburg, and she's determined to be with him. Hatfield (John Carradine) is a smooth-talking cardsharp who claims to be along to "protect" Lucy, although he seems to have romantic intentions. Dr. Boone (Thomas Mitchell) is a self-styled philosopher, a drunkard, and a physician who's been stripped of his license. Mr. Peacock (Donald Meek) is a slightly nervous whiskey salesman (and, not surprisingly, Dr. Boone's new best friend). Gatewood (Berton Churchill) is a crooked banker who needs to get out of town. Buck (Andy Devine) is the hayseed stage driver, and Sheriff Wilcox (George Bancroft) is along to offer protection and keep an eye peeled for the Ringo Kid (John Wayne), a well-known outlaw who has just broken out of jail. While Wilcox does find Ringo, a principled man who gives himself up without a fight, the real danger lies farther down the trail, where a band of Apaches, led by Geronimo, could attack at any time. Stagecoach offers plenty of cowboys, Indians, shootouts, and chases, aided by Yakima Canutt's remarkable stunt work and Bert Glennon's majestic photography of Ford's beloved Monument Valley. It also offers a strong screenplay by Dudley Nichols with plenty of room for the cast to show its stuff. John Wayne's performance made him a star after years as a B-Western leading man, and Thomas Mitchell won an Oscar for what could have been just another comic relief role. Thousands of films have followed Stagecoach's path, but no has ever improved on its formula. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Relegated to B-movie status by the mid-1930s, the western was regenerated most prominently by John Ford's Stagecoach in 1939. Ford and screenwriter Dudley Nichols artfully balanced the genre's standard action with the character studies and quality production values of prestigious 1930s films. In the microcosm of the stagecoach, the confrontation between "civilization" and "savagery," Western future and Eastern past, is played out among characters journeying through hostile Apache territory, with honor-bound outlaw Ringo fighting valiantly for a society that shuns him. Though not the top-billed player, and then a B-movie actor, John Wayne as Ringo became the star hero from the moment that Ford introduces him with a rare kinetic flourish. Ford here introduced his signature Western setting of Monument Valley, lending Stagecoach a realism that set it apart from studio-bound films; and his deep focus interiors preceded Citizen Kane by two years. A critical and commercial hit, Stagecoach helped spearhead the revival of the Western as a viable A-feature, and it turned Wayne into an A-list star. When he made Citizen Kane, Orson Welles claimed that he learned everything about directing movies from watching Stagecoach more than 40 times. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Alexander Toluboff - Art Director, Walter Plunkett - Costume Designer, Wingate Smith - First Assistant Director, John Ford - Director, Otho Lovering - Editor, Dorothy Spencer - Editor, Walter Reynolds - Editor, Gerard Carbonara - Composer (Music Score), Louis Gruenberg - Composer (Music Score), Richard Hageman - Composer (Music Score), W. Franke Harling - Composer (Music Score), Max Steiner - Composer (Music Score), John M. Leopold - Composer (Music Score), Leo Shuken - Composer (Music Score), John Leipold - Composer (Music Score), Boris Morros - Musical Direction/Supervision, Bert Glennon - Cinematographer, John Ford - Producer, Walter Wanger - Producer, Wiard Ihnen - Set Designer, R.O. Binger - Special Effects, Frank Maher - Sound/Sound Designer, Yakima Canutt - Stunts, Dudley Nichols - Screenwriter, Ernest Haycox - Short Story Author
Although Ford had made many westerns in the silent film era, he had never directed a sound western. Between 1929 - 1939, he directed films of almost every other genre, including Wee Willie Winkie (1937) starring Shirley Temple.[1]Stagecoach was to be his first sound western and the first of many that Ford made on location in Monument Valley, in the American southwest on the Arizona-Utah border, many of which also starred John Wayne.
When the stage driver, Buck (Andy Devine), looks for his normal shotgun guard, he is told by Marshal Curly Wilcox (George Bancroft) that he has gone out to look for a fugitive, the Ringo Kid (John Wayne). Buck tells Marshal Wilcox that Luke Plummer (Tom Tyler) is in Lordsburg. Knowing that the Kid has vowed to avenge the deaths of his father and brother at Plummer's hands, the marshal decides to ride along.
As they start to pull out, U.S. cavalry Lieutenant Blanchard (Tim Holt) informs them that Geronimo and his Apaches are on the warpath. His small troop will provide an escort until they get to Dry Fork. Gambler and Southern gentleman Hatfield (John Carradine) joins them to provide protection for Mrs. Mallory. At the edge of town, the stage is flagged down by pompous banker Henry Gatewood, (Berton Churchill), who is sneaking away with $50,000 embezzled from his bank.
Along the way, they come across the Ringo Kid, whose horse had become lame and left him afoot. Even though they are friends, Curly has no choice but to take Ringo into custody. As the trip progresses, Ringo takes a strong liking to Dallas.
When they reach Dry Fork, they are informed that the expected cavalry detachment has moved on to Apache Wells. The passengers vote on whether to press on or turn back. With only Peacock objecting, they go on and reach Apache Wells. There, Mrs. Mallory faints when she hears that her husband had been wounded in battle. She begins to go into labor. Doc Boone is called upon to help her through her childbirth. Eventually, Dallas emerges with a healthy baby. Later that night, Ringo asks Dallas to marry him. She does not give him an immediate answer, afraid to reveal her checkered past, but the next morning, she agrees to marry him if he promises to give up his plan to take on the Plummers. Encouraged by Dallas, Ringo makes a break for it, but turns back when he sees signs of Indians.
When they reach Lee's Ferry, they find the station and the ferry burned down and the people either dead or having fled. They tie large logs to each side of the stagecoach and float it across the river. Just when they think that they are in the clear, the stagecoach is chased by the Apaches. Curly releases the Kid from his handcuffs to help fight them off. During a long chase, when things look bleak, Hatfield is about to kill Mrs. Mallory with his last bullet to save her from being taken alive when he is fatally wounded. Just then, the U.S. cavalry charges to the rescue.
When the passengers finally arrive in Lordsburg, Gatewood is arrested by the local sheriff, and Lucy is told that her husband's wound is not serious. Dallas begs Ringo not to go up against the Plummers, but he is determined to settle matters. In the ensuing shootout, the Kid dispatches Luke and his two brothers. He returns to Wilcox, expecting to go back to jail. He asks the lawman to take Dallas to his ranch. However, when Ringo gets on a wagon to say goodbye to her, Curly and Doc laugh and start the horses moving, letting him "escape".
Origins
The screenplay is an adaptation by Dudley Nichols of "The Stage to Lordsburg", a short story by Ernest Haycox. The rights to "Lordsburg" were bought by John Ford soon after it was published in Collier's magazine on 10 April1937.[2] According to Thomas Schatz, Ford claimed that his inspiration in expanding Stagecoach beyond the barebones plot given in "The Stage to Lordsburg" was his familiarity with another short story, "Boule de Suif" by Guy de Maupassant.[3] Schatz believes "this scarcely holds up to scrutiny"[4] and argues that a more likely inspiration was Bret Harte's 1892 short story "The Outcasts of Poker Flat".
Ford's statement also seems to be the basis for the claim that Haycox himself relied upon Guy de Maupassant's story. However, there appears to be no concrete evidence for Haycox actually being familiar with the earlier story, especially as he was documented as going out of his way to avoid reading the work of others that might unconsciously influence his writing, and he focused his personal reading in the area of history.[5]
Pre-production
Before production, John Ford shopped the project around to several Hollywood studios, all of which turned him down because Ford insisted on using John Wayne in a key role in the film. Wayne had appeared in only one big-budget western, The Big Trail (1930, directed by Raoul Walsh), which was a huge box office flop. Between 1930 - 1939, by Wayne's own estimate, he appeared in about eighty "Poverty Row" westerns. Ford approached independent producer Walter Wanger about the project. Wanger had the same reservations about producing an "A" western and even more about one starring John Wayne. Ford had not directed a western since the silent days, the most notable of which had been The Iron Horse (1924).[1] Wanger said he would not risk his money unless Ford replaced John Wayne with Gary Cooper.[6]
Ford refused to budge; it would be Wayne or no one. Eventually they compromised, with Wanger putting up $250,000, a little more than half of what Ford had been asking for, and Ford would give top billing to Claire Trevor, a far better-known name than John Wayne in 1939.[7]
Stagecoach has been lauded as one of the most influential films ever made. Edward Buscombe writes that the introduction of Wayne's character Ringo is "one of the most stunning entrances in all of cinema...The camera dollies quickly in towards a tight close-up...So fast is the dolly in that the operator can't quite hold the focus."[8]Orson Welles argued that it was a perfect textbook of film making and claimed to have watched it more than 40 times during the making of Citizen Kane.[9]
John Ford won the 1939 New York Film Critics Award as Best Director. Other critics gave the film uniformly glowing reviews.[10]
In 1995, this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in their National Film Registry.
In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten Top Ten"—the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Stagecoach was acknowledged as the ninth best film in the western genre.[11][12]
Re-releases and restoration
The film was originally released through United Artists, but under their old seven-year-rights rule, surrendered its distribution rights to producer Walter Wanger in 1946. Many independent companies were responsible for this film in the years since. The film's copyright is currently held by 20th Century Fox, who produced a later 1966 remake of Stagecoach. However, distribution rights are now held by the UCLA Film and Television Archive on behalf of ancillary rights holder The Caidin Trust, with Castle Hill Productions and Warner Bros. Pictures representing.
The original negatives of Stagecoach were either lost or destroyed. John Wayne had one positive print that had never been through a projector gate. In 1970, he permitted it to be used to produce a new negative, and that is the film seen today at film festivals.[13] UCLA formally restored the film in 1996 from surviving elements and premiered on cable's American Movie Classics network. The current DVD releases by Warner Home Video do not contain the restored print, but rather a video print held in the Castle Hill/Caidin Trust library.
^ abClooney, Nick (November 2002). The Movies That Changed Us: Reflections on the Screen. New York: Atria Books, a trademark of Simon & Schuster. p. 194. ISBN0-7434-1043-2.
^ Schatz, Thomas, "Stagecoach and Hollywood's A-Western Renaissance", in John Ford's Stagecoach, ed. Barry Keigh Grant. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003. pp. 21-47. ISBN 0-521-7933119.
^ Edward Buscombe, "Stagecoach", British Film Institute, 1992, p. 9.
^ Welles, Orson and Bogdanovich, Peter, This is Orson Welles, Da Capo Press, 1998, pp. 28-29. "After dinner every night for about a month, I'd run Stagecoach.... It was like going to school."
