• Rating:
• Genre: Drama
• Movie Type: Traditional Western
• Themes: Righting the Wronged, Taming the West, Orphans
• Director: John Ford
• Main Cast: John Wayne, Harry Carey, Jr., Ward Bond, Mae Marsh
• Release Year: 1948
• Country: US
• Run Time: 106 minutes

Plot

John Ford had already directed one of the three previous film versions of Peter Kyne's novel under the title Marked Men (1919) with his mentor Harry Carey, a great cowboy star of the silent era who had recently died. It's not difficult to see how the story's sentimentality and Christian symbolism might have appealed to the director's sensibility. John Wayne stars as Bob Hightower, the leader of a trio of thieves who rob a bank in Arizona and take off with the posse of Sheriff Buck Sweet (Ward Bond) in close pursuit. Although they need to stop to water their horses and care for the wounds of Abilene (Harry Carey Jr.), their accurate suspicion that the sheriff is laying an ambush for them at the Mohave water tank leads the gang toward the more distant Terrapin tanks. However, en route, they're waylaid by a terrible sandstorm which scatters their horses. Forced to go on foot, they come upon a lone woman (Mildred Natwick) in a covered wagon who is about to give birth. She dies in childbirth, but not before extracting a promise from the three to take care of her child. Under a blistering sun, they head for New Jerusalem. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide

Review

Wim Wenders once described the films of John Ford with a phrase to the effect that he gives all of his characters their dignity. It's a description that applies to this allegory of redemption, in which the majesty of the director's familiar landscapes becomes the backdrop for an enactment of Christian ritual. Given this structure, Ford minimizes the individuality of the characters and relies more heavily on the mise-en-scéne to achieve his ends. Although the director naturally imputes a religious significance to the birth of the child, the event also functions as it does in Stagecoach (1939) and elsewhere in the director's work: as a symbol of hope and a harbinger of peace in the midst of conflict. Wayne draws on the avuncular side of his nature, but Ford uses him as essentially an icon here, and the image of the craggy cowboy bearing the infant across the pitiless desert is one that lingers in the mind. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide

Cast

• John Wayne - Robert Marmaduke Hightower
• Harry Carey, Jr. - William Kearney, "The Abilene Kid"
• Ward Bond - Perley "Buck" Sweet
• Mae Marsh - Mrs. Perley Sweet

Mildred Natwick - Mother; Jane Darwell - Miss Florie; Guy Kibbee - Judge; Dorothy Ford - Ruby Latham; Ben Johnson - Patrolman; Pedro Armendáriz - Pedro "Pete" Roca Fuerte; Ruth Clifford - Woman in Bar; Charles Halton - Mr. Latham; Fred Libby - Deputy Sheriff "Curly"; Cliff Lyons - Guard at Mojave Tanks; Don Summers - Patrolman; Hank Worden - Deputy Sheriff; Michael Dugan - Patrolman; Francis Ford - Drunken Old-Timer at Bar; Richard Hageman - Saloon Pianist; Jack Pennick - Luke

Credit

James Basevi - Art Director; Merian C. Cooper - Producer; John Ford - Director; John Ford - Producer; Richard Hageman - Composer (Music Score); Winton Hoch - Cinematographer; Joseph Kish - Set Designer; Jack Murray - Editor; Frank S. Nugent - Screenwriter; Laurence Stallings - Screenwriter; Peter B. Kyne - Short Story Author

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