Director: John Ford
Producer: Walter Wagner
Writer: Dudley Nichols
Cinematography: Bert Glennon
Music: Gerard Cabonara, Richard Hageman, W. Franke Harling, John Leipold, and Leo Shuken
Starring: John Wayne (the “Ringo Kid”), Claire Trevor (Dallas), Thomas Mitchell (Dr. Josiah “Doc” Boone), Andy Devine (Buck), John Carradine (Hatfield), George Bancroft (Marshal “Curly” Wilcox), Louise Platt (Lucy Mallory), Donald Meek (Samuel Peacock), Berton Churchill (Henry Gatewood), Tom Tyler (Luke Plummer)
You can watch Stagecoach for free on YouTube
Westerns have been intertwined with movies since very early in the process, not surprisingly considering when cinema was in its infancy, the old west was still around. Real life western figures like Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill were filmed in 1894 and the fictional western film can be traced as far back as 1903’s The Great Train Robbery. Since then, dozens of westerns were made each year, especially in the 1910s when they were cheap, popular, and easy to mass produce. Even by 1919, western stereotypes (both good and bad) in film had been established, as is evident in Harold Lloyd’s short Billy Blazes, Esq. Westerns became even more popular in the 1920s and were the starting point for many actors who would become big Hollywood stars, including Gary Cooper and William Powell. The thirties and talking pictures saw the western lose some popularity, though western drama Cimarron won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1931. For the most part, the genre was relegated to B and C-level status, cheaply made extremely formulaic films with stars that worked exclusively in the genre. With a few exceptions, all of the westerns films made prior to 1939 have one major thing in common: they stink.
Though they made not be very good films, even these sub-par westerns are important to the history of film, particularly American film, because the western represents the history of America. The western is the only truly American film genre and the westerns that Hollywood made can be seen as how Americans (or non-Americans) see America itself. The western is America’s mythology, full of real-life figures transposed into larger than life figures. There was a real Billy the Kid, just as King Arthur was real but nothing like the mythologies that were created around him. Every nation has its classical heroes that represents something unique about them: Greece has Achilles; Rome, Aeneas; Scandinavia, Beowulf; and America Wyatt Earp. Westerns also easily take on elements of parable and allegory, often they feature large black-and-white themes of good vs. evil, man vs. wilderness, law and order vs. lawlessness and there have been western versions made of stories as disparate as the Three Wise Men and Shakespeare’s Othello. Not surprisingly, when they finally broke out of their pulpy shell, a great number of western were made that tackle even bigger, grander themes. However, pretty much none of that had come to fruition yet in 1939 and the sound era had been essentially a wasteland for the genre. All that changed with the release of John Ford’s Stagecoach.
Ford was one of the few directors to make any westerns of consequence in the twenties (The Iron Horse, 1924), a director who would later become synonymous with the western. However, by 1939 Ford hadn’t made a western since 1926’s 3 Bad Men and was better known as the Oscar-winning director of The Informer, as well as directing such screen personalities as Will Rogers and Shirley Temple. Westerns weren’t something a big-time, Oscar-winning director would have been associated with in 1939 but Ford was passionate about the project, though he had trouble finding a studio to produce it, partially because he wanted John Wayne for the title role.
Though Wayne is now one of the most famous stars in Hollywood history, in 1939 he was a b-movie actor just a few years away from working as a prop boy. Ford had worked with Wayne several times previously, though not since 1930. After finding a producer, Ford got his wish, cast Wayne and launched both the career of Wayne and the western genre as a whole.
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| Wayne's famous introduction in Stagecoach mirrored his introduction to big-time stardom |
Ford’s Westerns are often characterized by the extensive use of outdoor photography in Monument Valley, Arizona/Utah. Long shots of characters framed by the beautiful and forbidding landscapes would become a key part of his films, beginning here in Stagecoach.
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| Stagecoach also introduced John Ford's love affair with Monument Valley to the cinema world |
However, focusing so much on this aspect of Ford’s vision often overlooks how excellent his interior work is. In fact, though it is famous as the starting point of Ford’s uses of Monument Valley, Stagecoach features much more attractive interiors and night scenes than exteriors.
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| A shot repeated several times in the film, Ringo in silhouette watches Dallas from an angle |
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| Ford shared with Fritz Lang a penchant for doorway framing |
After You Watch the Movie (Spoilers Below)
It is tempting to focus so much on the way that Stagecoach ties into future Ford films that the actual quality of the film gets forgotten. Previous westerns were often characterized by formulaic plots and flimsy one-note characters but Stagecoach is different. The film features an ensemble cast of characters that look as if they could have come out of any bland western. However, the characters aren’t all that they seem. Of the “respectable” characters, Lucy Mallory harbors ugly prejudices, her protector Hatfield is implied to be a thief and murderer, and the banker Gatewood is a thief. Ringo, who we first hear about as a convicted murderer escaped from prison, turns out to be the hero of the story; Dallas, a prostitute run out of town by the “Law and Order League,” has more character than the respectables; Doc Boone is an alcoholic bum but he proves himself to be not only a capable medical man but also a good friend to Ringo and Dallas.
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| Buck: bumbling comic relief, a role Andy Divine played many, many times |
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| Curly: tough, duty-bound Marshal who eventually shows him compassionate nature, freeing Ringo |
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| Lucy and Hatfield: a dying breed, ladies and gentleman of a world that no longer exists |
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| Ringo: a convicted killer who turns out to be the hero of the story |
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| Dallas: the proverbial hooker with a heart of gold, her immoral profession masks strong inner character and compassion |
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| Doc: alcoholic failure who turns out to be one of the most loyal and brave of the company |
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| Peacock: an Eastern businessman, he adapts to the wild west quicker than the others and recognizes the merits of Doc, Dallas, and Ringo |
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| Gatewood: banker, a traditional pillar of the community. He spouts "America for the Americans" while plotting to steal from his neighbors. |
On the journey from Tonto to Lordsburg, their true colors are exposed by the wildness of the west and the character beneath the façade revealed. In this untamed land, the hypocritical characters still hold on to “civilized” values that have no place there.
This is unusual depth for a western, which previously was a wasteland of shallow good guy shoots bad guy type stories, by crafting such complex story, Stagecoach shows the potential of westerns for social commentary, a direction the genre would continue to grow into in the coming years.
The close confines and public nature of the stagecoach is similar to the train as a narrative device, as it provides many elements crucial to a story, including movement, close confines, and unavoidable cross-class interactions. The stagecoach is available to anyone who can pay, whether high or low class, and offers a long amount of time for these characters to spend together when under any other circumstances, they would never interact.
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| Public transportation like a stagecoach brings together disparate characters and forces them into close quarters |
Though much of the film’s heavy lifting is done by the characters and small moments, there is still quite a few exciting moments in Stagecoach. These set piece moments are also straight out of western cliché, but the craft of Ford takes them from banal to brilliant.
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| The Apache attack begins out of nowhere, a still stunning intro |
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| The pacing of the cutting between shots, both high and low angle, and additional elements of movement keeps the momentum of the scene flowing and the visuals interesting |
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| Two stunts performed by the same man, famous rodeo star and stunt man Yakima Canutt |
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| Just at the chase scene appears to grow tired, an additional element is introduced... |
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| ...and, not nearly for the last time in a western, the cavalry arrives just in the nick of time |
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| A shot that would be repeated many, many times is westerns: gunmen, spread out, walk slowly down an empty street |
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| Ringo's dive towards the camera suddenly cuts ahead of the previous slow build up |
There is
one way that Stagecoach doesn’t
transcend previous westerns and that is the depiction of Native Americans,
which are depicted as savages killing without reason. Ford’s oeuvre would
evolve in this area, however, with films like Fort Apache (1948)
in which whites are much more responsible for any conflict, not the Native
Americans. By 1964 Ford would make a film that was downright sympathetic
towards Native Americans, Cheyenne Autumn.
Other Hollywood films, such as Delmer Dave’s Broken Arrow (1950),
attempted to portray Native Americans positively, not as savages but as a
complex society that could interact healthily with whites. Though it still had
white actors playing Apaches, which is emblematic of Hollywood’s slow move
towards racial progress, one small step at a time in a journey that has still
yet to even come close to its ending.
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| Native Americans were often either depicted as stoic and mysterious... |
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| ...or as raging savages. |
Stagecoach took a host of previous western archetypes and
clichés, combined them into one large pot, and elevated the material to a
status that transcends their well-worn roots while also creating new archetypes
that would crop up often in future films. Even the music is an amalgamation of
American folk music. It proved that you didn’t need to reinvent the wagon wheel
to make a major picture out of a western. Despite being part of what was considered
to be a lesser genre, the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards,
including Best Picture and Best Director, winning two (for the music and
Mitchell for Supporting Actor). It was now open season on westerns for major
studios, big budgets, and top stars. Stagecoach turned
the western into a premier moneymaking genre and it would stay such for the
next few decades.
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| The dead man's hand |
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| Ringo and Dallas ride off into the sunset (technically the sunrise) |
See Also
Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) dir. John Ford
Another Ford film from the same year as Stagecoach, not a western but set during the same time period. Follows lawyer Abraham Lincoln as he defends two men accused of murder and begins to become the man who’d be president.
Dodge City (1939) dir. Michael Curtiz
Errol Flynn cleans up Dodge City with the help of Olivia de Havilland. More standard of a western story than Stagecoach but emblematic of big budget, big star westerns that would be made in the coming years.
Destry Rides Again (1939) dir. George Marshall
Big stars James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich in another archetypical western plot, featuring a rag-tag group of individuals going up against a rich cattle baron. The movie itself, is somewhat atypical however, a sort of screwball comedy gone west.
Let me know what you think either here or on Twitter @bottlesofsmoke
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