304 - Stagecoach, United States, 1939. Dir. John Ford.
Welcome to Tonto.
The Stagecoach has arrived.
Next stops: Dry Fork, Apache Wells, Lee's Ferry, and Lordsburg.
All aboard.
Nine people will board the Stagecoach. Two on top and seven inside. Together they will form a microcosm of the West, of the new nation, of the incubating civilization. With people pairing up, symbolizing the stretches of the strata of society.
Buck the driver. Played by Andy Devine. With his classic screechy voice. He knows the trails like Mark Twain knows the river in Life on the Mississippi. Every town. Every turn. Every trail. Every tumbleweed. And he knows his horses as if they were his own children--six of them switching out at every stop--calling them all by name. Blackie! Belle! Bess!
The Sheriff Marshal Curley Wilcox. Played by George Bancroft. He pairs up with Buck by literally riding shotgun. He joins the journey when he hears the Ringo Kid may be out there. The Kid has recently escaped from the pen. He went in at 17. Curley knows his family.
Mrs. Lucy Mallory. Louise Platt from Broadway. Upper crust. A lady. She is determined to get to her husband. And she will do it at any cost. Despite the threat of the Apache. Despite the dangers of the drive itself. Even despite the presence of that . . . other woman, Dallas. If she can survive her, she can survive anything. We do not yet know fully what drives Lucy, but it is similar to that of Lena Grove in William Faulkner's Light in August.
Hatfield. Played by John Carradine. The gambler. Not properly a gentleman. But one that aspires to be and behaves as one. He pairs up with Lucy by becoming her protector. He is refreshed to be in the presence of a lady, and we learn later that he once served with her father.
Samuel Peacock. Played by Donald Meek. The whiskey salesman. From Kansas City, Kansas. Not Missouri. Husband and father of five. Yet effeminate. And meek. He wishes to avoid the journey, but the doctor makes him come. After all, he is carrying a case of whiskey. He puts on a deerstalker hat like Sherlock Holmes.
Doc Josiah Boone. Played by Thomas Mitchell. An actor's actor. He played in everything during this period. He played in Stageoach, Only Angels Have Wings, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Gone with the Wind IN THIS YEAR ALONE! He won the Academy Award for this role. For Best Supporting Actor. He is the doctor and has a classical education. He quotes Shakespeare when he is run out of the town. But he is a drunk. He pairs up with Peacock--whom he constantly calls Haycock--to get his hands, and his mouth, on that whiskey.
Dallas. Claire Trevor from B movies. The working woman. She too is run out of town. The ladies of society do not want her around. Doc Boone pairs up with her as they walk to the Stagecoach to Ford's favorite hymn, "Shall We Gather at the River." The Ringo Kid will pair up with her later when he joins the group. He will look past her status. He will include her. He will honor her. He will love her.
Ellsworth Gatewood. The banker. Burton Churchill. The odd man out. The one character who does not pair up with another. One might think that Ford overplays his stereotype here, that his merely being a banker somehow makes him automatically greedy and thereby automatically unlikable. Too bad.
The Ringo Kid. His name is Henry. He tells us. Played by John Wayne in a starmaking turn. By casting John Wayne, John Ford elevates Wayne to star status in A pictures, and with Stagecoach he elevates Westerns to A pictures. Ringo is good-natured, good-hearted, and honest. He sits on the floor of the Stagecoach with his back to the side door. He befriends Dallas. He helps them all survive. Yet he may be going to his doom. He is going to Lordsburg to get revenge on Luke Plummer, who killed his father and brother. The only thing is Luke is not alone. He has his own brothers with him, Hank and Ike, and they are waiting for him. What exactly do you call a duel that is not between two people? It is three on one. It is not even a quartet. It is a trio versus a solo. Ringo has all the odds against him.
John Ford had John Wayne study Harry Carey to develop his character as Ringo Kid. Carey had starred in Ford's first feature, Straight Shooting (1918), and worked in many Westerns. His son, Harry Carey, Jr., would also play in many Ford films, and would work often with Wayne.
Some seem to assume that John Wayne was always swaggering, always putting on, trying to be macho, trying to show off. But that is not an accurate description of his acting style. If you watch enough John Wayne movies, you will see that he plays a wide range of disparate characters and that he is relaxed and natural in his own skin. His character here is polite and charming, open to friendship, and one of the gang. His acceptance of Dallas breaks through class snobbishness and his love for her transforms her as well as those around them. He ennobles the others. He is an ensemble player in an ensemble play, and he happily plays his role.
It is in this picture that John Ford introduces the world to Monument Valley.
The nine mismatched people in their cramped quarters will become a family as they travel the dangerous trails. They will live together, fight together, eat together, survive together. And sometimes die together.
Orson Welles famously stated that he watched Stagecoach more than forty times before and while making his masterpiece Citizen Kane at the age of twenty-five.
When asked to name his favorite directors, Welles stated, "I prefer the old masters. John Ford. John Ford. And John Ford."
John Ford made many kinds of movies. Not just Westerns. In fact, Stagecoach was his first Western in more than a decade. By the time he made Stagecoach he was a twenty-year veteran of film. And his best work was yet to come.
He filmed people. He filmed horses. He created living towns filled with action. He filmed daily life. He filmed the earth. He showcased the American landscape. He showed light. He showed architecture. He told stories. He framed his camera. He moved his camera. He demonstrated the importance of the gaze.
Ford is often called a poet. He was a working man's director. He showed up for work and he did his job.
And his films stand the test of time.
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