Saturday Night Cinema: Stagecoach

Tonight's Saturday Night Cinema feature for our fourth of July holiday weekend is considered the best Western in film history: the great American western classic, Stagecoach, directed by the great American film director, John Ford. Starring John Wayne in a career -making performance , Claire Trevor, John Carradine …… a magnificent ensemble piece.

Stagecoach has been hailed as a classic production by the American Film Institute and the National Film Preservation Board among others. However, it is more than just John Wayne's subtle performance and John Ford's outstanding direction that make this a must-see for cinema enthusiasts. Dudley Nichols's screenplay for Stagecoach produces an ensemble of characters that keep the audience interested throughout its ninety minute length. The film's personalities have both flaws and strengths that make them survive or die before the motion picture's end. The direction, acting, writing and scenery of Stagecoach have also been major influences for the film industry since its release in 1939 while also saving the western genre from extinction. From the opening credits over Monument Valley through to the surprising final line Stagecoach is a fantastic piece of work. (more here)

STAGECOACH New York Times review 

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By Frank S. Nugent

Published: March 3, 1939

In one superbly expansive gesture, which we (and the Music Hall) can call Stagecoach, John Ford has swept aside ten years of artifice and talkie compromise and has made a motion picture that sings a song of camera. It moves, and how beautifully it moves, across the plains of Arizona, skirting the sky-reaching mesas of Monument Valley, beneath the piled-up cloud banks which every photographer dreams about, and through all the old-fashioned, but never really outdated, periods of prairie travel in the scalp-raising seventies, when Geronimo's Apaches were on the warpath. Here, in a sentence, is a movie of the grand old school, a genuine rib-thumper, and a beautiful sight to see.

Mr. Ford is not one of your subtle directors, suspending sequences on the wink of an eye or the precisely calculated gleam of a candle in a mirror. He prefers the broadest canvas, the brightest colors, the widest brush, and the boldest possible strokes. He hews to the straight narrative line with the well-reasoned confidence of a man who has seen that narrative succeed before. He takes no shadings from his characters: either they play it straight or they don't play at all. He likes his language simple and he doesn't want too much of it. When his Redskins bite the dust, he expects to hear the thud and see the dirt spurt up. Above all, he likes to have things happen out in the open, where his camera can keep them in view.

He has had his way in Stagecoach with Walter Wanger's benison, the writing assistance of Dudley Nichols, and the complete cooperation of a cast which had the sense to appreciate the protection of being stereotyped. You should know, almost without being told, the station in life (and in frontier melodrama) of the eight passengers on the Overland stage from Tonto to Lordsburg.

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George McCallum

12 years ago

Great Movie! Pam, you could show nothing but movies from 1939, the best Hollywood year ever, and have enough good ones for about 6 months of Saturdays. Stagecoach, The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Love Affair, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Wuthering Heights, Destry Rides Again, Ninotchka, Gunga Din, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Dark Victory, Of Mice and Men, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Intermezzo, and on and on.

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Sandpeep

12 years ago

good movie, but greatest Western ever? Red River? High Noon? Shane? Even Unforgiven, and made to TV westerns Lonesome Dove and Open Range could make a run at that title.
BTW, there’s no mention of Yakima Canutt’s incredible stunts as both Wayne’s double and playing several different indians during the final stagecoach battle.
Hey, I’m not complaining, just sayin’ “best western ever” is subject to evaluation.

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Barry

12 years ago

Apologize for the OT post, but just came across this website while researching other matters. With regret, I have to inform you that the site fails the “Dan Burton” test.
While I have no doubt about your sincerity regarding Islamofascists (indeed, I certainly don’t have the courage or fortitude to be so bold), I am amazed that there has been not one criticism of the Congressmen from Indiana.
For the last 15 years, Burton has arguably been Pakistan’s strongest defender in Congress. For years (prior to 9/11), he supported “Islamic Freedom Fighters” (i.e., terrorists) who killed and maimed innocent Indian civlians. He was continually introducing legislation condemning Indians for being beastly to Islamic fundamentalists.
While the Indians were fighting the Taliban, Dan Burton was making sure that our scarce tax dollars went to Pakistan’s ISI (the master’s of the Taliban).
Thousands of innocent Americans paid the ultimate price for Dan Burton’s folly.
Yet, he still sits in Congress, adored by the right wing, and rarely gets criticized by the so-called ‘anti-jihad’ blogs.
This is must curious but sad.

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fern

12 years ago

It was good to escape from the outside world for an hour and a half. Thanx Pam.

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Morty62

12 years ago

Fantastic: “There’s worse things than Apaches.”

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Morty62

12 years ago

It is the archetypal Western. Revenge, the Fallen Women redeemed, cavalry charge to save the day etc … The fantastic set shots alone helped define what “Westerns” were to look like for the next several decades. The ones you mention are great, but Stagecoach set the template from which they were derived.

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primigi shoes

12 years ago

Anybody who wonders what the phrase “can do American spirit” means should watch Stagecoach. It has all the cliches Americans love about our country. The guy gets the girl, the bad girl is really good.

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plumbing

12 years ago

I love the concept! I will be agreeing that no american can resist those traditional movies. Thumbs up!

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