The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

James Stewart is Ransom Stoddard, an idealistic young lawyer who heads West and quickly runs afoul of an outlaw named Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin). In fact, he’s severely whipped by Valance after a stage holdup.

Once in the town of Shinbone, he finds allies in the form of tough Tom Doniphon (John Wayne) and his fiance, Hallie (Vera Miles).

Doniphon warns Stoddard his law books will be useless in the West, where might and a fast gun determine who’s right.

Hallie nurses Stoddard back to health; he pays her back by teaching her how to read. He pays off room and board to her Swedish parents by working in their cafe.

Stoddard also becomes friends with Dutton Peabody (Edmond O’Brien), editor of the Shinbone Star, as the two advocate for statehood for the territory.

In fact, they find themselves up for election as territorial delegates to work toward that goal.

Their opponent? Liberty Valance, who supports cattle barons opposed to statehood.

When Peabody and Stoddard are elected as the delegates, Valance promises vengeance. He and two sidekicks (played by Lee Van Cleef and Strother Martin) wreck the newspaper office and badly beat Peabody.

Stoddard grabs a six-gun he can barely use and offers to meet Valance in the street while Hallie summons Doniphon for help.

When the shooting ends, Valance is dead; Stoddard is hailed a hero as “the man who shot Liberty Valance.”

And Doniphon returns home and burns down the room he was building for the day he and Hallie would marry. Stoddard was wounded in the shooting. Doniphon finds him in Hallie’s arms.

And so begins the political career for the lawyer from back East.

Review:

One of John Ford’s most effective later films, told flashback fashion as the senator and his wife arrive unannounced in Shinbone to pay tribute to an old friend who has passed.

The body of Tom Doniphon is at rest in a plain, wooden casket. A newspaper reporter and editor begin asking questions about why the senator is back in town; Doniphon, after all, did not die as a man of any significance.

And so Stoddard tells them the story, one they decide not to print because, in this case, legend has become fact.

All that said, it’s a bit of an odd film for Wayne, who got top billing but has one of the least interesting characters. He strides around as the quickest gun on the side of right, calling Stoddard “pilgrim,” standing up to Valance when the need arises. But his is the old form of Western prowess; it’s Stewart who represents the territory’s future.

Marvin is magnificent as the snarling villain. Stewart turns in another winning performance. And Miles is also effective as the young woman eager to learn under Stewart’s tutelage and hoping that his vision of a West where law and order prevail comes to be.

As a note of trivia, a Burt Bacharach-Hal David song by the same name was recorded for the film by Gene Pitney, but wasn’t used in the soundtrack. No problem: It became a hit anyway.

Directed by:
John Ford

Cast:
John Wayne … Tom Doniphon
James Stewart … Ransom Stoddard
Vera Miles … Hallie Stoddard
Lee Marvin … Liberty Valance
Edmond O’Brien … Dutton Peabody
Woody Strode … Pompey
Andy Devine .. Linc Appleyard
Ken Murray …Doc Willoughby
Jeanette Nolan … Nora Ericson
John Qualen … Peter Ericson
Denver Pyle … Amos Carruthers
Strother Martin … Floyd
Lee Van Cleef … Reese
John Carradine … Maj. Cassius Starbuckle
Carleton Young … Maxwell Scott

Runtime: 122 min.

Memorable lines:

Tom Doniphon: “Liberty Valance is the toughest man south of picket wire. Next to me.”

Tom Doniphon, after reading Ransom’s Attorney at Law sign: “Pilgrim, you really aim to hang that up outside somewhere?”
Ransom: “That’s why I painted it.”
Doniphon: “Well, take some advice, pilgrim. You put that thing up, you’ll have to defend it with a gun. You ain’t exactly the type.”

Liberty Valance: “You lookin’ for trouble, Doniphon?”
Tom Doniphon: “You aim to help me find some?”

Mr. Scott, to Ransom Stoddard: “This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”

Tom Doniphon: “It ain’t mannerly out west to let a fella drink by himself.”

Tom Doniphon, about to leave town and knowing the newspaper is about to pick a fight with Liberty Valance: “Take note of what goes on around here, because by the time I get back there ain’t gonna be no newspaper to read it in.”

Linc Appleyard, on the prospect of getting tough with Liberty Valance: “The jail’s only got one cell, and the lock’s broke and I sleep in it.”

James Stewart as Ransom Stoddard, victim of a stage holdup in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

Vera Miles as Hallie trying to talk Ransom Stoddard out of a showdown in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

Andy Devine as Lince Appleyard, the rather meek sheriff of Shinbone in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

Ken Murray as Doc WIlloughby, realizing the day he’s wished for has arrived in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

Woody Stode as Pompey, welcoming Ransom and Hallie Stoddard back to Shinbone in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

ohn Qualen as Peter Ericson, father of Hallie and owner of a restaurant in Shinbone in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

Jeanette Nolan as Nora Ericson, taking English lessons at Ransom Stoddard’s school in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

John Wayne as Tom Doniphon, sharing a secret about the night an outlaw died with Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart) in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)