Stagecoach (1939)

John Wayne is Johnny Ringo, who hitches a ride on a stage bound for Lordsburg, a stage making the trip even though the Apache are on the warpath. He has a score to settle with the Plummer brothers.

Also aboard is a saloon girl named Dallas, a drunken doctor named Boone, a banker named Gatewood, a Southern gentleman named Hatfield and a pregnant soldier’s wife named Lucy Mallory.

Then there’s the sheriff, who sympathizes with Ringo, but is nonetheless determined to take him back to jail, and the stage driver Buck, who’s more than a little skittish when the stage loses a promised cavalry escort.

Dallas and Boone have been kicked out of Tonto; she for her line of work, he for being a drunk. But they turn out to be two of the more heroic characters, caring for Lucy when she suddenly gives birth and earning her respect in the process.

Dallas and Ringo also fall for one another, though she fears he’ll stop caring when he learns about her past and he wonders whether she’ll be willing to wait while he serves the rest of his prison term. Of course, if the stage does get through, no one gives him much of a chance against Plummer and his two brothers.

Review:

The film turned Wayne into a star, rescuing him from a career making the cheapest of cheap B Westerns. Word has it, the producers wanted Gary Cooper for the lead role, but he would have been much costlier.

The film is also one of Ford’s best. The stage attack is one of the best put on film, and pretty remarkable for its time. Ford also does a fine job with the final gunfight, daring to turn the camera away from the action and focus on Dallas and her reaction.

The cast is full of fine character actors. Movie lovers will immediately recognize Andy Devine, Thomas Mitchell and John Carradine. They might be less familiar with Louise Platt, who made a short-lived venture into films before returning to the stage; and Berton Churchill, a prolific character actor in the mid-1930s who died a year after this film was released.

Directed by:
John Ford

Cast:
John Wayne … Johnny Ringo
Claire Trevor … Dallas
John Carradine … Hatfield
Thomas Mitchell … Dr. Josiah Boone
Andy Devine … Buck
Donald Meek … Samuel Peacock
Louise Platt … Lucy Mallory
Tim Holt … Lt. Blanchard
George Bancroft … Sheriff Curly Wilcox
Berton Churchill … Henry Gatewood
Tom Tyler … Luke Plummer

Runtime: 96 min.

Memorable lines:

Buck: “If I was you, I’d let them shoot it out.”
Marshal Wilcox: “Let who?”
Buck: “Luke Plummer and the Kid. There would be a lot more peace in this territory if that Luke Plummer had so many holes in him he couldn’t hold his liquor.”

Dr. Josiah Boone, as the passengers debate whether to continue to Lordsburg: “I’m not only a philosopher, sir, I’m a fatalist. Somewhere, sometime, there may be the right bullet or the wrong bottle waiting for Josiah Boone. Why worry when or where?”

Ringo Kid, when Lucy Mallory opts for a dinner seat far away from he and Dallas: “Well, I guess you can’t break out of prison and into society in the same week.”

Ringo Kid, explaining why he has to go to Lordsburg to face the Plummers: “Well, there are some things a man just can’t run away from.”

Chris, the station manager after his wife has disappeared: “Sure, I can find another wife. But she take my rifle and my horse. Oh, I’ll never sell her. I love her so much. I beat her with a whip and she never get tired.”
Dr. Josiah Boone: “Your wife?”
Chris: “No, my horse. I can find another wife easy, yes, but not a horse like that.”

Berton Churchill as Ellsworth Henry Gatewood, a banker with a secret in Stagecoach (1939)Louise Platt as Mrs. Lucy Mallory, the officer’s wife hoping for a reunion with her husband in Stagecoach (1939)

Donald Meek as Samuel Peacock, the whiskey drummer in Stagecoach (1939)

Tom Tyler as Luke Plummer, the man the Ringo Kid is looking for in Stagecoach (1939)

John Wayne as Ringo Kid, determined to make good use of 10 minutes of freedom, granted by Curley (George Bancroft) in Stagecoach (1939)