Ben Johnson is Travis, Harry Carey Jr. is Sandy, two horse traders heading to town and looking forward to a big payday for the mustangs they’ve broken.
They wind up selling the horses for the princely sum of $50 apiece, then are talked into becoming guides for a wagon train headed to the San Juan Valley.
A Mormon wagon train under the direction of Edler Wiggs (Ward Bond) is destined for that region. And no one with the wagon train knows the area they heading into as well as Travis and Sandy.
Along the way, they rescue a stranded traveling medicine show and are joined by a vicious band of bandits, led by Uncle Shiloh Cleggs (Charles Kemper), who’s nursing a bullet wound from a recent bank robbery.
The Mormons manage their way across the desert, barter their way past the Navahos and manage to scale some treacherous country as the Cleggs look on ominously, waiting for a chance to rob their hosts.
As the trip proceeds, the wagon guides’ concern for the Mormon’s safety becomes more personal.
Sandy falls for a young Mormon girl named Prudence; Travis falls for a reluctant Denver (Joanne Dru), who’s traveling with the medicine show.
Ben Johnson as Travis Blue, reacting to the arrival of the Clegg gang at the wagon train’s campsite in The Wagon Master (1950)
Joanne Dru as Denver, stranded in the desert with the rest of her traveling medicine show in Wagon Master (1950)
Review:
You won’t rank this among Ford’s best, but it’s still a Western full of fine characters, from a Mormon elder (Bond) who constantly has to curb his tendency to cuss to a pretty young dancer (Dru) with a traveling show who puts up the bravest of fronts.
Ben Johnson spent most of a long acting career as a supporting character, but got to star in a couple of Westerns in the ’50s. His easy-going style fits this film well.
As for trivia, this film marked one of the first movies for James Arness, who gained fame as Marshal Matt Dillon. He plays Floyd Clegg, son of the outlaw leader.
The film marked the last movie for Jim Thorpe, the famous athlete. He appeared in dozens of Westerns through the 1930s and 1940s. Here, at age 62, he’s one of the Navaho. He died three years later.
Harry Carey Jr. as Sandy, itching to do something about the Clegg gang’s arrival in Wagon Master (1950)
Ward Bond as Elder Wiggs, the leader of the Mormon Wagon train heading West in Wagon Master (1950)
Directed by:
John Ford
Cast:
Ben Johnson … Travis
Harry Carey Jr. … Sandy
Joanne Dru … Denver
Ward Bond … Wiggs
Charles Kemper … Shiloh Clegg
Alan Mowbray … Dr. Hall
Jane Darwell … Sister Ledeyard
James Arness … Floyd Clegg
Ruth Clifford … Fleuretty Phyffe
Kathleen O’Malley … Prudence Perkins
Runtime: 86 min.
Charles Kemper as Uncle Shiloh Clegg, using a Mormon wagon train to slip away from a posse in Wagon Master (1950)
Mickey Simpson as Jesse Clegg and James Arness as Floyd Clegg, two members of the outlaw gang in Wagon Master (1950)
Memorable lines:
Sandy, when a Mormon tells him to watch his language: “Hell ain’t cussing. It’s geography.”
Sandy to Elder Wiggs: “Are you guys Mormons?”
Elder Wiggs: “Yep, that’s why I keep my hat on. So the horns don’t show. Why I got more wives than Solomon himself. At least that’s what folks around here say. And if they don’t say it, they think it.”
Denver: “Look, you don’t have to protect me. I can take care of myself. I’m used to it.”
Travis: “Sorry, ma’am.”
Denver: “And I don’t need any sympathy either. I’m done nothing I need to be ashamed of, no matter what you and your friends think. I didn’t ask to be picked up by these Bible shouters and will be just as happy to get rid of them …”
Travis: “No call to get mad at me, ma’am.”
Denver: “And don’t call me ma’am.”
Travis: “No ma’am.”
Hank Worden as Luke Clegg, one of the members of the outlaw gang in Wagon Master (1950)
Fred Libby as Reese Clegg, butting heads with Travis Blue over dancing with Denver in Wagon Master (1950)
Fleuretty Phyffe: “You like him, don’t you?”
Denver: “I don’t want to see him full of bullet holes, if that’s what you mean.”
Travis, when Sandy gets a gun and wants to stand up to the Cleggs: “What did you ever shoot at besides tin cans and beer bottles?”
Sandy: “That ain’t the point. I’ll take care of them Cleggs if you’ll just back my play.”
Travis, watching Sandy tuck the gun into the back of his pants: “Be careful that gun don’t go off and blow your brains out.”
Elder Wiggs, after Travis demonstrates his skill with a gun: “I thought you never drew on a man.”
Travis, holstering his six-gun: “That’s right, sir. Only on snakes.”
Ben Johnson as Travis Blue, the wagon guide who only shoots at snakes in Wagon Master (1950)
Alan Mowbay as Dr. A. Locksley Hall and Ruth Clifford as Fleuretty Phyffe, the other members of the traveling medicine show in Wagon Master (1950)
Russell SImpson as Adam Perkins, one of the leaders of the Mormon wagon train in Wagon Master (1950)
Kathleen O’Malley as Prudence Perkins, the red-head who catches Sandy’s eye in Wagon Master (1950)
Jane Darnell as Sister Ledyard, the woman who blows a bugle to start each day’s journey in Wagon Master (1950)
Harry Carey Jr. as Sandy and Ben Johnson as Travis Blue, horse traders who become guides for a Mormon wagon train in Wagon Master (1950)
){kind=link}