Exclusive“Stagecoach” (1939): First Classic Western

🎵Joy to the World by Kevin MacLeod🎵 Excuse me, when is the next stage coach out? The next stage leaves in ten minutes. And where is it going? It's the stage to Lordsburg. Do you think there's room for one more? I don't know. It's pretty crowded already. The passengers include John Wayne, Claire Trevor, and Thomas Mitchell. Oh dear, I do hope the driver will let me aboard. I simply can't miss that stage coach. I'm Rebecca Brannan. And I'm Tiffany Brannan. Welcome to Real Thoughts on Cinema. Most film genres could be set in any time period, but there are a few types of films which seem to be linked to a certain time period. That's a really great point. Can you give me an example? Well, westerns, for instance. Although you could make, I guess you could call any movie about cowboys or ranchers a western, basically when you hear that term, it evokes the old American West, the 19th century. That's really true. I don't think a lot of westerns are made anymore. Besides the Billy the Kids streaming series, which was made recently, I can't think of any westerns or western television shows from the last few years. It's kind of exclusively something that's in the classic film genre. So anyone who's a western fan, even if you might not be aware of it, is actually sort of a classic film fan. That's true. Most of the famous westerns were made no later than the 1970s. Even the famous TV shows like The Big Valley, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The Lone Ranger were all cancelled in the late 1960s or the early 70s. I think a large part of the reason that they're not made anymore is because the depiction of Native American characters in those movies is considered kind of racist now. That's true. But despite that, many people still love the western genre. True. I think another reason that it kind of declined in that time period, the late 60s or 70s is right around then is when John Wayne, who was the actor most associated with westerns, died. Yes. That could have contributed to the end of an era. So I think anyone who is maybe curious about the western genre maybe likes it because it's so much more than just the films, you know? It's a motif. It's a whole style. And it's particularly appealing to men and boys, but there are a lot of women who like to be cowgirls and put on the boots and the hat. But I think if you really want to get into the movies behind it, I would recommend a place to start would be something from the golden era of Hollywood, most notably a movie with John Wayne, the Duke himself. It's a great place to start. Absolutely. My suggestion would be the movie that made him a star. Where better to start? Which is Stagecoach from 1939. I love that movie. I think it's great. But are you sure that that's the best choice for someone's first classic film? After all, it's from the 1930s. And while I love 30s films, and so do you, they're very different. They're very old and it's an acquired taste. The cinema style is quite distinct. That's true. But I think it's a really good movie for all audiences because it has a little something for everyone. It isn't just cowboys and Indians. There is that, but it's a very human story. It's all about this varied cast of characters, but they each have a really interesting story and it kind of ties together. There's a very strong romance. And also, as we've been saying, Westerns are mostly classic films. So if you want to get into Westerns more, you're going to have to get used to that they're old because that's sort of what it is. Yeah. Maybe that's part of their charm, too. Definitely. Set in that bygone era, and it's such an easy style to evoke. Yeah. It is. Definitely. Stagecoach is also a good place to start from a Hollywood history standpoint because it was the movie that really started the Western genre in the talking picture era. That's right. They'd been very popular in silence, but with the advent of sound, the filmmakers felt that it wouldn't work as well, largely because the cameras were so large and hard to move at that time that they made a lot of noise. So for those action sequences with the horses and everything, they thought it would be difficult to film. So in a lot of the early ones, they're filmed with silent film. So they had to lay the sound over afterwards, and it looks a little faster because for some reason the silent film was a little faster than sound film. It was fewer images per second. Right. Interestingly, the film which kind of stopped talkie Westerns in its tracks was another movie with John Wayne. Really? As a matter of fact, it was his first feature film, The Big Trail from 1930, which was directed by Raoul Walsh. And it was a big flop, both critically and a flop at the box office, and it was such a failure that people called it the big fail. And it made John Wayne be relegated to B-pictures or supporting roles for years. Nobody wanted to give him a chance as a leading man again, and they sort of blamed him for the failure of that film. I read that another reason it didn't do that well was that it was filmed in the widescreen format and not a lot of movie theaters at the time had that technology, so the audiences didn't really get to see the full scope of how it was supposed to look. And I think a lot of, and this is the case a lot of times that movies fail really badly financially, is they just spent too much money and couldn't recoup it. Because Raoul Walsh bought in so many extras and horses and cows, and there was all this location footage. It was just a huge film and quite long too. It's like two hours, which was a bit long at the time, wouldn't you say an hour and a half was more the standard running time? Yeah, that was long for an early talkie like that. But the director John Ford was actually originally supposed to direct The Big Trail. And he passed it along to his friend Raoul Walsh, so thanks a lot John. And he was the one who would end up helming Stagecoach, so he was the one who brought Westerns back in. The producer Walter Wanger wanted a big star to play the sort of leading man, the Ringo Kid. He wanted Gary Cooper, who was a big actor at the time, and was becoming known for playing a cowboy. And he wanted the part, but he wanted too much money. So they tried several people, but John Ford really wanted his friend John Wayne to do it. He hadn't given him any good parts for quite a few years, because he didn't think he was ready for it yet, but he decided he was ready. And the two of them were out on his boat, and he was already thinking he wanted him for the part, but he was kind of teasing at it. So he said, oh Duke, I just can't decide who I want to play the Ringo Kid, so take a look at the script and tell me what you think, because you know all these young actors. So he read it, and he said, I think Lloyd Nolan would be a good choice, an actor at the time. And he was like, I don't know, Nolan? I'm not sure if that's good. So the next day, when they got back to shore, he told them, I've decided I want you to play the part. And he was kind of terrified, and he was scared he was going to take it away and change his mind, and give it to Lloyd Nolan, like I said. But he knew that he had the potential. But he was determined to drag it out of him any way possible, and was very mean to him on set. As a result, he was kind of known for being mean to people, but he really wanted to kind of bring him to the next level as an actor, and I guess it was indoctrination by fire. On the original posters for that film, the tagline is the dramatic story of nine strange people. An odd way of putting it. I think a better way to put it would have been nine strangers, because they're not strange people, but they don't know each other. But that really is what it is. It's a story about these people with different backgrounds who are thrown together by the common experience of riding the stagecoach, because out in the West, they didn't have all the carriages or the trains. The one way of getting transportation from one city to the next, unless you had a horse, that could be dangerous, was a stagecoach. And there was a lot of responsibility for the driver to take care of all these people, but a lot of danger, because the tension and drama that happens in the story is that the local Indians, the Apaches, are on the war path, led by Geronimo, the famous Indian brave, who's jumped the reservation, and he's angry, understandably. White man's stealing his land, and on the other hand, the white people are afraid that their lands are going to get burnt down, and they'll be attacked and shot. So there's tension on both sides, and they have to ride to this dangerous area, knowing that the Apaches are on the war path. There's a lot of tension about whether they should go or not. That's right. And the driver is... They take a vote on it, actually. Yes, they do. The driver is played by Andy Devine. Very popular character, actually, at the time. But the driver needs someone to ride shotgun with him. So the sheriff ends up volunteering, because he's looking for the Ringo Kid, a young man who has just escaped from the penitentiary, where he's been put for supposedly killing someone, but he claims he was falsely accused. So he's out looking for him, and he's riding shotgun. That's where, on a stagecoach, he's riding next to him with the shotgun, ready to shoot any bandits who come along, or any Indians, anyone who's going to endanger the people inside. Right. One of the main passengers is Dallas, a woman of low moral character who's being kicked out of the town by the Women's Law and Order Society. And she's very upset, but they're sending her on to Lordsburg. The name of the short story on which this was based was Staged to Lordsburg. They sort of pronounce it like Larsburg in the movie, but it's spelled like Lordsburg. Yeah, you have to look it up. What is this name? Lordsburg? I can't understand. So she's being thrown out of town. She has no choice but to take the stage. Another person being thrown out of town is the local doctor, Doc Boone, played by Thomas Mitchell. And he actually won Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars for his performance as this doctor. He doesn't do a whole lot of doctoring. He mainly drinks, right? Yes, he's an alcoholic, and that's why he's being thrown out of town. Another passenger is Mrs. Mallory, a very refined lady and the wife of a soldier in the army who, unbeknownst to all the other passengers, is very expectant with a child. But she is determined to take that stagecoach and get to her husband. But at each stop, she finds out that her husband is one stop farther along the path because of the Indian invasion. He has to stay with his troops. And another passenger who joins rather unexpectedly is the town gambler, played by John Carradine. He's a very smooth operator, and everyone rumors that he's not only a gambler, but a murderer. Yet he's strangely polite and gentlemanly, played by the very eloquent John Carradine. And he insists on going along and offering his protection to the lady. Oh, he says, oh, she's a gentlewoman, and he's so respectful of her. And everyone wonders, why is he so polite to her? But it turns out that they have a connection. He served in her father's regiment in the Civil War on the southern side. Another passenger is played by Donald Meek. And his name is Peacock, but everyone calls him other names, like Hancock. It all starts with Doc Boone calling him that because he's a whiskey drummer. He's going around peddling whiskey. But for some reason, Doc Boone insists on calling him Reverend. So everyone seems to think he's a minister named Hancock. He's a very meek fellow, as the actor's name implies. And he provides a bit of comic relief. And then, of course, there's the banker, Mr. Gatewood, who joins just as they're leaving town. Yes. Unbeknownst to the others, he's on the run because he's just embezzled a lot of money from his bank. That's why he's so grouchy throughout the trip and keeps insisting, oh, we have to keep going. We have to keep going and get along. He's insistent to the point of being a maniac. The other people are very, what's wrong with you, Gatewood? Why are you endangering everyone? And then the final member of the trip is the Ringo kid, whom they end up picking up by accident because his horse is lame. And they started out with only four people inside, and it ends up with people sitting on the floor. It's very crowded. Very crowded. And it's quite a journey, which they have. They go through snow. There's an Indian invasion. They get held up one place. They see the smoke off in the distance. Mrs. Mallory gives birth. And along the way, Dallas and the Ringo kid find something together. They find respect for each other, which none of the other people will give them. They realize that they're both human beings, and they begin to fall in love in spite of themselves. I guess you could technically say the last passenger would be Mrs. Mallory's baby. Yes. So there are actually ten people by the end. Ten strange people. This movie has a very star-studded cast, as you've mentioned, a lot of them. Of course, there's John Wayne, Claire Trevor, who actually received top billing being the biggest star at the time. Yes, playing Dallas. Wonderful character actor Thomas Mitchell, John Carradine, Andy Devine, and Donald Meek, of course. And it was directed by the famous John Ford, as I mentioned, and produced by Walter Wenger. This film was nominated for many Academy Awards in what was the golden year of Hollywood. That's right. And the reason people call 1939 the golden year of Hollywood was that so many famous movies came out during that year. Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, just to name two, which are two of the most famous, but there were so many movies. Three hundred and sixty-five feature films were released in America that year. One for every day. And ten movies were nominated for Best Picture, and they are all just famous, top-ranked movies. Stagecoach was one of them. Gone with the Wind was the winner, but it won two Academy Awards. Best Supporting Actor for Thomas Mitchell, who could have been nominated for any number of films that year. Yes. That was the only one for which he was nominated, but he was also in Gone with the Wind, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Only Angels Have Wings, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, many of which were nominated for Best Picture that year. And it also won for Best Scoring. At that time, there were two different music awards, Best Original Score and Best Scoring when it wasn't an original score. Because a lot of them are old, classic kind of songs. Yes, like the one that won for Best Original Score was The Wizard of Oz. It was original music. Gone with the Wind was also nominated for that. It's ironic because the score to Gone with the Wind by the amazing classical composer Max Steiner is the longest film score ever composed. Is that right? Yes. And he didn't win for it. Got beat up by the Wizard of Oz. It's very famous, too. Yes, it is. Most people, I think, have heard that main theme somewhere. Max Steiner wrote fifteen film scores that year. He was prolific. He was a busy boy. He didn't sleep much. But that film, Stagecoach, doesn't have an original score. It's a composite. You hear melodies like An Old Cowhand on the Rio Grande, At the River, the old gospel song. Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair is the theme for Mrs. Mallory because it's like the old South, Stephen Foster, and that's what she represents. I understand that score was reused a couple of times in later, very famous Western TV shows, I believe. So much to love about that movie. And it really sets the scene for what Westerns would be. I think our background here really represents the golden year. You've got Gone with the Wind. But down here, this is like Stagecoach. You've got Stagecoach. It's very Western. Outlaws. It represents how Westerns just, you know, they're so distinctly. And then the overgrown. Exactly. Wizard of Oz. Exactly. That is the 1939 picture. Westerns are so American. And John Wayne, he's just like the true American people. A lot of people really like what he represented. He brought his own hat to use as the Ringo kid. That's right. And he loved that hat so much. He used it in all his Westerns after that for years, for decades, in fact, until it was so worn out. It was just falling apart. Yes. He wore it for the last time in his 1959 movie Rio Bravo. Oh, yes. And he finally had to retire it after that because it was just falling apart. And then he kept it under glass in his house. It's funny how some people might not be able to name Westerns they've seen, but they've just seen maybe parodies of the whole Western genre. And as we know, being performers, when you put on a Western show like we did this summer, how men and boys just love it. You put up a few little things, like you get your old saddle, your cowboy boots, your cowboy hat, put on some guns. Give any male cast member a gun, he's going to be playing with it. They all become 10-year-olds. The funniest thing was our very mature baritone, we brought in Play the Villain, and he was like shooting the other cast members. Not really, but pretending to shoot the other cast members. Really, really funny. It's fun because it's tense, but it's the best kind of drama and it brings out the fun in it. But the reason that Stagecoach is great is that it's not just a man's picture because it has two really important female characters, more so than a lot of Westerns. It's like a lot of Westerns is just the schoolmarm or just the girl, but Dallas is a really important character, as is Mrs. Marm. She is, and Dallas is sort of a problematic character, honestly, in that her lifestyle could easily have been very explicit and it could have been very inappropriate, just like there could have been a lot of violence in a movie of this kind. But it was made very tastefully because of the era. Being made between 1934 and 1954, that's when the PCA, or the Production Code Administration, was headed by Joseph Breen, and they enforced a set of guidelines, the Motion Picture Production Code. Commonly called the Hayes Code, but inaccurately because Hayes did not write it. And the word censorship is bandied about a lot nowadays. This wasn't censorship, but there was a lot of that at the time. Around the country there were censor boards that would just- And the world. They would just cut movies to pieces. Yeah, the British were very difficult, especially, I understand. British censors were very sensitive about violence to horses, which was something that really had to be considered when making Westerns. Definitely. Of course, you know, horses were tripped to make it, but they didn't like to see horses getting killed. Right. That was disturbing to the British. So the PCA helped the filmmakers make films right in the first place, and then they could maintain their artistic integrity and hopefully not get chopped up so much. Because nothing's worse than making a piece of art or writing something and then somebody else gets to cut it up. It's better to collaborate with someone and say, alright, how can we work together to make something that fits certain guidelines so that everybody can enjoy it? Because if you read Wikipedia or IMDb, any description of this film, you'll see that it describes Dallas as a prostitute. But if you watch the movie, especially, I'd say, a younger person, but if you watch it, you might be thinking, why are they throwing her out? Because they don't explicitly say it. No, they don't. They don't even subtly say it. Like the big reveal, she brings him to show him, well, here's where I live. It's done really brilliantly, though. Little details. You see the two of them walking along, and they're walking past these places, and you hear laughing and kind of riding on his little honky-tonk piano. Yes, yes. That was very telling, I think, of the time, especially. The honky-tonk represents, you know, the old West Saloon, which oftentimes, the painted ladies were more than dancing girls. So maybe she was more of just a painted lady than a dancing girl. You don't really know how far it went with her. The most you find out is seeing how other people react to her. Yes. Like, you see people like, oh, that trash show, don't sit next to her, she's not a lady. It's mainly seeing how people respond to her. And Doc Boone says to her, we're both victims of something called social prejudice. Yes. Because he's an alcoholic. But the Ringo kid, partly because he's kind of innocent, he went to jail when he was 16. He's not that worldly of a character, you know? And he just sees, this is a woman, this is a lady. And he treats her like a lady, and it just touches her so much. And that's why it's so sweet when they get together, and they kind of see the soft side of each other. Yes. And it's just a really beautiful romance, I think. And, of course, the other difficult topic is revenge. It says in the code, revenge in modern times must not be depicted, as in taking it away from the law. Right. Now, this is the Wild West. They called it the Wild West for a reason. It was kind of lawless. Yes, there's the sheriff, but... If it were, say, a gangster film, which is very popular, set in modern times, he couldn't go and kill three people and then, you know, go on his way. But because it's the Old West, it's an old shootout. It's sort of like a duel. Yes. In the Victorian times. So just the rules were different then. And I think it's handled very nicely, so it doesn't seem like vengeance. It's more like... It seems justified. Yes. It's just more like retribution. Yes. Maybe. And, of course, again, because of the code and rules about showing violence, the shootout, like the high noon shootout, even though it takes place at night, doesn't really happen on screen. No, it's only about 30 seconds, and it's mainly off screen. You see them walking together, the classic Western shot, and then he, like, drops to the ground, and then you just hear the shots and see Dallas's reaction nearby as she hears the shots. Yes. But that adds to the tension, because then they make you wait before you know who won. Yes. He might be dead. You don't know. Another thing you can really enjoy about this, if you're maybe a girl who's interested in Westerns, is the nice costumes the female characters wear. Each only has one, but they're very lovely and historically accurate. The outfit I'm wearing is representing Mrs. Mallory. She's a very refined Southern lady, so she has a long, full skirt and a little jacket, a nice hat. It's hard to tell what color her outfit is because it's in black and white, but she's very refined and very delicate. So this outfit I have with my shoes, unbelievably, I actually got it from Amazon. There's some very nice Victorian outfits you can buy. I bought it as a costume for a show, but I just love it because it's so Victorian with the bustle. So it evokes this era, which is just after the Civil War. My outfit is slightly less historically accurate, but what I love about it is this is a vintage dress from the 1930s, so it captures both the film setting and the time period when it was made. I also bought this for our recent Western performance, but I just love it. It has sort of a little bustle style on the back, little boots, Western, and I've done my best to recreate her Victorian hairstyle. We mentioned earlier that the depiction of Native Americans is one of the things that bothers people about this movie. As a matter of fact, I think you mentioned that it's declined in recent years because of that. Yeah, I think so. Just, honestly, a lot of Westerns, not just this one, but people think that there are racist stereotypes because they're just depicted as murderous, mindless savages. But I think that it's just a realistic depiction of how the West was. It's not necessarily depicting them as bad, it's showing they're on the other side. I mean, if you're a settler who doesn't want your house to be burnt down and there are patches on the warpath, they're going to look like the bad ones. Well, just like in any war film, the Germans or Japanese or whoever, whatever enemies they're depicting aren't, they don't show you their side of it because we're seeing it from our side. So this is sort of showing, this is the settlers, the white settlers' impressions, like what their conception of the Indians was. But you see that they're very good riders, they're riding their horses very skillfully, and they're just trying to defend their land. So I don't think it's necessarily prejudicial. There really aren't many characters. The only one who's really a character is the wife of a Mexican innkeeper. He's married to an Apache woman. Who interestingly is played by a Mexican actress. She was played by a very famous Mexican singer at the time who had a radio show. And she sings the song. It's an interesting musical moment. She's very beautiful. Beautiful, yes. And she's really the only character you see. But I think the thing that perhaps people overlook is that although it was showing Apaches from the past perhaps being murderous and violent, it gave a lot of sustenance to Navajo Indians. Really? Because there was a lot of location film actually in the Monument Valley, which has that very famous mitten formation. In Arizona, right? In Arizona and Utah. I recognize it. We've taken that drive. Yes. I recognize those sculptures. And no one had filmed there yet because there wasn't a paved road. But there was this fellow who believed it was just the perfect place because he owned some land near there. And he just camped out on John Ford's doorstep and said, I'm going to stay here until you listen to me that Monument Valley is a place where you need to film. And he listened to him right away, showed him pictures, and he was convinced. So it turns out John Ford loved that area so much, he films four different sections of the film there to the point that it doesn't even make geographic sense. They keep going to Monument Valley over and over again just because he loved it. And he went on to film many of his most famous Westerns after that in Monument Valley. But he hired local Navajo Indians, hundreds of them. Really? As extras to work with the horses, to be carpenters, to be behind the scenes. And that gave those people work and money that really helped them because, you know, on the reservation. That's really great. A lot of Native Americans really struggle with making a living and they were very grateful for that opportunity. And just to make up white actors as any nationality was sort of the theme of the day. So the fact that he had actual Indians is really amazing. The main chief you see writing, his name is Big Tree, Chief John Big Tree. And he hired real people. And I think that that, you could say, makes up a little bit for, if you think it's racist. But we should respect that there are Navajo Indians being used there. And as a little bit Sioux Indian ourself, I respect that he was giving work to them and representing that culture, that culture of what America is. That's part of our history. Let's not sweep it under the rug. It's an important part of American history and settling the West. Couple of places where during that scene with Indians, they're not the Navajo actors would be, there's particularly this one stunt double, his name is Yakima Nakut. And he did a couple of very notable stunts when falling off a horse. And then the, I believe the Indian that gets like dragged under the horses. I was watching. I was like, how'd they do that? And yes, that was a real person. He described in great detail how that was done. And after filming it, he went to John Ford and he's like, did you get it? And he said, he's like, did that look good? It's like, even if it didn't, there's no way I'm filming that again. He said, I'm never going to film something that dangerous again. That was crazy. And he did the double for John Wayne when he's supposed to jump out and lead the horses. And he impressed John Ford so much that he made him the official sort of stunt coordinator. Not only for that, but for a lot of his films after that. Because he came up with how they could make the stagecoach float across the river like a raft. That's right. They were going to have to not film that. Like not show it. Because they couldn't figure out how to do it. And he had the idea. He knew how to do it. The logs. The hollowed out logs. So, very brilliant man. So, stagecoach, I have to agree with you now after thinking about it. It's a great place to start. It's a great first Western. And if you're, if you want to say, I've watched a Western, but you're not a huge Western fan. Like, we really haven't seen many Westerns. No. So, I'd say both for boys, men who, people who love older, people who love more recent Westerns, or people who sort of like the whole vibe, but they haven't seen many movies. Or if you just want to watch a Western, but you don't know if you like them, stagecoach is a good one. And it's widely available. You can even watch it for free on Amazon Prime Video. It's in the public domain in a lot of places. So, you can find it easily online, or you can buy it on DVD. It's so easy to find classic movies, I'm telling you. It's so easy. Yeah. And, of course, you can always look around. There are many movie theaters throughout the country that will play old movies. Some of them are dedicated to it. And it's a great experience to see it in a movie theater if you can. But if you do like more action, something with a little more exciting location, things happening in vibrant technicolor, we have another film to recommend for you. We'll bring you to the jungles of Africa with the first film made on location on that continent, King Solomon's Mines. Tune in next week to hear us talk about it. Thank you for watching. Goodbye.