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64 out of 79 people found the following comment useful :-
A great western which enables multiple interpretations, 30 April 2005

Author: Brandt Sponseller from New York City

John Wayne is "The Ringo Kid" in this John Ford-directed parable of outcasts traveling towards various kinds of figurative and literal redemption/salvation. On a surface level, the basic plot is disarmingly simple--a motley crew of eight takes a stagecoach from Tonto to Lordsburg, trying to avoid Geronimo and his Apaches on the way. They are having their own problems with the U.S. government and are thus likely to attack. The stagecoach bounces from outpost to outpost while the relationships of its passengers evolve, helping each other to "find themselves" and (usually) providing hope of some kind of new life.

The Ringo Kid has been wrongly accused of a crime and is on his way to Lordsburg to avenge both the false accusations and more importantly, the murder of his father and brother. Dallas (Claire Trevor) is implied to be a prostitute, and so is ostracized from Tonto (which means "stupid", "foolish" or "daft" in Spanish) by a self-stylized matronly moral majority. Doc Boone (Thomas Mitchell) is far more concerned with getting drunk than being a doctor, and is partially ostracizing himself from Tonto. Hatfield (John Carradine) is a "gambler gentleman" with a shady reputation and a false identity. Lucy Mallory (Louise Platt) is trying to get to her husband, who is in the military; she's in a surprisingly "secret" physical state. Samuel Peacock, whom everyone keeps mistaking for a reverend, is in the alcohol business and just wants to get back east to get back to his business. Henry Gatewood is a crooked banker trying to flee before his questionable dealings are discovered. And the stagecoach drivers consist of a lovable buffoon, Buck (Andy Devine) and the most forthright, straight arrow of the bunch, Marshal Curly Wilcox (George Bancroft).

Even though Stagecoach remains tightly focused on its wilderness road trip, that might seem like a large stable of characters to shape into a taut plot. Ford, working from script by Dudley Nichols and Ben Hecht, based on a short story, "Stage to Lordsburg", by Ernest Haycox (which itself bears a relation to Guy de Maupassant's "Boule de Suif", 1880), keeps the proceedings in check by only giving us the information we need to explore the evolving relationships, and only focusing on each character when they're important to the plot. This results in a few of the characters being functionally absent for extended lengths of time, but Ford can so easily establish a "deep" character with a minimum of screen time that the absences are not a detriment.

The principal focus, of course, is between Ringo and Dallas, as on a significant level, Stagecoach becomes a romance. They're initially brought together via their mutual ostracization, even among the ostracized, which gives them an immediate bond beyond their physical attraction towards one another. Wayne and Trevor are both fantastic in their roles, avoiding the occasional overacting by some other performers. But this is a film where it's difficult to count the slight overacting as a flaw, as it was more of a stylistic tendency of the genre during this period and it provides a nice counterbalance to Wayne and Trevor.

Stagecoach is also famous for its setting. Much of the film was shot in Utah's Monument Valley, along authentic stagecoach "roads". The (beautiful) starkness of the desert is often taken as a symbolic trip through a kind of purgatory for the characters, where they're left alone with their souls, their only connection being their small group, to contemplate their pasts and futures. Whether we choose to read something along those lines into the film or not, Monument Valley is at least a captivating presence in the film, although for me, the cinematography could have been better technically, especially considering that Stagecoach was made at the same time as The Wizard of Oz (1939). Ford's famous tendency to do only one take results in a couple minor gaffes, such as the initial shot of John Wayne--a zoom into a close-up--that is out of focus for most of the zoom.

As one could guess, eventually our passengers run into a band of Apaches, who are often interpreted as representing more of a "natural force" that our heroes must surmount. The climax features a fabulous extended chase/fight sequence with a number of amazing stunts by both humans and animals. The most impressive human stunts are performed by the legendary Yakima Canutt, including one that involved being dragged through the dirt by the horse-pulled stagecoach, which was moving along at about 40 miles per hour and supposedly missed running over Canutt by only 12 inches (30.5 cm). This scene was an inspiration for a similar stunt in Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).

Although it's not a "perfect" film to me, and it's not even my favorite western (I'm more partial to the classic spaghetti westerns, for example), Stagecoach is a very good film and was very influential, despite being made at a time when Ford was told that he was committing professional suicide by even contemplating a western. As the plethora of critical literature attests, it works on many levels, including as an allegorical microcosm of U.S. Depression-era society, and should be seen at least once by anyone serious about film literacy.

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50 out of 68 people found the following comment useful :-
The classic film that started it all., 20 September 2003
Author: SanDiego from The Beach

The Overland Stage Lines stagecoach is traveling from the frontier town of Tonto, Arizona to Lordsburg, New Mexico. Geronimo, the Apache chief, has just jumped the reservation and starts an uprising. Before leaving Tonto, the passengers are notified by the Calvary that they are now traveling at their own considerable risk but they will be escorted by the soldiers (here's a clue: don't believe it). Among the passengers are a prostitute being thrown out of town by a group of women with their noses so stuck up in the air you could fly flags off of them. She is joined by a drunken doctor, a gentlemen card shark, a meek whiskey salesman, a crooked banker, a pregnant woman on her way to meet her husband, and a young cowboy who just broke out of jail and out to revenge his family's murder. The coach driver and his shotgun complete the group.

It's all based on a short story called appropriately Stage to Lordsburg but also on a French story (Guy de Maupassant's Boule de Suif) with similar characters traveling in a coach during the Franco-Prussian War.

The basic structure of the plot is also familiar to fans of disaster films. Passengers are introduced, board a common conveyance and face a tremendous danger. The exciting adventure of who lives, who dies, will the stage make it to its destination, and what happens next is highlighted by perhaps the most famous stunts in film history by the most famous and respected stuntman of all Yakima Canutt. If one of the stunts looks familiar, Steven Speilberg recreated it for his first Indiana Jones film.

The film is also a lot more. Unlike other westerns up to its time which were mainly shoot-em-ups between the good guys in the white hats and the bad guys in the black hats, it examines very serious social issues and how different people look down at others differently. Besides prejudice, some of the characters are flawed with alcoholism, greed and revenge. We also see the good in bad people with respect for new life and ultimately redemption. Nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Interior Decoration, Best Film Editing, Best Supporting Actor (won) and Best Score (won), Stagecoach was John Ford's first sound Western and elevated the genre in both critical praise and popularity. The low camera angles in Monument Valley would become a John Ford trademark. Despite doing 70 films, this is the one that made Wayne a star and it's easy to see why. Many consider it his best performance; both subtle and clear he cares for the needs of the people around him and yearns for his own need for a home, a wife and a family. It is considered one of the great films in cinemas greatest year, 1939. Gone With the Wind, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Wuthering Heights, Dark Victory, The Wizard of Oz, Of Mice and Men and Ninotchka were all nominated for best picture alongside Stagecoach that year.

Regarding the political incorrectness of an Apache uprising, well, they happened. If you just happened to be in a stagecoach in the middle of the southwest during an Apache uprising chances are you would be killed. This story does not examine the reasons for the uprising only the effects on a group of travelers trying to travel through it.

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37 out of 49 people found the following comment useful :-
Over the rise, it's the Duke, Winchester in hand, 5 September 2005

Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

One of my favorite movie shots of all time comes in Stagecoach when the coach rounds a bend and you see a figure in the distance and has the camera zooms in closer you recognize it as John Wayne, saddle in one hand and winchester rifle in the other.

Certainly the figure of John Wayne is familiar enough even to today's moviegoers as the man who put more people in theater seats than any other player. But back then in 1939 all he was known as was B picture cowboy who was a friend of John Ford, whom Ford happened to be giving a break to. He sure took advantage of it.

Wayne heads an ensemble group of players who are journeying from Tonto to Lordsburg by stagecoach. It is a dramatization of the western novel by Ernest Haycox and John Ford brilliantly cast his film.

Anyone of them could have been Oscar material, but one player did win an Oscar, Thomas Mitchell as the alcoholic Doc Boone. 1939 was maybe the highpoint of Mitchell's career. Imagine being in three films nominated for Oscars, Stagecoach, Gone With the Wind, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. He could have been nominated for any one of them.

On top of the coach is driver Andy Devine and riding shotgun is Marshal George Bancroft. Devine is a befuddled dunce and a lot of reviewers usually pass him over in talking about the film. To be sure he is, but there is a scene where the stagecoach has to cross a deep stream. A pontoon like device is rigged, but it's professional teamster Andy Devine who drives the stage across with his team swimming it. He may be a dunce, but he's a professional at his job. I think it was Andy's moment to shine.

Bancroft is a stern but kindly marshal. He and Mitchell are friends of Wayne who plays the Ringo Kid. Wayne's busted out the penitentiary to get the Plummer brothers who framed him. There's a reward for Wayne, but Marshal Bancroft ain't worried about the reward, he's concerned about Wayne getting killed, biting off more than he can chew.

However Mitchell spends most of the journey cultivating mild mannered Donald Meek who's a whiskey salesman. A useful friend to have you like to imbibe. If ever a character actor was aptly named it certainly had to be Donald Meek.

In 1939 you couldn't say that Claire Trevor was playing a prostitute named Dallas. But it's surely hinted at often enough. Claire Trevor was Hollywood's greatest portrayer of girls with easy virtue and a heart of gold which she has here. She got her Oscar in Key Largo again playing just such a role. The difference is she loves good guy John Wayne instead bad guy Edward G. Robinson in Key Largo.

And to add to the mix we have an embezzling banker on the journey played by Berton Churchill who played many a sanctimonious hypocrite in his career. He gets news that the telegraph is down because of the Apaches on the warpath and in an act of impulse fills a satchel full of the bank's money and grabs the stagecoach at the last minute. He's also trying to escape a hatchet faced harridan of a wife. Nevertheless he's the least sympathetic and most useless character on the journey.

A few months ago I saw and reviewed the film Carrie which was based on a Theodore Dreiser novel. The lead character in that, George Hurstwood is also an embezzler of his employer's money as he runs away to New York to get away from his harridan of a wife. But Hurstwood, same crime for the same reasons, is a sympathetic figure. Not our friend banker Gatewood as Churchill portrays him here. It some times depends on the writer's point of view.

The last two passengers are John Carradine a mysterious gambler of Southern origins and the pregnant wife of an Army Captain played by stage actress Louise Platt. He also boards the stage at the last minute as he's crushing out big time over her. He becomes her protector during the journey.

Of course Stagecoach is the first film that John Ford shot in Monument Valley and the long shots of the valley with the lonely stagecoach driving on to Lordsburg are breathtaking.

And there's the Indian attack. The question is often asked why didn't the Indians just shoot the horses. The real answer is you wouldn't want to cut short abruptly one of the most spectacular chase scenes in film history. And then of course maybe the Indians wanted the live horses.

Ford uses for the first time a spectacular gambit during the Indian attack. I won't say more, but think about the fact that he repeated the same shot in Fort Apache with the Indians chasing John Agar and the repair party there.

What I like most about Stagecoach altogether is that it sticks to the first rule of movies, it moves. Even in the scenes of dialog inside the coach you get the feeling of movement. Nothing static about it, and the story could never be adequately done on a stage.

It's what movie making is all about.

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32 out of 43 people found the following comment useful :-
Grandeur of Monument Valley, Utah, became part of the signature on a John Ford Western..., 15 September 2002

Author: ironside (robertfrangie@hotmail.com) from Mexico

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The remarkable thing about Ford's Westerns is his gift for simultaneously contemplating people as individuals and as representatives of virtues, vices, and other abstract qualities…

"Stagecoach" is the Western to combine successfully the poetic grandeur and sense of myth-making of the real and imagery West with pure entertainment values… It is the Western in which the public first saw Monument Valley, Utah on film – a place that Ford would revisit again and again, and that became his favorite location for the exterior sequences of his Westerns… It is the first Western to combine successfully the poetic grandeur and sense of myth-making of the real and imaginary West with pure entertainment values... It is so rich it has become a treasury of Western characters and motifs… Prior to 'Stagecoach,' the western was in grievous decline, but with 'Stagecoach' a renaissance occurred...

"Stagecoach" makes much capital out of an early means of communication… Ford used it as a symbol – there is nothing more striking, as an image of loneliness, than a long-shot of a coach twisting its way through the arid and dry South-Western landscape – but also as a box for shaking and mixing human drama… The combination is devastating… Despite some complaining criticism that there is just a little too much contrivance about the selection of passengers riding in the 'box', that they look as if they've been handpicked for contrast and for drama, "Stagecoach" always repays another look… It still works admirably… Time takes little away from it…

Everything seems to fit in "Stagecoach" from the first moment that the camera races in on the imposing figure of John Wayne, a man of heroic size with a powerful stance, twirling his Winchester rifle in one hand to the gallery of colorful portraits in a shaking box to the dramatic black and white photography taking advantage of every trick of light and shade including cloudscapes and silhouettes…

Ford carefully selected 'characters' boxed in for a troublesome ride… They are not characters, save perhaps for the drunken doctor, in the usual Ford sense of beloved eccentrics… They are highly contrasted 'types' who, by some alchemy that the movie develops, do grow to some extent into credible human beings…

Apart from the drunken Doc (superb1y played by Thomas Mitchell), there's the mysterious southern gambler (John Carradine), a pregnant wife (Louise Platt) joining her soldier husband, a Whisky salesman (Donald Meek) who could kid anyone at first sight—especially an audience—that he's a parson, a whore with a heart of gold (Claire Trevor), and an absconding banker (Barton Churchill). Andy Devine is in the driving seat, George Bancroft, as a U.S. Marshal, rides shot-gun and keeps a wary though fatherly eye on the Ringo Kid (john Wayne) who has come along for at least part of the ride...

Two things are at once apparent… Ford is employing a dramatic device for which there is plenty of precedent—compressing diverse characters into a confined and highly charged situation in the certainty of reactions, and, secondly, that the Claire Trevor character is the spitting image, as they say, of Maupassant's tart, Boule de Suife…

Geronimo will be the catalyst for this load of combustibles… He's on the loose again and the escorting cavalry have already had to say their farewells to the coach party…

Along the way you will also see: The birth of a child, the telegraph lines cut, an attack by Indians, a chase, a cavalry rescue, a poker game, a three-against-one gunfight on the streets of a town, and an exciting climax…

"Stagecoach" leaves a whole host of abiding impressions… There is the dramatic black and white photography taking advantage of every trick of light and shade in the wonderful Monument Valley location… It was the first time that Ford had used this setting within the Navajo Indian reservation around and about the Arizona-Utah state dividing line… The eroded lunar landscape has its own beauty and its own menace and these two qualities are reflected in the film… Cloudscapes and silhouettes—these linger on.

"Stagecoach" bulged with all the required ingredients of the classic Western… It carried a full complement of the historic-pioneering elements and it also made room for that other constituent, the domestic law and order issue…

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22 out of 28 people found the following comment useful :-
Great ensemble western, 6 May 2004

Author: ninazero from Prague, Kalamazoo

I grew up watching the old, crotchety, gruff John Wayne, the iconic hero of the right wing, and even though I'd seen some of his early films on television, I'd forgotten what a sexy and compelling presence he had when a young man. It's easy to see while watching his performance how this film made him a star. As great as Wayne is in this film, he doesn't overshadow any of his fellow performers. Thomas Mitchell plays the drunken doctor thrown out of town, a performance that earned him an Academy Award. Andy Devine is hilarious as the complaining, squeaky voiced stagecoach driver. John Carradine is sleek and snake-like as the gambler. Claire Trevor gives a heartbreaking turn as the good-hearted whore thrown out of town by pious hypocrites. Donald Meek plays his name, a meek whiskey salesman befriended by the whiskey-loving Doc. Each actor quickly and deftly sketches his character so vividly that every performance is memorable.

But the real star of the show is John Ford, the director. To introduce and define nine characters in the context of a fast-paced western is no easy task, and he accomplishes it in masterly fashion. Much of the action takes place in the limited confines of a stagecoach, but Ford takes advantage of the limits by staging brilliant and subtle bits between characters; John Wayne casts sultry glances at Clare Trevor, who blossoms under his glance, the young calvary wife's eyes glaze over as the banker pontificates, and Doc sneaks sips of whiskey from the samples case while he solicitously keeps the wind from chilling the whiskey salesman. When the action moves outside, he films the action in dynamic angles and stunts that were the most daring of its time.

If you enjoy westerns and haven't seen this, you have a great night of film-watching ahead of you. And if the last time you saw Stagecoach was some midnight years ago when you wandered home for a bit of the late show before bedtime, watch it again and rediscover what a great western it is

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23 out of 30 people found the following comment useful :-
Setting the Stage., 30 April 2004
Author: tfrizzell from United States

"Grand Hotel"-styled Western that puts nine very different people together on the titled vehicle to go across some very dangerous Indian territory. There is convict John Wayne (in his star-making role), scorned prostitute Claire Trevor, drunken doctor Thomas Mitchell (in a well-deserved Oscar-winning role), slick gambler John Carradine, pregnant youngster Louise Platt, shady banker Berton Churchill, whiskey salesman Donald Meek, lawman George Bancroft and driver Andy Devine on this star-studded ride. Soon the characters are turned from would-be stereotypes to very complicated three-dimensional figures that are all deep and humanistic. "Stagecoach" does not only benefit from its actors and screenplay though as legendary director John Ford (Oscar-nominated) shows his ability to mix and mesh quiet, heartfelt moments with amazingly detailed action sequences that were way ahead of their time. A great picture from arguably the cinema's finest single year of films. 5 stars out of 5.

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19 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :-
One of the greatest westerns of all time., 18 December 1998
Author: Steve Richmond (sfwr@earthlink.net) from Brea, Ca. USA

Stagecoach is not your normal, run of the mill, western. It will have you on the edge of your seat as passengers make their way through some dangerous Indian country. By the time the film ends, you will know all of the characters very well and ,for the most part,care whether they live or die.John Ford's excellent directing, great performances from John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Andy Devine and, especially, Thomas Mitchell who won an Acadamy Award for his portrayal of a drunken doctor aboard the stage. Add a great score, super stunt work, and filming done at Monument Valley (Arizona /Utah border) and you have a complete motion picture. I highly recommend "Stagecoach".

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19 out of 26 people found the following comment useful :-
Not just a great western but one of the best movies ever made., 4 March 2002

Author: david kirkpatrick (davekirkpat21058@aol.com) from Costa Mesa CA

Stagecoach has all the hallmarks of a truly great film.The characters,the direction, the camera work, the scenery, the soundtrack. The story may seem simple but the characters are skillfully developed and colorful. They are real and interesting, not cliches. The desert setting and the stagecoach itself serve to make the great directing and camera work even greater. So many classic scenes in one movie. There are lot of little things like the shot of the coyote howling in the desert night. The shot of the stagecoach from behind going through a sand wash. The shot of the Indians on the hill looking down at the stagecoach. They look real and they look serious. The shot of the "Ringo Kid" watching Mr. Hatfield die.The "Kid" does'nt say a word but you can tell he's thinking about his murdered brother. The very first shot of John Wayne in his very first "A" movie may be his most memorable. Even if you've never seen Stagecoach you have seen that scene of the "Ringo Kid" holding his rifle and saddle while waving down the stage with the Monument Valley as a backdrop. No actor ever had a more spectacular debut. When you here the soundtrack, you can't help thinking about the Old West. John Ford should have won the Oscar for best director. His attention to details make this movie a classic. Classic in the sense that Stagecoach does'nt seem manufactured but seems like something that always was.

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18 out of 25 people found the following comment useful :-
Stagecoach, a great movie, a great western., 26 March 2002

Author: Peter J. Eyre (shih_tzu) from Lincoln, England

I first saw Stagecoach the year it was released 1939, when I was nine years old. I saw it again the other afternoon as a rerun on tv. Despite that technically it is showing it's age, afterall it is 63 years old, and all of it's players are no longer with us, it is still one of the greatest westerns to ever grace a cinema screen. The indian attack, the cavalry to the rescue, the drunken doctor, the bar room floozie with a heart of gold, the gambler, and the hero doing "what a man's got to do" and escaping without a scratch . All the ingredients and more of a classic western but done superbly. Not a scene overplayed, not a (film) shot wasted.

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12 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
A Western with a timeless appeal; one of the few essential Ford/Wayne collaborations, 15 July 2000

Author: MisterWhiplash from United States

This film is not exactly a matured western, as it does show and (may or may not) endorse the conventional slaying of the battling natives by gunfire and such. But it shows how much a western can change in time, yet still have an appeal with its story elements, character, and especially with its style. An American classic nevertheless with director John Ford bringing his valley in Arizona which he would later use with star John Wayne in The Searchers and She wore a Yellow Ribbon, among others for himself as director, to the film of the tale of a group of people all stuck together on a stagecoach. After reading the short story from which the film is based on, some of the characters made sense, but they are still very much casted perfectly. New star John Wayne is in one these kinds of iconic performances that only got as good as with the Searchers. Plus there is Oscar winner Thomas Mitchell as a drunken, but not stupid, doctor. Very memorable as character study and as a pure action Western as well. As far as the style goes, the long-touted rumor that Orson Welles watched this film 40 times before directing Citizen Kane only makes the experience more enjoyable.

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