Westerns Pt. 2: 1939

Last time, we talked about how, after the failure of The Big Trail in 1930 and the rise of the swashbuckling flicks, Westerns had fallen to B movie status. Too big and all-American for Captain Blood or The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, John Wayne spent the 1930's making B westerns, mostly for poverty row studios and in serials like "The 3 Mesquiteers" for Republic Pictures - who figure later in this story. It's unclear what the impetus was for three huge A Westerns to arrive in 1939 - arrive they did.  They were  John Ford's "Stagecoach," George Marshall's "Destry Rides Again," and Michael Curtiz's "Dodge City." All of the flicks are "must see's" if you're interested at all in Westerns or movies. Let's take a look.

Stagecoach

John Ford had spent a lot of the silent era making Westerns, but had spent the talky era making historical dramas like "The Prisonner of Shark Island" and the Best Picture winner, "The Informer," as well as a few Will Rogers flicks and a Shriley Temple jam. But as always, he had idea in his back pocket and one of them was "Stagecoach." In 1937 Ford had bought the rights to "The Stage to Lordsburg" a short story by Ernest Haycox. Ford gave it to his writer of the moment, Dudley Nicholds and developed it into the script for "Stagecoach."

Ford shopped the project to all the major studios, but they turned him down, because big budget Westerns were out of style and because Ford wouldn't back off his demand to make the film with John Wayne. After some turnaround with David O Selznick, Ford turned to independent producer Walter Wanger. Wanger insisted Ford replace John Wayne with Gary Cooper, and case Marlene Dietrich for the female lead, "Dallas." Ford wouldn't budge, but agreed to hire Claire Trevor and to give her top billing over Wayne.  We'll see this again later with another future mega star.  With Trevor and Wayne locke in, Ford proceeded to hire an incredible cast of character actors, like Thomas Mitchelll as Doc Boone,  Donald Meek as Samuel Peacock, the wiskey drummer, Andy Devine as Buck the stage driver and John Carradine as the mysterious gambler, Hatfield and on and on.

This film is historically significant and not just because of its success. As a movie it is structurally perfect, and tight as a drum.

Will try to avoid spoilers. But there were signifcant factors at play in this one that certainly informed the Ford style but also reverberated through the greatest Ford Westerns of all time.  "Stagecoach" was the first Western Ford shot in Monument Valley - where he's shoot all of his Westerns througb "The Searchers." Setting is huge in Westerns and Ford was able to create a whole world with "Stagecoach."  It looked like our shared vision of the old west.

What's more, Ford had Bert Glennon on as his black and white cinematographer and he and Winton Hoch did the vast majority of the heavy light lifting on Ford's Westerns.  In fact, only1946's "My Darling Clementine"  shot by Joe McDonald matches the shot level reached by Glennon and Hoch.  The Stout and Clothier stuff is noticeably lesser in shot quilt, though Ford himself was always "painterly," not everyone could execute it.

Also, the movie has a stirring score, mostly atributed to Richard Hageman, though he, apparently had lots of uncredited help. Also, this is the first iteration of hymn "We Will Gather at the River," that runs through a bunch of Ford's Westerns.

So, "Stagecoach" triumphed because it was tight, perfectly set, beautifully shot, well scored and superbly cast. Not a bad formula, and one that would be used by Ford and others like Hawks and Leone in their Westerns.

Destry Rides Again

Above we intimated that another male mega start would breakt out as second billed, That happened here where Jimmy Stewart was second billed to Marlene Dietrich. Destry contributed to the beginnings of "fix a crooked town" Westerns.  Unlike "Stagecoach" Destry was a studio production from Universal. But like "Stagecoach" it featured a great cast with Brian Donleavy, Charles Winninger, Mischa Auer, Jack Carson, Allen Jenkins, Sam Hindsand Una Merkel,

Destry also deftly mixes comedy from Auer, Winninger and Jenkins in what  is also an interesting mystery with lots of gunplay, and some heartbreaks,

Like "Stagecoach" it's black and white and notably shot by Hal Mohr, who was a two time Academy Award winner and just gives Destry a great feel.

Also, Destry has a great scores, comlete with repeated themes and performances of "Little Joe," and a couple of showgirl songs form Dietrich.

Interestingly, Destry was not the gateway to world of Westerns they way that "Stagecoach" was and Marshall who'd started in the silents would go on to make a bunch of middling stuff, including a depressing remake of this one just called Destry, with Audie Murphy and the more enjoyable "The Sheepman" starring Glenn Ford and a young Shirley Maclaine. He always worked, though, and all of his work across genres is at least competent.

Dodge City

Dodge City was a leap of faith for Michael Curtiz and Warner Brothers.  Curtiz had been shooting swashbucklers like "The Adventures of Robin Hood" and "Captain Blood" for the Warners.  What possessed them to make a big budget Technicolor Western with Errol Flynn and Olivia DeHavilland (may she rest in eternal peace) is anybody's guess, but they absolutely crushed it,

Like Destry, Dodge City is fix the crooked town flick, that has provable crimes early, but no law to address them.  That's where Errol comes in. Flynn apparently didn't think he'd be believable as a cowpoke, but, man, did it work. Beside the starring lovers, Waners loaded up the cast with estimable contract players like Henry Travers, Alan Hale Sr.,  Ann Sheridan, Bruce Cabot and Ford stalwarts Ward Bond and Russell Simpson.

There's more - what we would call "air" - in this one than there is in either "Stagecoach" or "Destry Rides Again" but Curtiz was a people pleasing director if ever there was one, and the extra time is admissable.

The cinematographer was Sol Polito, a rock star camera talent, and the catchy score was by the great Max Steiner.

As we go on, we'll talk about all of the Western opportunities the Warner Brother's missed, but when they set their stuido to it, they could produce great ones. That's why they should have locked up Ford, Hawks, Wayne and other Western talents and made many more.

After languishing on poverty row from 1931-1938, the American Western exploded in 1939 with "Stagecoach," "Destry Rides Again." and "Dodge City."  Watch them.