Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings posted a marvelous thing the other day on one of my all-time favorite films, John Ford’s Wagon Master (1950). Turns out it’s one of her favorites, too. (And Ford’s.)
I’ve seen Wagon Master dozens of times over the years, and the Cleggs remain the slimiest, nastiest, creepiest villains I’ve ever seen. Part of what makes them so vile is that they exist in a film noted for its charm and optimism. They seem as much David Lynch as John Ford, and scared the hell out of me as a kid.
An incredibly beautiful, deceptively simple film.
Wagon Master is one that Ford-lovers and Ford-haters and apologists both like. Wonderful picture. But I fell in love with Stagecoach again when the Blu-ray came out and I sat down with it one recent afternoon. The Criterion really is noticably better than the Warners 2-disc set that came out a few years ago, though they’re both fantastic, and none of the extras overlap substantially.
Haven’t seen the new Stagecoach. Looking forward to it.
It’s funny with Stagecoach — we’ve become so used to Stagecoach as Significant Film that we overlook Stagecoach as Really Good Movie.
Maybe the class that really needs to be taught is the one where you show the class fantastic pictures but tell them that they’re stinkers. Call it Film 101 DE (for diminished expectations). My girlfriend’s nephew and I caught Strangers On A Train on television recently and he had to leave just as the movie was winding up. The kid’s 20 and he’s about as far from being a cineaste as possible, but the climactus interruptus got to him. If he’s a good boy and does his chores I’ll show him the ending soon.
Not only is Stagecoach a really good movie, it’s perfect late Depression agitprop. The blustery thieving banker sounds like he watches nothing but Fox News. But, really, it’s just great theater–everything works and every character, except for Bancroft and Devine, who prop the thing up, and the banker, who is never going to be anything more interesting than a reactionary buffoon, has a piece of the heart of it. What is it about Claire Trevor? She’s the “wing-down” woman–as Fleming was always writing–in so many like films–Dead End and Key Largo.
Chris-Pin Martin just kills me in Stagecoach.
Last thing–I paid a lot more attention to the design of Lordsburg–there’s a lot going on there.