3 Godfathers

When one thinks of the classic Christmas movies, John Ford’s “3 Godfathers” (1948) doesn’t normally come to mind, but there’s no reason why it shouldn’t. After all they did celebrate Christmas in the old west and “3 Godfathers” elicits as much good cheer, warmth and hope as other fabled classics.

Despite owning the DVD and having the opportunity to catch it on TCM three times this month, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to catch it on the big screen at the Tivoli Theater in Downers Grove as part of their holiday film series.

It was a fabulous evening.

“3 Godfathers” details what happens when three bank robbers (John Wayne, Pedro Armendariz and Harry Carey, Jr.) stage a holdup in an Arizona town. Chased by a posse and having their water bags shot in the ensuing chase by the town’s marshal (Ward Bond), they make their way across the desert. They lose their horses in a sandstorm and continue the trek on foot.

They come across an abandoned wagon with a dying woman (Mildred Natwick) alone and about to give birth. She asks the men to be the godfather of her child and see to his safety. A baby boy is successfully delivered and the mother dies. The three new godfathers, bereft of horses and short of water, decide the child’s safety is more important than their freedom and decide to bring the child to a town called New Jerusalem. Where is it? Well, there’s a real bright star in the sky over their destination that helps guide them toward the town. And it’s Christmas Eve.

Like a lot of Ford’s films, this offers equal doses of action, humanity, comedy, drama, pathos and a loving sense of community. Thanks to Winton Hoch’s stunning Technicolor cinematography, the famous Lone Pine, California locations never looked lovelier, or when needed, more desolate, than here.

The scenes with the men tending to the baby’s needs are not played for broad comedy, but instead are infused with a gentle humor.

This was the screen debut of Harry Carey, Jr. and the film opens with a touching dedication to his father, who had recently died and had appeared in many of Ford’s silent westerns. Carey Jr. went on to a distinguished career in many westerns and is thankfully still with us, having recently provided an audio commentary to Ford’s classic “Wagon Master” (1950).

Despite being bank robbers, the three are really not bad men. Before robbing the bank, they engage in some good natured ribbing with Bond and his wife (silent screen star and Ford favorite Mae Marsh). Other members of the John Ford Stock Company on hand include Ben Johnson, Hank Worden and Jane Darwell. The film’s composer, Richard Hageman, appears as a piano player in a saloon, playing Christmas carols on Christmas Day.

I was a tad nervous at last night’s presentation, as there was a large number of what appeared to be grandparents accompanies by their young grandkids. Would they be bored and start to get antsy? I needn’t have worried as there was very good audience attention throughout. I’d say there were about 150-200 people there, not packed but more than respectable for a 1948 western. The kids exhibited no restlessness at all. Maybe they had never seen a western before, so it was as alien to them as a new planet in a “Star Wars” movie.

Two nights before the Tivoli had shown “Miracle on 34th Street” (1947) but I left after a few minutes when the image was stretched to fill the whole screen. AARGH, I hate that. I complained the next day and received a very nice call from Chris Johnson, with Classic Cinemas. He was very apologetic and said it should have been projected in the right aspect ratio. He said they would make ensure “3 Godfathers” was screened in the right aspect ratio (square shaped) and it was. What a treat it was!

He said I was the only one to complain and I was surprised at that. Didn’t anyone else notice that Kris Kringle appeared shorter and squatter? A friend of mine has a theory that so many people now have big screen TVs and they want the whole image filled that they don’t even notice. Makes sense to me.

Anyway, if you’re tired of the traditional Christmas classics, and want to give a year’s rest to George Bailey, Ebeneezer or Bing and Rosemary, give “3 Godfathers” a chance. I think you’d be pleasantly surprised.

Wagon Master, The Friends of Eddie Coyle

I hit the gold jackpot in movie watching recently, catching two titles in a row that are the best movies I’ve seen in ages. They both deal with community – one celebrating different groups of outcasts banding together in a temporary truce, while the other is a grim, depressing affair about a beaten man trying to escape a community of criminals.

The films are John Ford’s “Wagon Master” (1950) and Peter Yates’ “The Friends of Eddie Coyle” (1973). Two films that could not be more different, yet both make for thrilling and engaging movie watching.

Wagon Master

“Wagon Master” was supposedly John Ford’s favorite movie. It has an easy rhythm to it; like its wagon train traveling across Utah - it’s not in a hurry to get anywhere. There’s no story per se, but it’s packed with incident. There’s no opening or closing studio logo; the movie just begins. It’s like we’re witnesses to history, a story we just happen to arrive right in the middle of.

No marquee actor like John Wayne, James Stewart or Henry Fonda here, which is likely why it’s not more known. Hopefully the new DVD (a stunning transfer by the way) will go a long way in making the film better known.

Ben Johnson and Harry Carey, Jr. are two horse traders grudgingly convinced by a Mormon elder (Ward Bond) to lead a wagon train to a new settlement. The Mormons are being run out of town, so have no choice but to head across uncharted territory to a new settlement. Johnson and Carey know the way so agree to lead them.

The picture opens by placing us right in the middle of a bank robbery by the Cleggs. Uncle Shiloh (Charles Kemper) is the leader of his four sons (two of which are played by a young James Arness and Ford stock player favorite Hank Worden) who, after shooting an unarmed bank teller in the back, hijack the wagon train and use it to as a cover to hide from a pursuing posse.

Kemper is a revelation as the physically imposing Uncle Shiloh. He’s one of the most memorable bad guys in western film history. I think he has a grudging admiration for the Mormons and their manners, yet won’t hesitate to kill anyone who stands in his way. I was not familiar with Kemper and wondered why he wasn’t better known. It turns out he was killed in a car crash in 1950. His final film, “On Dangerous Ground” (1952) was released posthumously.

In addition to the Cleggs, the wagon train’s community grows with the addition of a medicine show troupe (Alan Mowbray, Joanne Dru and Ruth Clifford). They were also run out of town, so the two outcast groups temporarily join together.

There’s also a very memorable sequence where the Mormons are asked to join the Navajos at a dance. The Navajos like the Mormons, saying they are less corrupt than other white men.

That’s not the only dance in the film. There are several wonderfully staged square dance sequences with accompanying songs performed by the Sons of the Pioneers, a well-known vocal group also utilized by Ford in his other 1950 western “Rio Grande.”

Ford never directed a musical but this is the closest he ever came. Ford had an innate sense of where to place the camera to get the best shot possible at all time. He likely would have been bored by all the rehearsing necessary to film a musical, but watching “Wagon Master” you regret that he never did.

The Sons of the Pioneers also perform several songs throughout the movie written by Stan Jones. Wonderful songs they are too. If the movie was better known, the songs would be too.

The beauties of Monument Valley, Ford’s favorite local, are stunningly captured by Bert Glennon’s camera in beautiful black and white. There’s hardly any action until the end, but it’s as quick and violent a shootout as a 1950 western would allow.

The movie ends with a wonderful montage of wagon crossing, dancing and romantic stories tied up. We do get a title card that reads “The End’, but it really doesn’t. The film continues for another 15 seconds or so after “The End” title card disappears, as we see the wagon train a herd of horses cross a river, with a new young foal in the lead. Life goes on, and the community presses onward. There’s no end cast list and no end studio logo. The picture ends like it began – an ongoing story that will continue on long after the audience leaves.

“Wagon Master” only runs 85 minutes but each minute is a jewel. I enjoyed every minute of it and look forward to sharing it with others.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle

Much of the praise lavished on Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” mentions the brilliant opening dialogue sequence at a French farmhouse between a French farmer harboring Jewish neighbors and self-proclaimed Nazi killer Col. Hans Landa. Tarantino shows how intense well-written and delivered dialogue sequences can be, as thrilling as any large-scale action set piece. Viewers who thrilled to Tarantino’s movie would also likely enjoy “The Friends of Eddie Coyle” which is a whole series of beautifully written and performed meetings between criminals, undercover cops, informers and suppliers. It’s riveting from beginning to end.

Sporting a dead-on Boston accent, Robert Mitchum is Eddie Coyle, a beaten, low-level hood who is looking at jail time after being busted for smuggling illegal booze over the Canadian border. He’s willing to do anything to stay out of jail so his wife and kids won’t have to go on welfare. He’s even willing to turn informer, albeit reluctantly. His cop contact (Richard Jordan) wants more dirt than Eddie is willing to deliver. His friend (Alex Rocco) heads a bank robbery gang who look to Eddie to supply their guns. Eddie’s gun supplier (Steven Keats) also has a deal with some rebel Army kids to steal machine guns from the local Army base. His best friend (Peter Boyle) is a bartender who is also a stoolie for the cops. There’s no criminal code of honor on display here. Everyone is out to get whatever they can from each other.

All this is played out in a series of meetings in parking lots, cafeterias and all night restaurants in late autumn in Boston. The air of regret, lost hopes and dead avenues permeates every frame of this movie.

Eddie Coyle is one of Mitchum’s very best performances and that’s saying something, as he has delivered many seriously great performances. (Admittedly, Mitchum slept walk through just as many films if the project or role didn’t interest him. Have you ever seen him in the TV miniseries “The Winds of War” (1983)? He’s positively catatonic in that).

I’m sure Quentin Tarantino is a huge fan of this film. The gun runner’s name is Jackie Brown. When Tarantino adapted Elmore Leonard’s novel “Rum Punch” he changed the name of the character from Jackie Burke to Jackie Brown. It can’t be a coincidence.

Here’s sample of the dialogue, beautifully delivered by Mitchum when Jackie Brown tells Eddie he can’t make good on a gun delivery Eddie wants.

Coyle: All you got to know is I told the man that he could depend on me because you told me I could depend on you. Now one of us is gonna have a bit fat problem. Another thing I learned. If anybody’s gonna have a problem, you’re gonna be the one.

Brown: You finished?

Coyle: No, I am not finished. Look. I’m gettin’ old, you hear? I spent most of my life hanging around crummy joints with a buncha punks drinkin’ the beer, eatin’ the hash and the hot dogs and watching the other people go off to Florida while I’m sweatin’ out how I’m gonna pay the plumber. I done time and I stood up but I can’t take no more chances. Next time, it’s gonna be me goin’ to Florida.

This is 1970s cinema in the very best way, eschewing Hollywood glamour and stereotypes. It will stick with me for a long time.

John Wayne, John Ford and "Stagecoach"

As we continue our way to the John Wayne Centennial Birthday Celebration, I re-visited the film that made him a star, 1939’s “Stagecoach”. What a marvelous film it is, featuring a set of fascinating characters aboard a stagecoach traveling through hostile Apache territory – each traveling west for very different reasons.

Directed by the great John Ford, “Stagecoach” is a textbook example of the Golden Age of Hollywood, a movie that does not overstay its welcome (only 95 minutes long), offers gorgeous cinematography of the awe-inspiring Monument Valley and boasts a gallery of Hollywood’s best character actors.

For example, John Carradine plays a gambler, a mysterious character known only as Hatfield. We don’t know anything about him except he is from the South and fought in the Confederate Army. Impeccably attired, he takes a special interest in a pregnant woman (Louise Platt) who is traveling to meet her cavalryman husband. He acts as her protector throughout the movie and is even ready to kill her when it appears the coach will be overrun with Indians. We don’t know why he feels the way he does, but I don’t think we have to. Carradine’s acting and the direction of Ford and the writing of Dudley Nichols are so strong and sure we don’t need reams of motivation. It’s likely she reminds him of someone from his past and that’s all we need to know. Ford and Nichols are confident enough to let the audience figure it out for ourselves, and we are spared any angst-filled flashbacks, thank you very much.

Thomas Mitchell earned a well-deserving Best Supporting Actor for his performance here as the alcoholic Doc Boone. Has anyone in Hollywood history ever had a greater year than Thomas Mitchell in 1939? Consider his entire 1939 output: “”Stagecoach”. “Only Angels Have Wings”. “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”. “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”. “Gone with the Wind.” Each one a four star movie, and all are still enjoyed to this day.

John Wayne as The Ringo Kid more than holds his own against the veteran cast. In 1930, he starred in the big-budget western “The Big Trail” but it proved a colossal flop and Wayne was banished to Poverty Row studios like Republic and Monogram for the next decade to hone his craft in an endless stream of low-budget westerns. The experience was worthwhile because Wayne is very natural and relaxed.

I particularly liked his scene with the prostitute Dallas (Claire Trevor) when he proposes to her without actually proposing. He tells her about the ranch he has and how it would be a good place for a man and woman to share a life together. The way he says “woman” is drawn out into two long syllables, as if a yearning, and something he thought up to now was only a dream. It’s a beautifully written and played scene. Of course, his entrance scene, as the camera zooms in, goes slightly out of focus, and then clears up as his face fills the screen, is one of the great entrances in movie history.

All of the action takes place in the final third, but when it comes it doesn’t disappoint. The Indian attack on the stagecoach on salt plains is justly celebrated, a thrillingly shot and edited sequence featuring memorable stuntwork by the great Yakima Canutt. The final gunfight takes place off-screen, but is more effective because of it.

There’s more I can write about this movie, but it’s best you discover it for yourself. “Stagecoach” is a true classic, and one of the greatest movies ever made.