Google Ads
Login | Sign Up

Stagecoach Overview:

Stagecoach (1939) was a Western - Black-and-white Film directed by John Ford and produced by John Ford.

The film was based on the short story The Stage to Lordsburg written by Ernest Haycox published in Collier's in Apr 1937.

SYNOPSIS

This film is the greatest Western entry in Hollywood's annus mirabilis of 1939, and Ford's prototype for the Western genre he dignified. This also marked Wayne's commercial breakthrough and a new level of maturity in his performances. A motley crowd - a loose woman, a gambler, a banker with a mysterious satchel, an expectant young bride, a whiskey salesman, and a drunk doctor - set out from a dusty New Mexico town with Devine at the reins and Bancroft riding shotgun and with eye out for the escaped outlaw, the Ringo Kid (Wayne). They pick up Wayne soon enough, and alliances and suspicions are forged in the tension of anticipating an Indian attack. The first of many Westerns filmed in the forbidden majesty of Monument Valley.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion)

Stagecoach was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1995.

Academy Awards 1939 --- Ceremony Number 12 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best Supporting ActorThomas MitchellWon
Best Art DirectionAlexander ToluboffNominated
Best CinematographyBert GlennonNominated
Best DirectorJohn FordNominated
Best Film EditingOtho Lovering, Dorothy SpencerNominated
Best Music - ScoringRichard Hageman, Frank Harling, John Leipold, Leo ShukenWon
Best PictureWalter Wanger (production company)Nominated
See More Oscar Winners

Stagecoach BlogHub Articles:

Claire Trevor and John Wayne head the cast of “Stagecoach”

By Stephen Reginald on Jun 30, 2021 From Classic Movie Man

Claire Trevor and John Wayne head the cast of “Stagecoach” Stagecoach (1939) is an American Western classic directed by John Ford and starring Claire Trevor and John Wayne. The film was produced by Walter Wanger Productions and the cinematography was by Bert Glennon (Young Mr. Linco... Read full article

Silver Screen Standards: Stagecoach (1939)

By Jennifer Garlen on Apr 5, 2021 From Classic Movie Hub Blog

Silver Screen Standards: Stagecoach (1939) I took a short ride in a stagecoach once, at the Old Tucson Western theme park in Arizona, and it permanently altered my impression of films like Stagecoach (1939), where travelers make long journeys in those noisy, dusty, bumpy conveyances. Anybody who ... Read full article

Review: Stagecoach (1939)

By 4 Star Film Fan on Apr 21, 2019 From 4 Star Films

While the western hardly began with Stagecoach, one could go out on a very slight limb and say it became a more fully realized version of itself in the hands of John Ford; it all but grew in stature as a genre. This progression cropped out of the prevailing assumption of the day and age that the wes... Read full article

DOUBLE BILL #7: Stagecoach (1939) and The Searchers (1956)

By Carol Martinheira on Oct 10, 2017 From The Old Hollywood Garden

DOUBLE BILL #7: Stagecoach (1939) and The Searchers (1956) On October 10, 2017October 10, 2017 By CarolIn Uncategorized John Ford and John Wayne. One of cinema’s greatest and most celebrated director-actor partnerships. They made dozens of films together and they wer... Read full article

Great Films of 1939: "Stagecoach" April 16 at the Daystar Center

By Stephen Reginald on Mar 23, 2016 From Classic Movie Man

Great Films of 1939: "Stagecoach" April 16 at the Daystar Center Preston Sturges series: Stagecoach Where: The Venue 1550 at the Daystar Center, 1550 S. State Street, Chicago, IL When: April 16, 2016 Time: 6:45 p.m. Hosted by Stephen Reginald Stagecoach (1939) changed the western film genre fo... Read full article

See More Stagecoach Articles

Quotes from Stagecoach:

[Lt. Blanchard has just informed the stagecoach occupants that the cavalry will not escort them to Lordsburg]
Marshal Curly Wilcox: This stage is going to Lordsburg. If you think it ain't safe to ride along with us, I figure we can get there without you soldier boys.
Hatfield: A gentleman doesn't smoke in the presence of a lady.
Dr. Josiah Boone: Three weeks ago I took a bullet out of a man who was shot by a gentleman. The bullet was in his back!
Hatfield: You mean to insinuate...
Ringo Kid: Sit down, mister. Doc don't mean no harm.
Marshal Curly Wilcox: Now folks, if we push on we can be in Apache Wells by sundown. Soldiers there will give us an escort as far as the ferry. Then it's only a hoot and a holler into Lordsburg. We got four men who can handle firearms - five with you, Ringo. Doc can shoot if sober.
Ringo Kid: Well, I guess you can't break out of prison and into society in the same week.
[Mrs. Mallory, a passenger, has just given birth]
Buck: Hey, Curly, do you think I oughta charge Mrs. Mallory's baby half fare?
See More Quotes from Stagecoach
Facts from Stagecoach
Near the end of the movie, Luke Plummer (Tom Tyler) has a pair of black aces and a pair of black eights. This is the notorious "dead man's hand" supposed to have been held by Wild Bill Hickok before he was killed.
Ranked #9 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Western" in June 2008.
John Wayne's salary was considerably less than all of his co-stars', apart from John Carradine.
Orson Welles privately watched this film about 40 times while he was making Citizen Kane.
In 1939 there was no paved road through Monument Valley, hence the reason why it hadn't been used as a movie location before (it wasn't paved until the 1950s). Harry Goulding, who ran a trading post there, had heard that John Ford was planning a big-budget Western so he traveled to Hollywood, armed with over 100 photographs, and threatened to camp out on Ford's doorstep until the director saw him. Ford saw him almost immediately and was instantly sold on the location, particularly when he realized that its remoteness would free him from studio interference.
See More Facts about Stagecoach >>