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Here is the next instalment of the next Top 10 + 2, the fourth of such lists.
As I have previously posted, my Top 10 + 2 films is based on “watchability”, those type of films which you (meaning me) like to watch more than once and enjoy thoroughly for whatever reasons. Hence Groundhog Day is on the list, Citizen Kane is not, at least in my case never having had the urge to watch Citizen Kane more than once. My friend Steve cringes at my choices .
The reason my first list was called Top 10 + 2 was that I had difficulty whittling the list down to 10.
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The past lists and current list:
List #1:
Zulu
Groundhog Day
12 Angry Men
Godfather
Rat Race
Sin City
Chicago
Pleasantville
Runaway Train
Blues Brothers
Blade Runner
Full Metal Jacket
List #2:
42nd Street
Soldier
The Castle
Captains Courageous
Goodbye Mr Chips
Love Actually
Rollerball
Life of Brian
Judgment at Nuremberg
Down Periscope
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Jeremiah Johnson
List #3:
Breakfast Club
The Enemy Below
The Searchers
The Quiet Man
Forrest Gump
Midnight Sting
Once Upon a Time in the West
Shawshank Redemption
Kill Bill
A Night at the Opera
Casablanca
Titanic
List #4:
So far –
How Green Was My Valley
It Happened One Night
The Maltese Falcon
Take the Money and Run
Das Boot
Falling Down
Rambo: First Blood
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
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Today:
Stagecoach
John Wayne's role in "Stagecoach" (1939) marked a turning point in his career, propelling him to stardom and solidifying his status as a Western icon.
Directed by John Ford, the film is considered one of the greatest Westerns of all time and features Wayne in the role of Ringo Kid, a fugitive seeking justice for his family.
At the time of filming, Wayne was not yet a major star, having appeared in numerous B-movies. Ford, who had long been a mentor to Wayne, insisted on casting him in "Stagecoach," despite studio skepticism. The film's success not only launched Wayne's career but also revitalised the Western genre, elevating it to a more sophisticated level of storytelling.
Wayne’s performance as Ringo showcased his natural charisma and rugged charm, setting the template for the heroic, principled characters he would become famous for. The iconic tracking shot of his introduction, where he twirls his rifle, remains one of the most memorable moments in cinema history.
Fantastic film; great cast; good story and characters that set the scene for many western stories and characters which followed; how could one not like this film. Well, my friend Steve likely wouldn’t but I suspect he is an alien who has taken over a human body.
See the scene, the one which made John Wayne a star, by clicking on:
"Stagecoach" also marked the beginning of Wayne's legendary collaboration with John Ford, which would include classics like The Searchers (1956) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). For Wayne, Stagecoach was more than just a film—it was the foundation of his legendary career.
Some trivia:
The hat that John Wayne wears was his own. He would wear it in many westerns during the next two decades before retiring it after Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo (1959) because it was simply "falling apart." After that, the hat was displayed under glass in his home.
Famed stuntman Yakima Canutt explained how the stunt was accomplished where, as an Apache warrior attacking the stagecoach, he is "shot", falls off his horse, and then gets dragged underneath the stagecoach: "You have to run the horses fast, so they'll run straight. If they run slow, they move around a lot. When you turn loose to go under the coach, you've got to bring your arms over your chest and stomach. You've got to hold your elbows close to your body, or that front axle will knock them off." After the stunt was completed, Canutt ran to director John Ford to make sure they got the stunt on film. Ford replied that even if they hadn't, "I'll never shoot that again."
Asked why, in the climactic chase scene, the Indians didn't simply shoot the horses to stop the stagecoach, director John Ford replied, "Because that would have been the end of the movie." In addition, Apaches would have stolen the stagecoach horses rather than killed them because, in their culture, horses were valuable in calculating a warrior's worth.
A stunt known as a "Running W" was used to cause the Indians' horses to fall during the sequence where they are chasing the stagecoach. Strong, thin wires were fixed to a metal post anchored in the ground, while the other ends of the wires were attached to an iron clamp that encircled the legs of each horse. A horse was then ridden at full gallop, and when a wire's maximum length was reached--just when the rider was "shot"--the animal's legs would be jerked from beneath it, causing it to tumble violently and throw off the "shot" rider. A rider could anticipate the fall, but the horse could not, resulting in many horses either being killed outright or having to be destroyed because of broken limbs incurred during the falls. The use of the "Running W" was eventually discontinued after many complaints from both inside and outside the film industry.
The interior sets all have visible ceilings that were filmed, an unusual practice at the time for studio filming. This was done to create a claustrophobic effect, in complete counterpoint to the wide open expanse of Monument Valley.
With the exception of a few small clouds, the skies as seen over Monument Valley in this film are indistinct. The ability to film subtle cloud formations was a problem for director John Ford and other directors of the day. Some years later, after his experience in filming with the Navy in the Pacific during World War II, Ford solved this problem by using infrared film stock. The dramatic skies first seen in Ford's Fort Apache (1948) are the result.
Near the end of the movie, Luke Plummer (Tom Tyler), is notified that the Ringo Kid is waiting for him. Just before Plummer's notified, while playing poker, it's revealed that he has has a pair of black aces and a pair of black eights. A poker hand with this pair of cards is the notorious "dead man's hand," a hand supposed to have been held by Wild Bill Hickok just before he was murdered during a poker game.
John Wayne's salary was considerably less than all of his co-stars, apart from John Carradine.
John Carradine, who plays the "Southern gentleman" from Virginia, was born in Greenwich Village, New York, but as a teenager he went to Richmond, Virginia, and served as an apprentice to the sculptor Daniel Chester French who created the Abraham Lincoln statue for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Without meaning to, or with any idea about the future of film genres, "Stagecoach" could be considered one of the precursors of the modern disaster film. Hallmarks include a diverse cast of characters with contrasting backgrounds, personalities, and plot lines, confined to a limited space, and encountering numerous adventures, hazards, and tests of character. Three years later Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944) would be another step towards the genre.
The Breen Office, the censorship watchdog in Hollywood, rejected Dudley Nichols treatment because of the story's sympathetic portrayal of the prostitute Dallas, Doc Boone's constant drunkenness, the Ringo Kid's thirst for revenge, and the marshal's involvement in some deaths. Nichols' first draft script took the Breen Office suggestions to heart, and the production went ahead without further objections from the censors.
Hatfield is called a "tinhorn gambler". The term refers to a tin dice cup, which was used by low-class gamblers rather than the more elegant leather dice cup. It was used in the three-die game chuck-a-luck, which came to the US from Europe at the start of the 19th century.
Spoilers:
Bad omens foreshadow the fates of the principal characters who die or suffer serious injury. At Dry Fork the stagecoach passengers are asked to vote whether to continue the dangerous journey to Lordsburg or return to Tonto. Gambler Hatfield superstitiously splits a deck of cards and pulls up the ace of spades; knowing this is a symbol of death, he votes to proceed in a shaky voice. On the final leg of their trip, believing they are out of danger, Doc Boone drinks a toast to the health of Hatfield, Gatewood, and Ringo. He forgets to include the mild-mannered Peacock, who is then suddenly hit in the chest by an Apache arrow. In Lordsburg, Luke Plummer is playing poker in a saloon when he learns that Ringo is in town to avenge his murdered family. He is holding aces and eights, the notorious "dead man's hand", and as he rises from the table a shadow falls over his face. And when Luke and his brothers walk down the street for the showdown, a black cat crosses their path. Only Buck, shot in the arm during the Apache attack, is spared this trope, perhaps because he was a comic relief character and his wound was not life-threatening.
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