John Ford was considered one of the top directors in Hollywood when he decided to make an elevated Western in 1939's "Stagecoach." The notion struck many in the industry as odd. Westerns were generally considered programmers, and, thus, beneath the talents of a man who'd won the 1935 Best Picture Oscar for "The Informer." But Ford was enamored of Ernest Haycox short story "The Stage to Lordsburg," and believed the public was ready for a fresh take on the genre. He also thought the ensemble film's lead, John Wayne, was at long last ready to become a star.
The rest of Hollywood was not so certain. If Ford was serious about taking on this so-called "classic Western," why was he hellbent on casting Wayne, an actor of seemingly limited range scrapping it out in B movies?
Few in the industry understood what Ford was attempting. In fact, one of his most vital associates,...
The rest of Hollywood was not so certain. If Ford was serious about taking on this so-called "classic Western," why was he hellbent on casting Wayne, an actor of seemingly limited range scrapping it out in B movies?
Few in the industry understood what Ford was attempting. In fact, one of his most vital associates,...
- 12/14/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Cecil B. DeMille delivers a satisfying western epic starring Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy & Akim Tamiroff; the story of the building of a railroad is historically bogus but highly entertaining and action-filled. Joel McCrea is our favorite ethical frontier lawman; here he’s a troubleshooter keeping crooks, Indians and proto-Bolsheviks from delaying construction. The huge cast includes scores of favorite supporting actors — although the screen is so busy some of them will be hard to spot.
Union Pacific
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1939 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 135 min. / Street Date August 3, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Akim Tamiroff, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, Henry Kolker, Anthony Quinn, Lynne Overman.
Cinematography: Victor Milner
Art Directors: Hans Dreier, Roland Anderson
Film Editor: Anne Bauchens
Special Effects: Gordon Jennings, George Tomasini, Loren L. Ryder, Barney Wolff, Jan Domela, Paul K. Lerpae
Original Music: Sigmund Krumgold, John Leipold
Written by Jack Cunningham,...
Union Pacific
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1939 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 135 min. / Street Date August 3, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Akim Tamiroff, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, Henry Kolker, Anthony Quinn, Lynne Overman.
Cinematography: Victor Milner
Art Directors: Hans Dreier, Roland Anderson
Film Editor: Anne Bauchens
Special Effects: Gordon Jennings, George Tomasini, Loren L. Ryder, Barney Wolff, Jan Domela, Paul K. Lerpae
Original Music: Sigmund Krumgold, John Leipold
Written by Jack Cunningham,...
- 8/24/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
This great, unheralded western is divorced from the usual concerns of law and order and gunslinger protocol. As in most every film by Jacques Tourneur, we feel a strong empathy for characters that behave like real people working out real problems. The Oregon Territory is pioneered by imperfect people — opportunists, knaves and hopeful dreamers — all rich in personality. Dana Andrews and Susan Hayward lead a large cast in a tale with just as much conflict and violence as the next western, but with an integrity one can feel. The icing on the cake is the presence of ‘troubadour’ Hoagy Carmichael and his beautiful music.
Canyon Passage
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1946 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 92 min. / Street Date March 10, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Dana Andrews, Susan Hayward, Brian Donlevy, Patricia Roc, Ward Bond, Hoagy Carmichael, Fay Holden, Stanley Ridges, Lloyd Bridges, Andy Devine, Victor Cutler, Rose Hobart, Halliwell Hobbes, James Cardwell,...
Canyon Passage
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1946 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 92 min. / Street Date March 10, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Dana Andrews, Susan Hayward, Brian Donlevy, Patricia Roc, Ward Bond, Hoagy Carmichael, Fay Holden, Stanley Ridges, Lloyd Bridges, Andy Devine, Victor Cutler, Rose Hobart, Halliwell Hobbes, James Cardwell,...
- 2/22/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Twilight Time goes for a Blu-ray upgrade of the western remake with the all-star cast. Forget that there was ever a John Ford or a John Wayne and it’s a perfectly presentable wild west story, but the mileage may vary for classic western fans inclined to make comparisons to the 1939 classic. Top billing goes to an enthusiastic Ann-Margret… but we’re sorry to report that her hip-swinging rock number, ‘Viva Geronimo!’ was cut at the last minute.
Stagecoach
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 115 min. / Street Date April 16, 2019 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies / 29.95
Starring: Ann-Margret, Red Buttons, Michael Connors, Alex Cord, Bing Crosby, Bob Cummings, Van Heflin, Slim Pickens, Stefanie Powers, Keenan Wynn.
Cinematography: William H. Clothier
Original Music: Jerry Goldsmith
Written by Joseph Landon from the screenplay by Dudley Nichols from a story by Ernest Haycox
Produced by Martin Rackin
Directed by Gordon Douglas
The Hollywood western...
Stagecoach
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 115 min. / Street Date April 16, 2019 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies / 29.95
Starring: Ann-Margret, Red Buttons, Michael Connors, Alex Cord, Bing Crosby, Bob Cummings, Van Heflin, Slim Pickens, Stefanie Powers, Keenan Wynn.
Cinematography: William H. Clothier
Original Music: Jerry Goldsmith
Written by Joseph Landon from the screenplay by Dudley Nichols from a story by Ernest Haycox
Produced by Martin Rackin
Directed by Gordon Douglas
The Hollywood western...
- 5/18/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
John Ford's enduring milestone (his first sound western) was the film that Orson Welles studied over and over before embarking on Citizen Kane. Dudley Nichols' adaptation of Ernest Haycox's Collier's magazine story "Stage to Lordsburg" was the first of many Ford films shot in Monument Valley, then one of the least accessible locations in the southwest. By 1970 the original negative had been lost but John Wayne, who played the star-making role of Ringo, donated his personal 35mm print which has become the basis of all subsequent releases including the Blu-ray from Criterion.
- 3/4/2016
- by TFH Team
- Trailers from Hell
August 30, 2013
CBS Radio Workshop Volume 4 The CBS Radio Workshop debuted at the end of the Age of Classic Radio, which was a time of innovation and experimentation, especially in terms of radio drama. The ten-hour Volume 4 includes “All Is Bright”, a history of the famous Christmas song; “1489 Words”, which featured the debut of later film composer Jerry Goldsmith’s “The Thunder of Imperial Names”, which was written for a concert band and was based on a text piece by Thomas Wolfe; a two-part adaptation of Frederick Pohl and Cyril M. Cornbluth’s The Space Merchants, which offers a satirical look at rampant consumerism from the viewpoint of an advertising executive; Archibald MacLeish’s “Air Raid”, the series’ only re-broadcast, which had first been written for the 1938 Columbia Workshop. Aired during the Cold War era, it took on a sinister new meaning; Henry Fritch’s “The Endless Road”, about a road...
CBS Radio Workshop Volume 4 The CBS Radio Workshop debuted at the end of the Age of Classic Radio, which was a time of innovation and experimentation, especially in terms of radio drama. The ten-hour Volume 4 includes “All Is Bright”, a history of the famous Christmas song; “1489 Words”, which featured the debut of later film composer Jerry Goldsmith’s “The Thunder of Imperial Names”, which was written for a concert band and was based on a text piece by Thomas Wolfe; a two-part adaptation of Frederick Pohl and Cyril M. Cornbluth’s The Space Merchants, which offers a satirical look at rampant consumerism from the viewpoint of an advertising executive; Archibald MacLeish’s “Air Raid”, the series’ only re-broadcast, which had first been written for the 1938 Columbia Workshop. Aired during the Cold War era, it took on a sinister new meaning; Henry Fritch’s “The Endless Road”, about a road...
- 9/4/2013
- by Glenn Hauman
- Comicmix.com
It’s no secret that John Ford’s 1939 Western classic Stagecoach was based on a magazine story by Ernest Haycox called “Stage to Lordsburg.” Until this month I’d never read any fiction by that author, but a friend recommended Bugles in the Afternoon, which inspired a mediocre 1952 movie starring Ray Milland and directed by Roy Rowland. The story takes place ten years after the Civil War and deals with a man who enlists in the U.S. Cavalry at a remote outpost in North Dakota, little dreaming that he will be a participant in the battle of Little Big Horn. He is deliberately quiet about his past, including a blood feud that drove him out of the Army a decade ago and soured him on...
[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]...
[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]...
- 7/11/2013
- by Leonard Maltin
- Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy
Pyshka, 1934, directed by Mikhail Romm. Romm was an intermittently successful Soviet filmmaker who toed the line, making two biopics of Lenin. The fact that Pyshka was sonorized in 1955, with a voice-over, score and sound effects added, suggests that he was still well-regarded then. Romm had a fantastic eye for composition, light, and character. I don't know too much or have too much to say about him, but I think these images speak for themselves, and it's probable that his own Wwi experience informs the shots of dead soldiers that begin the story, by far the movie's most vivid sequence.
Pyshka is adapted from Guy de Maupassant's story Boule de Suif, which has an interesting cinematic history. One of Maupassant's semi-propagandist works dealing with the Franco-Prussian war, it's been bent to the purposes of a number of different filmmakers, nations, and era.
Basically, the story tells of a party...
Pyshka is adapted from Guy de Maupassant's story Boule de Suif, which has an interesting cinematic history. One of Maupassant's semi-propagandist works dealing with the Franco-Prussian war, it's been bent to the purposes of a number of different filmmakers, nations, and era.
Basically, the story tells of a party...
- 9/15/2011
- MUBI
Director: John Ford Writers: Ernest Haycox, Dudley Nichols Cinematographer: Bert Glennon Starring: Claire Trevor, John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell Studio: Criterion / Walter Wanger Productions The legendary western that begat more legend By the time director John Ford had cast the role of the Ringo Kid for Stagecoach—loosely based on a short story by Guy de Maupassant—both the genre he was working in (the Western) and the actor he snagged (a towering Iowan named John Wayne) were entrenched in the backwaters of B-movie-dom. But when Ford’s camera zooms in on the Ringo Kid, saddle in one hand and Winchester rifle in...
- 6/23/2010
- Pastemagazine.com
True Blood: The Complete Second SeasonI really dug the first season and can't wait to revisit the citizens of Bon Temps.
Extras include:
Enhanced Viewing ExperienceCommentariesCharacter Perspectives - in-character shortsFellowship of the Sun: Reflections of LightThe Vampire Report: Special Edition
The Road
Australian director John Hillcoat (who made the badass western The Proposition) adapts Cormac McCarthy! I must see this.
Extras include:
CommentaryDeleted ScenesThe Making of The RoadMystery Team
Online sketch comedy group Derrick Comedy make their film debut with this hilarious Sundance hit. Check them out, you won't regret it. Unfortunately no blu-ray.
Extras include:
CommentaryDeleted ScenesWho Is Wally Cummings? Short FilmThe Making of Mystery TeamTest SceneSword Club
[Read More...]
Dear John
It looks very cliche, but director Lasse Hallström (The Hoax, What's Eating Gilbert Grape) and character actor Richard Jenkins always bring it.
Extras include:
Deleted ScenesA Conversation with Channing, Amanda, and LasseTransforming CharlestonMilitary in Movies: Dear John's Military AdvisersMr.
Extras include:
Enhanced Viewing ExperienceCommentariesCharacter Perspectives - in-character shortsFellowship of the Sun: Reflections of LightThe Vampire Report: Special Edition
The Road
Australian director John Hillcoat (who made the badass western The Proposition) adapts Cormac McCarthy! I must see this.
Extras include:
CommentaryDeleted ScenesThe Making of The RoadMystery Team
Online sketch comedy group Derrick Comedy make their film debut with this hilarious Sundance hit. Check them out, you won't regret it. Unfortunately no blu-ray.
Extras include:
CommentaryDeleted ScenesWho Is Wally Cummings? Short FilmThe Making of Mystery TeamTest SceneSword Club
[Read More...]
Dear John
It looks very cliche, but director Lasse Hallström (The Hoax, What's Eating Gilbert Grape) and character actor Richard Jenkins always bring it.
Extras include:
Deleted ScenesA Conversation with Channing, Amanda, and LasseTransforming CharlestonMilitary in Movies: Dear John's Military AdvisersMr.
- 5/26/2010
- by josh@reelartsy.com (Joshua dos Santos)
- Reelartsy
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.