Wagon Master (1950)

Two young drifters guide a Mormon wagon train to the San Juan Valley and encounter cutthroats, Indians, geography, and moral challenges on the journey.

Director:

John Ford

Writers:

Frank S. Nugent (as Frank Nugent), Patrick Ford

Stars:

Ben Johnson, Joanne Dru, Harry Carey Jr.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ben Johnson	...	Travis Blue
Joanne Dru	...	Denver
Harry Carey Jr.	...	Sandy
Ward Bond	...	Elder Wiggs
Charles Kemper	...	Uncle Shiloh Clegg
Alan Mowbray	...	Dr. A. Locksley Hall
Jane Darwell	...	Sister Ledyard
Ruth Clifford	...	Fleuretty Phyffe
Russell Simpson	...	Adam Perkins
Kathleen O'Malley	...	Prudence Perkins
James Arness	...	Floyd Clegg
Francis Ford	...	Mr. Peachtree
Fred Libby	...	Reese Clegg
Jim Thorpe	...	Navajo Indian
Mickey Simpson	...	Jesse Clegg

Storyline

As Mormon settlers head to the promised land at the San Juan river in Utah, they hire horse traders Travis Blue and Sandy as wagon masters. They have to forge a trail across unknown territory and face many hardships along the way. They quickly come across some stranded travelers, a medicine show run by Dr. A. Locksley Hall which includes the attractive Denver. Along the way however, they are also joined by Shiloh Clegg and his murderous clan of robbers and thieves. An encounter with the Navajo leads to an invitation to their camp but after one of the Clegg boys gets a whipping for attacking one of the Navajo women, Uncle Shiloh plans his revenge. It's left to Sandy and Travis to protect the travelers and get them to their destination.

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Plot Keywords:

double gun holster | gun | holster | gun holster | two gun holster | 

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Taglines:

John Ford's lusty successor to "Fort Apache" and "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon"

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Genres:

Adventure | Western

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Certificate:

Approved

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film was a personal favorite of Ford himself, who told Peter Bogdanovich in 1967 that "Along with The Fugitive and The Sun Shines Bright, Wagon Master came closest to being what I wanted to achieve."

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Goofs

In the beginning of the film, when Travis on the horse talks to the marshal, he folds his right leg leaning it on the saddle horn. In the next shot he is with his right leg hanging unfolded.

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Quotes

[singing]
Sandy: I left my gal in Old Virginy...
Travis Blue: Trailin' behind the wagon trail...
Sandy: Another I left in Old Missoura...
Travis Blue: Trailin' behind the wagon trail...
Sandy, Travis Blue: [Together] Oh the Wite tops are a rollin', rollin', the big wheels keep a-turnin', and when I reach that promise land, for my gal I'll still be yearnin'.

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Connections

Featured in Directed by John Ford (1971)

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Soundtracks

WAGONS WEST
Words and Music by Stan Jones
Recorded by Sons of the Pioneers (as The Sons of the Pioneers)
Sung (behind credits) by the Sons of the Pioneers (uncredited)

User Reviews

"Fell in behind the wagon trail"

The Western can be divided into many sub-genres. One of the broadest divisions is that between Town Westerns and Plains Westerns. Most Westerns are a mix of both, but at one end of the spectrum you have pictures like High Noon and Rio Bravo that take place almost entirely in a settlement, seldom venturing out into the real outdoors. At the other end you have ones like Wagon Master, where there is barely a homestead on view amid the wilderness.

Director John Ford normally thrived on the "bit of both" Westerns, shooting the interiors with an emphasis on their being small and confined, and then contrasting this with the wide open exteriors, which appeared both exciting and dangerous. Wagon Master has a typical Frank Nugent script, with some interplay between seasoned oldsters and green youngsters, but still it presents Ford with some fresh challenges. In this picture, the dangers do not come from the harshness of the landscape, they come from within the group in the form of the Cleggses. What's more, the absence of real interior scenes means the outdoors could lose its impact over time.

However, Ford was a real maestro when it came to manipulating space. He shoots scenes of the camp or the wagons so the frame is surrounded and we get that same sense of enclosure as we would in a genuine interior. Also, compared to his other Westerns, he does not in fact open out the space too much, having the wagon trail wend its way through canyons and passes rather than cross the stark and empty plains. One of the few moments where he does throw the landscape wide open is when the Indians are spotted and there is the possibility of a threat from outside.

Wagon Master features some surprisingly effective moments of comic relief, and some great contributions from the quirky cast. Harry Carey Jr. was shaping up into a fine actor like his pa, and this is one of his better early roles. Joanne Dru was disappointing in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, but she appears more at ease as a character with a bit of sass, and is actually fairly good here. Jane Darwell, who won an Oscar in the John Ford-directed Grapes of Wrath a decade earlier, appears here with sole function of performing a running gag in which she sounds a feeble old horn. Still, with her great timing and movement she makes the piece work. Francis Ford, in one of the many mute drunkard roles he played in his little brother's pictures, is at his cheeky best.

And now we come to lead man Ben Johnson. Although he was by no means a bad actor, he was never going to become a big star like John Wayne. And yet, with his effortless horsemanship and easygoing drawl, he was one of the most authentically "West" players around. And this brings me onto my final point. This was apparently one of Ford's personal favourites, despite it seeming fairly unassuming. Wagon Master has no grand theme or dramatic intensity, it is simply the genre playing itself out. I think this is what Ford loved about it. It's a picture for the Ben Johnsons and the Harry Carey Jrs, not the John Waynes or the Henry Fondas. Small in scope, but worthy in its class.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Navajo Spanish

Release Date:

22 April 1950 (USA)

Also Known As:

Wagonmaster

Filming Locations:

Monument Valley, Arizona, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$999,370 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Argosy Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1