Stagecoach Blu-ray John Wayne
directed   by John Ford
USA 1939
This is   where it all started. John Ford’s smash hit and enduring masterpiece Stagecoach revolutionized the western, elevating it from B movie to the   A-list and establishing the genre as we know it today. The quintessential   tale of a group of strangers thrown together into extraordinary   circumstances, Stagecoach features outstanding performances from Hollywood   stalwarts Claire Trevor, John Carradine, and Thomas Mitchell, and, of   course, John Wayne, in his first starring role for Ford, as the daredevil   outlaw the Ringo Kid. Superbly shot and tightly edited, Stagecoach (Ford’s   first trip to Monument Valley) is Hollywood storytelling at its finest.
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The classic   western, STAGECOACH is one of John Ford's greatest frontier epics.   This western eclipsed all films in the genre that had gone before it, and so   vastly influenced those that followed that its stamp can be found in most   superior westerns made since Ford stepped into Monument Valley for the first   time. Set in a landscape of endless horizons, STAGECOACH is a wonderful,   broad portrait of pioneer life in the untamed Great Southwest, as well as an   in-depth character study of eight people, all diverse in their pursuits and   all traveling to separate fates on a journey packed with danger.
High peril is present from the first scenes, which depict Geronimo on the   warpath and telegraph wires cut by raiding Apaches. Leaving the town of   Tonto, New Mexico, by stagecoach are a motley bunch of Western types. Doc   Boone (Mitchell) is a conniving drunkard, long ago kicked out of the medical   profession for malpractice. Dallas (Trevor) is a prostitute whose sexual   exploits have so unnerved the local women that they have banded together to   oust her from their scandal-mongering society. Hatfield (Carradine),   meanwhile, is a shady gambler with the manners of a southern gentleman, with   his own mysterious reasons for leaving Tonto. He pretends, however, that his   real motivation is to offer the withdrawn Lucy (Platt), who is pregnant and   married to a cavalry officer, his "protection" as she travels to be with her   husband. Henry Gatewood (Churchill), a pompous and demanding banker, gets   aboard the coach carrying a small valise which is locked and which he will   not let go of, while Samuel Peacock (Meek), a whiskey salesman, carries a   sample case. These six strangers make up the passenger list, and riding on   top on the driver's seat is Buck (Devine), a garrulous type with an aversion   to Indians, and tough, gruff, but fair-minded Curly (Bancroft), a lawman   riding "shotgun." Before they've been on the trail very long they pick up   the Ringo Kid (Wayne, in a star-making performance), whose horse has gone   lame. The stagecoach is set, so to speak, so bring on the adventure!