Stagecoach (1939 film)
| Stagecoach | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | John Ford |
| Produced by | Walter Wanger |
| Screenplay by | |
| Based on |
The Stage to Lordsburg 1937 by Ernest Haycox |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Richard Hageman |
| Cinematography | Bert Glennon |
| Edited by |
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Production
company |
Walter Wanger Productions
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| Distributed by | United Artists |
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Release date
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Running time
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96 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $531,374 |
| Box office | $1,103,757 |
Stagecoach is a 1939 American Western film directed by John Ford, starring Claire Trevor and John Wayne in his breakthrough role. The screenplay, written by Dudley Nichols, is an adaptation of "The Stage to Lordsburg", a 1937 short story by Ernest Haycox. The film follows a group of strangers riding on a stagecoach through dangerous Apache territory.
Stagecoach was the first of many Westerns that Ford shot using Monument Valley, in the American Southwest on the Arizona–Utah border, as a location, many of which also starred John Wayne. Scenes from Stagecoach, including a famous sequence introducing John Wayne's character the Ringo Kid, blended shots of Monument Valley with shots filmed on the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, California, RKO Encino Movie Ranch, and other locations. Similar geographic incongruencies are evident throughout the film, up to the closing scene of Ringo (Wayne) and Dallas (Trevor) departing Lordsburg, in southwestern New Mexico, by way of Monument Valley.
In 1995, this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in their National Film Registry.
In 1880, a motley group of strangers boards the east-bound stagecoach from Tonto, Arizona Territory to Lordsburg, New Mexico Territory. These travelers are unremarkable and ordinary at first glance. Among them are Dallas (Claire Trevor), a prostitute who is being driven out of town by the moralistic "Law and Order League"; an alcoholic doctor, Doc Boone (Thomas Mitchell); pregnant Lucy Mallory (Louise Platt), who is traveling to meet her cavalry officer husband; and whiskey salesman Samuel Peacock (Donald Meek).
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