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"Barney McKlennar was a real man. When he kissed you, you stayed kissed!" Fun Fact: John Ford's first film in color. Casting Notes Fact: Despite low billing and his name not appearing on any of the posters, Ward Bond is prominently featured throughout the film. He has much more screen time than most of the actors billed above him. Location Location Fact: Some scenes for the film were shot at Cedar City, Utah, where 350 local residents were used as extras. A biography of John Ford notes that filming began without a completed script, and that rain and unpredictable lighting conditions in Utah's Wasatch Mountains forced many production delays. Movie Magic Fact: The biography also indicates that Ford, pressed for time at the Utah location, decided to forgo filming a large-scale battle scene, which had been scheduled for a three-week shoot, and instead used footage taken from an unscripted description of the battle spoken by Henry Fonda. The sequence was taken from an improvised conversation between Ford and Fonda that had been filmed and later edited with Ford's questions removed. The result was a continuous shot of Fonda giving a descriptive narration of the battle scene. Historical Fact: The Iroquois Confederation was split in its loyalties during the Revolution. The Oneidas sided with the Americans while the Mohawks and Senecas joined with the Hurons and Nipissing First Nation (Ojibwas and Algonquins) on the side of the British. The battle so vividly described by Gil Martin (Henry Fonda) is the bloody Battle of Oriskany, which had one of the highest casualty rates of any battle in the war. It took place on August 6, 1777, and involved only North American troops--Tory, Patriot and Indian--and was part of what became the overall Battle of Saratoga, as the Tory and Indian troops were commanded by a subordinate of Gen. "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne. Gen. Nicholas Herkimer, who was wounded in the battle, did not receive adequate medical attention. His leg became infected and he died ten days later from blood loss after amputation on August 16. He was 49. Despite Gil's claim that the colonials gave them a "licking" in his words, the Tories and Indians suffered only 150 casualties while the Patriots sustained 450.

You'll notice a lot of these actors are the same in a lot of these movies. They were contract players tied to a studio. Same studio - same actors. You'll also notice on occasion actors from one studio worked with another studio and their participation preceded with an acknowledgement that they are there with permission of their home studio.

You're getting a treat in this film, watching the great Edna May Oliver in one of her last film roles.

The male lead is Jane Fonda's father, born about a year and a half before.

Nice! I haven't seen this one in some decades. The initial honeymoon set up is hard to believe. But I suppose they needed a device to introduce the leading characters. The rampage scene at their first farm reminded me of the ransacking of a train in Union Pacific (1939) (Barbara Stanwyck,Joel McCrea, Cecil B. DeMille- Director). 1776 is the year the United States declared independence from England. A revolution was taking place and the political party talk reflects the times. Tories were loyalists. Americans were for independence. Americans are taught these stories in elementary school, usually in the context of some holiday or another. Gen. Herkimer. Heh. My dad named his beagle dog after that general. He probably took the name from this film. But that dog died before I could walk. Fonda delivers quite a vivid description of the battle. That scene and the scene between him and Claudette Colbert before he makes his desperation run are the best in the film. The Mohawk in the title is the name of the river and the river is named after the people who lived there first and they are known for the distinct hair style worn by their warriors as shown in the film. Taxi Driver and all that, Joe Strummer too.

Henry, you sir, are the GOAT of reactioners. Bar none.

Thank you for reacting to this movie. It's one of my favorites.

Thank you for introducing me to this gem of a movie!

My personal favorite of Ford's 3 films of 1939. The Technicolor is vivid and brilliant for one thing and even though it wasn't filmed in the Mohawk Valley, a place I pass through pretty often, it sure does look like it. Plus Ford is using more often the subtle poetic iconography he becomes known for. Great reaction. 👍

YOUR TASTE IN FILM IS SPECTACULAR!

Hi Henry - just watched your concluding remarks and will give you my short story: Me, I was always curious so always willing to try anything once. Tried all sorts of drugs in my 20's out of the experience, including the halucingens like LSD and mushrooms (Sylisyban(sp) for the transcendental experience. tried them a couple of times. Tried coke and speed a couple of times, found i like coke so much that i stopped after the second time (made me feel too good - boosted my ego enough to make me fear it after sobering up). I find alcohol for me is "coke lite", and since my 20s - now 30 yrs later - I've been a drinker due to it making me feel good at the time. for decades I've been able to keep it at 6 beers every other weekend, until about a decade ago - now its 6 beers every weekend (I know its 2x what it should be for me - so working on lowering it to what it used to be for years and years - so far no luck ;-/.) I'm greatful that i don't have a habit forming personality, otherwise i think i'd be fked. Friends - I have 4 that were and or are now Alcoholics, one was my best friend since high school, he was like me and just drank every other weekend from the 1980's up to about ten years ago, then he slipped into alcoholism in his late 40's. His wife tried to help him, then when she left him I let him move in with me 3 years ago for few months. Sadly he trashed my place and was drinking from 6 AM to midnight (lost his job of course) while I went to work everyday. I eventually lost patience and kicked him out, last time I heard (from his x wife - last year) he was living in his car having lost his house to foreclosure ;-(. the other 3 friends I've knowed for 20 years or so - one was an Alcoholic before i knew him back in the 80's and quit in 85 and never touched a drop since that time - and goes to AA every week or so, up to today. The other was a heavy drinker, then quit for a decade, then picked it back up again last year and just lost his job over it only last week (he worked next to me for 20 years - stopped showing up to work 6 months ago, then showed one day a week, boss was an angel and refused to fire him so he could get his shit together, but finally after no shows for 6 month gave him the can after working solid 19 years. theres only so much you can do. and 4 friend was hooked on heroine 30 yrs ago, kicked the habit 20 years ago, then last year picked it up again ;-/. ya life is tough, all we can do is take it one day at the time. I do think it is a matter of will (I know this is not today's popular opinion, but so be it). peace!

Hi Henry - there is another movie about the same topic that is excellent too. not sure where you can find it - no VHS no DVD ever made of it. only a blurry recorded from TV back in the 70's - used to be here on YT 10 yrs ago, not sure if still here. Its an old 1970's made for TV movie with Dick Van Dyke (who is still whit us! - at 98 yrs old) called "the Morning After" very good movie, if you can find it, higly recommend for personal viewing (not worth "reacting to" since it is not even a "sleeper" nor "forgotten classic" - it was just a simple made for TV movie that is now fully unknown. 4 more 70's TV movie name drops for personal viewing - no DVD no VHS no nothing but "recorded from TV decades ago" (all 5 star movies BTW) The Gun Blood Sport (not the one of same name that is well known - this one is 15 yr earlier and about High School football - starred Gary Busy(sp)) Neon Ceiling Death Be Not Proud all of them should have at least a DVD offering, but too forgotten to bother with sadly. 2 cents.

A little late to the party, but what I find fascinating is that Christine did not lie on the witness stand (except when she said she did not love Leonard).

I saw this film one time about 20 years ago and remember really liking it. I didn't remember anything about the case he takes on but I always remember him playing his mouth harp.

Anti-lynching film disguised as a Lincoln hagiography. Henry Fonda also starred in another classic anti-lynching film, The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), a few years later. For what it's worth, the construction of The Statue of Liberty in New York was finished in 1886. So the woman in the 4th of July parade circa 1832 would have been dressed as Liberty, aka The Goddess of Liberty, rather than as The Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Liberty is also modeled after The Goddess of Liberty so the mix up is understandable.

This is one of the few films about Abraham Lincoln where he was actually portrayed by an American. Walter Huston (Abraham Lincoln, 1930), and Raymond Massey (Abraham Lincoln in Illinois, 1940) were Canadian and Daniel Day Lewis (Lincoln 2012) is English.

~ A mix of fact & fiction supposedly based on fact, who knows how loose?

"By jing, that's all there is to it; Right and Wrong." Fun Fact: This film has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Final Bow Fact: Final film of Alice Brady. She would die of cancer some months after the release. Historical Fact: The brief "My politics are short and sweet" speech Lincoln (Henry Fonda) makes when he announces his candidacy for the Illinois state legislature was taken from the speech Lincoln gave when he did that. Casting Notes Fact: Henry Fonda originally turned down the role of Lincoln, saying he didn't think he could play such a great man. He changed his mind after John Ford asked him to do a screen test in full makeup. After viewing himself as Lincoln in the test footage, Fonda liked what he saw, and accepted the part. He later told an interviewer: "I felt as if I were portraying Christ himself on film." Legal Mindset Fact: Lincoln's (Henry Fonda) introduction of accessible and indisputable facts into evidence--in this case, lunar phase and moonset--without a witness is known as Judicial Notice. Though rarely used in the 19th century, it was, in fact, used during the real Armstrong case to exonerate Lincoln's client and prove that the eyewitness Charles Allen (J. P. Cass (Ward Bond) in the movie) lied under oath. Military Enthusiast Fact: During the Springfield parade scene, the crowd chants "hayfoot, strawfoot!" at the militia soldiers as they march past. This is a reference to the army training practice of the time of putting hay on the left hand boot of recruits, and straw on the right hand boot, so that sergeants could get recruits to march in step. The largely rural farm boy population of the country that made up the army often didn't know left from right, but they knew the difference between hay and straw. The practice was most common in the Civil War.

This beautiful film gets me every time. A great reaction, very like mine.

Happy you're feeling better, Henry! (Fantastic stunts in this one, huh?!) Great edit!

A common trope in Hollywood westerns is the changing of the "Wild West" into a more civilized place. According to Hollywood, when the first towns were settled and law enforcement was weak, there were virtually no women other than prostitutes. As towns grew and started to get sheriffs and marshals and the rule of law developed, married couples felt safe enough to move in. The wives rightly considered the sex workers as threats to their family life, and took action to run them out of town. The town of Tonto at the beginning of the film is going through this "civilized" development. Note that the "real" history of the West is a lot more complicated, but the movie trope is what the plot is running with.

Very good review. Analysis was spot on

The drunken Doc is instantly recognisable as Scarlett's dad. Now there's a film worth watching!

Great review Henry, I enjoyed it and am glad that you have watched and enjoyed the classic movie Stagecoach, one of the best. If you are doing a John Ford\John Wayne series then you simply have to include 'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon' which can be called both Ford and Wayne's best movie and it includes an excellent performance from Victor McLaglen (remember him in The Quiet Man}.

In Victorian times, it was considered improper to refer to someone's legs, in particularly women's legs, but "limbs" was okay. (In the beginning, Curly refers to Mallory's legs and then immediately corrects himself.) Dallas was supposed to be a "woman of ill repute" (i.e., prostitute), but the Hays Code in effect prohibited the move from being more direct. Also the other woman was pregnant but again the code prevented both labeling her as such and from showing her with an extended stomach. Audiences of the time, however, knew EXACTLY what was implied in both cases. (Despite the morality that reinforced the Hays Code, the "prostitute with a heart of gold" was a familiar trope, also seen by Belle Watling in Gone With The Wind and Marlene Dietrich's character in the 1939 Destry Rides Again, the later spoofed so well in Blazing Saddles.) On the other hand, the Hays Code might have "encouraged" the plot to have the gambler to die in the end. Thomas Mitchell, the drunk doctor, was a great character actor. He played Scarlett O'Hara's father in the blockbuster Gone With The Wind (released the same year - 1939 was a banner year for classic movies, including of course Wizard of Oz and Destry Rides Again). He also played Uncle Billy in another must-see movie, It's a Wonderful Life, which came out in 1946. (I was long familiar with GWTW and Wonderful Life but only last year did I realize it was the same actor, he was so good as different characters.)

Fun facts: Orson Welles called this film a "perfect textbook of filmmaking" and claims he watched Stagecoach more than 40 times in preparation for his first movie Citizen Kane. This was John Wayne's star making performance. Before this film he had spend nearly 10 years grinding out low budget B pictures for Republic.

Very strange that you don’t mention John Wayne, the most famous western star by far in cinematic history, at all. This is the movie that made him a star.

Stagecoach is an iconic film filled with iconic scenes, staring with the camera zoom that introduces John Wayne to the stunt work around the stage coach during the chase scene to the subtle looks Claire Trevor relies on to steal the film from the other actors. As for the shunning and dirty looks given her character, aside from creating a contrast in which the connection between Ringo and Dallas makes sense, they reflect one of the metaphorical tropes that some Westerns use to explore the encroachment of civilization as it closes in on the frontier wilderness. Claire Trevor featured in mostly Westerns and film noirs, with roles in some of the classics of both genres including Dark Command (1940), Honky Tonk (1941), Texas (1941), Man Without a Star (1955), The Stranger Wore a Gun (1953), Best of the Badmen (1951), Murder, My Sweet (1944), Johnny Angel (1945), Born to Kill (1947), Borderline (1950), Key Largo (1948), and Raw Deal (1948). (If I had to pick one above the rest it would be Key Largo)

Hope you're doing ok. You still have so many great movie classics to react to! 😁

When it comes to listing favorite movies, it is difficult for me. Because the list always changes. So I rather arbitrarily just keep Stagecoach as my #1 western. Orson Welles watched Stagecoach almost nightly while he was making Citizen Kane. I can see why. You could almost watch Stagecoach with no dialogue and understand what is going on. Ford knew how to frame a shot and then put the shots together to frame a story. Nine disparate people and by the end, you have nine unique characterizations. In just 90 or so minutes. No clunky exposition drops either. And did so when much of it is in the subtext. Regarding prostitution. It varied from place to place. So-called, 'law and order leagues,' popped up pretty much everywhere eventually. Schools and churches supplanting the bars and brothels. Sometimes town tamers (lawmen hired specifically to transition the change) would post the names of "undesirables." Sometimes it was vigilance committees. If your name was on the list, get out of town or things would go bad for you. Madams were often on the list. So they'd just sell out to the next madam and move to the next town. There was a quite famous Madam named Sally Standford. She said, "If you are being run out of town, get in front of the crowd and make it look like a parade." In Stagecoach, that is what Doc does when he is run out of town. He leaves as if it is his own idea and a cause for celebration. While Dallas just feels hurt.

what is always amazing to me in these old westerns is the stunt work. In this movie the work by the stunt men around the stagecoach's horses while they're running as fast as they can is outright dangerous.

While watching I though Lucy Mallory was played by younger Donna Reed who I know from "It's a Wonderful Life". But I was wrong, she was played by Louise Platt. Both very beautiful.

The women's league reacted when Doc leaned out the stagecoach because he had his thumb on (or at) his nose, which would have been almost the equivalent of the modern middle finger. Extremely rude, in any case. You'd sometimes see the same gesture in pre-code cartoons. Tom Tyler as the bad guy Luke Plummer isn't in the movie long, but he has the distinction of being the first actor to play Captain Marvel/Shazam on film, also making him the first actor to play ANY comic book superhero on film. The Adventures of Captain Marvel is usually regarded as one of the best of the old movie serials, and Tyler was a particularly fit actor, so he looked good in the costume.

"Well, I guess you can't break out of prison and into society in the same week." Fun Fact: Theatrical film debut of Mickey Simpson. Extra Nation Fact: Local Navajo Indians played the Apaches. The film's production was a huge economic boost to the local impoverished population, giving jobs to hundreds of locals as extras and handymen. Casting Notes Fact: John Ford originally wanted Ward Bond to play Buck the stage driver. However, he gave the role to Andy Devine when he found that Bond couldn't drive a "six-up" stagecoach and that not enough time existed to teach him. Legendary Hat Fact: 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. The Duke Fact: John Ford gave John Wayne the script, asking him for any suggestions as to who could play the Ringo Kid. Wayne suggested Lloyd Nolan, not realizing that Ford was baiting him with the part. Additionally, once filming began, Ford was merciless to Wayne, constantly undermining him. This psychological tactic was designed to make Wayne start feeling some real emotions and to be unintimidated by acting alongside the likes of such seasoned professionals as Thomas Mitchell. Running W Fact: 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.

John Carradine is also in Grapes of Wrath.

I love John Wayne. Anything he is in I have probably watched. This is a very good movie!

Stagecoach is often cited as the first "adult" Western since most Westerns of the time period were made for kids going to Saturday matinees even though John Ford had been making mature Westerns since the Silent Era, but Ford has a very poetic way of creating shots to relate both vastness and intimacy particularly between Dallas and Ringo not to mention his use of doorways and windows to signify pervading rites of passage or moments of quiet revelation for instance when Hatfield views Mrs. Mallory through a window through the window of stagecoach. Anyway, I love this film. One thing I really like about Ford's casting despite the main characters is that he always wanted to cast genuine Native Americans for "Indians" where it was typical in the Holllywood casting offices to have non-Natives to play those roles. Great reaction, Henry. Really looking forward to Young Mr. Lincoln and all the rest of the Ford library you'll be watching. Hoping you're going to be watching HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY - talk about doorways and windows iconography! And it's a beautiful film which won 1941's Best Picture Oscar over Citizen Kane controversially.

“I do not leak, you leak, remember?” is a callback to david saying he needs to take a leak, but then they changed it “he said he wanted to phone home” is a reference to the most famous quote from ET, “ET phone home”

It took me a few times to realize the joke of Josephus calling Oedipus a mthafka

I've heard that Rhoades was based on Author Godrey, who was still around when I was a kid, but I barely remember him. I don't really know that backstory. I've heard it a couple of times in passing. Whatever really happened was before I was born I suppose I should look it up.

Absolutely a great pick. I grew up with the Andy Griffith Show plus my mother had some of his comedy stories on 78s. Until the 1970s all record players had three speed options. 33.3, 45, and 78 RPM. I've always loved Andy in No Time for Sargents, the comedy play them movie that launched his acting career. I didn't know A Face in the Crowd existed until I was older than you are now. Wow! My husband and I were actually shocked at how good his dramatic acting was. Visually, Andy shows you exactly what Rhoades is the moment he's awakened. A startled predator, just a hair's breath from an attack. Every other face he puts on is false. He's a textbook narcissist. I love the way old Hollywood portrayed it, without naming it. But to be fair to Andy, you need to watch No Time for Sargents. Many folks regard Will Stockdale as on of the most Christlike characters ever to appear on the screen. And the culture clash is hilarious. Will could easily be one of my Georgia cousins. To appreciate Andy Griffith's acting chops you need to see both extremes. I'm glad to see you're recovering so well from your bout with the shingles. Again, get choice! And I'm so glad you got to hear a " cotton pickin' " used in context. 🧓🎭📽️💖

One of my favorite films. I highly recommend Terry Gilliam's Brazil (1985), same director - similar vibe but as dystopian sci-fi black comedy.