Stagecoach

John Ford

 
Stagecoach (Criterion Blu-Ray)

Blu-Ray

1 Disc

SRP: $39.95

Criterion Store price:$31.96

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  • United States
  • 1939
  • 96 minutes
  • Black and White
  • 1.37:1
  • English
  •  
  • Spine #516

SYNOPSIS: 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.

Cast & CreditsOpen

Cast

DallasClaire Trevor
Ringo KidJohn Wayne
BuckAndy Devine
HatfieldJohn Carradine
Doc BooneThomas Mitchell
Lucy MalloryLouise Platt
CurleyGeorge Bancroft
PeacockDonald Meek
GatewoodBerton Churchill
LieutenantTim Holt
Luke PlummerTom Tyler

Credits

DirectorJohn Ford
Presented byWalter Wanger
Original storyErnest Haycox
ScreenplayDudley Nichols
CinematographyBert Glennon
EditingOtho Lovering and Dorothy Spencer
Art directionAlexander Toluboff
Associate art directionWiard B. Ihnen
CostumesWalter Plunkett
SoundFrank Maher
Assistant directorWingate Smith

Disc Features

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • Audio commentary by western authority Jim Kitses (Horizons West)
  • Bucking Broadway, a 1917 silent feature by John Ford, with new music composed and performed by Donald Sosin
  • Journalist and television presenter Philip Jenkinson’s extensive 1968 video interview with Ford
  • New video appreciation of Stagecoach, with director and Ford biographer Peter Bogdanovich
  • New video interview with Ford’s grandson, Dan Ford about the director and his home movies
  • New video piece, featuring journalist Buzz Bissinger, about trader Harry Goulding’s key role in bringing Monument Valley to Hollywood
  • New video homage to legendary stuntman Yakima Canutt, with celebrated stunt coordinator Vic Armstrong
  • Video essay by writer Tag Gallagher analyzing Ford’s visual style in Stagecoach
  • Screen Director’s Playhouse 1949 radio dramatization of Stagecoach, with John Wayne, Claire Trevor, and Ford, downloadable as an MP3 file
  • Theatrical trailer
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by David Cairns and Ernest Haycox’s “Stage to Lordsburg,” the short story that inspired the film

From the CurrentView the Current »

Film Essays

Stagecoach: Taking the Stage

By David CairnsMay 27, 2010

Dismiss from your mind, momentarily at least, the John Ford we know, who could define himself with the three words “I make westerns.” Before Stagecoach (1939), Ford’s talking pictures played Read more »


Videos


Clippings

Saving Stagecoach

September 28, 2010

Peter Bogdanovich’s latest post on Blogdanovich, his recently launched Indiewire blog, tells quite a tale. In 1968, after conducting an interview with John Wayne for an AFI documentary on John Ford, the Read more »


Press Notes

Press Notes: Stagecoach

June 01, 2010

Few films are as monumental as Stagecoach, as reviews of the new Criterion DVD and Blu-ray editions of John Ford’s newly restored western landmark remind us. On his indieWIRE blog Movie Crazy, Leonard Read more »