{"id":3719,"date":"2011-10-27T17:22:27","date_gmt":"2011-10-27T21:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=3719"},"modified":"2014-09-28T13:35:24","modified_gmt":"2014-09-28T17:35:24","slug":"dvd-stagecoach-1966","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=3719","title":{"rendered":"DVD: Stagecoach (1966)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Film<\/strong>: Good\/ DVD Transfer: Excellent\/ DVD Extras: Good<\/p>\n

Label<\/strong>:\u00a0Twilight Time<\/a> \/ Region: 0 (NTSC) \/\u00a0Released: October, 2010<\/p>\n

Genre<\/strong>: Western<\/p>\n

Synopsis<\/strong>: 9 people ride a stagecoach through dangerous territory, evading Indians yet falling victim to their own personal struggles.<\/p>\n

Special Features<\/strong>: \u00a0Isolated Stereo Music Score \/ 8-page colour booklet with notes by Film Historian Julie Kirgo \/ Limited to 3000 copies \/ Available Exclusively from Screen Archives Entertainment.<\/p>\n

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Review<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

There is nothing new with Hollywood remaking classics \u2013 witness the multiple variations on a theme called A Star is Born<\/a><\/strong> – but John Ford admirers would probably find this 1966 version of his 1939 classic pointless, save for the challenge of tweaking a classic script for audiences accustomed to CinemaScope, Color, and Stereophonic Sound.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, producer and occasion writer Martin Rackin never opted to go with even a banal stereo sound mix \u2013 a strange choice, considering this was a deluxe-styled production \u2013 but one does get a sense this version was originally conceived as Fox\u2019s attempt to cash in on the success of sprawling widescreen westerns like How the West Was Won<\/strong> (1963), but the budget was significantly scaled back as the studio was recovering from the financial debacle that was Cleopatra<\/strong> (good as the film is).<\/p>\n

The ties to HTWWW isn\u2019t trivial \u2013 the aerial shots of verdant wild mountain regions are directly imitative of MGM\u2019s Cinerama<\/a> spectacular \u2013 but once the camera settles on land, the film goes through the machinations of introducing the ensemble characters who will be packed into a small carriage that\u2019s made amazingly wide & cozy, courtesy of a wide angle lens, and some structural license in the studio\u2019s carpentry department to accommodate three passengers flanking each \u2018scope edge, and one lone figure seated on the floor with elbow room<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Fox\u2019s roster of thespians is a m\u00e9lange of recognizable faces rather than ideal casting, but it\u2019s doubtful anyone could\u2019ve transcended the archetypal roles that were slightly sweetened with comedic indulgences and witticisms slightly reminiscent of the studio\u2019s raucous but scriptless indulgence known as North to Alaska<\/strong> (1960).<\/p>\n

Ann-Margret, fresh from The Cincinnati Kid<\/strong> (1965), plays hooker Dallas, kicked out of town by a Captain Mallory for teasing two drunks into a fight to the death; Bing Crosby (in his final film role) is the drunken Doc Josiah Boone; Robert Cummings plays bank embezzler & thief Henry Gatewood; and Van Heflin adds needed gravitas and wryness to the role of Marshal Curly Wilcox, who\u2019d rather be fishing than hunting down escaped con Ringo (although he\u2019ll get a fat $500 for wrangling him to jail).<\/p>\n

Alex Cord, a veteran TV actor who would pretty much stay put in TV movies and episodic guest spots for most of his career, is fine as a the rugged, brooding Ringo Kid (bleached sandy blonde mop notwithstanding), and Keenan Wynn unsurprisingly eats the scenery with gusto as the snarling patriarch Luke Plummer whom Ringo wants to kill for murdering his father and brother.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for screenwriter Joseph (co-writer of Von Ryan\u2019s Express<\/strong>, Fox\u2019s Great Escape<\/strong> knock-off) and director Gordon Douglas (Them!<\/a><\/strong>), the two men were trapped with both clich\u00e9d archetypes, and large group of characters of which at least half should\u2019ve been killed off by the vengeful Indians the group avoid as they journey to Cheyenne.<\/p>\n

Booze salesman Peacock (gratingly Red Buttons) pats his sweaty brow and watches with polite dismay as Doc Boone empties his suitcase of samples), while the good Doc pats him on the shoulder every few minutes before knocking back the amber liquid. Gatewood complains and hugs his satchel of $10,000 cash but never crosses the line and becomes the total arse he clearly is, and gambler Hatfield (wooden Mike \u2018Michael\u2019 Connors) spends most of the movie objecting to verbal vulgarities in front of the ladies during the rare moments the script gives him something to do.<\/p>\n

Ringo and Dallas exchange sultry glances, and yet after two verbal exchanges during a midnight stopover, both are convinced they\u2019re wholly in love; and Lucy, the pregnant wife of Capt. Mallory (up-and-coming actress Stefanie Powers), remains incensed and largely non-verbal except when the ‘vulgarities’ fly too close to her personage. As stagecoach driver Buck, Slim Pickens (The Flim-Flam Man<\/a> <\/strong>[M<\/a>], The Swarm<\/a><\/strong>) complains ad infinitum, and he’s repeatedly told to \u2018shut up\u2019 by Marshal Wilcox \u2013 the core spectrum of Pickens\u2019 dialogue exchanges.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only when the group reaches the lodge where the massacred soldiers were billeted does the script offer meaty scenes for the actors, but they still come off as perfunctory. An exception, though, is Cummings’ scene with Margret, where his character shows a serious, darker side in lying about wanting to take her with him to Cheyenne when his goal is to abscond fast with the stolen money. Unfortunately for Cummings, he\u2019s stuck whining for the rest of the film until he\u2019s shot to death by the Plummers in the film\u2019s finale that feels strangely under-directed. (Perhaps a signal of Douglas\u2019 distaste for Cummings\u2019 one-note character, his death is covered in a wide shot, and there\u2019s no close-up covering his ignominious death.)<\/p>\n

Once the group head on to Cheyenne, the Indian attack finally begins, but where a massacre should\u2019ve occurred, only gambler Hatfield is sacrificed. Presumably in 1966, killing off stars would\u2019ve been regarded as poisonous to the film\u2019s success, but perhaps under the helm of a more daring director and \/ or producer, removing the deadwood early into the group\u2019s journey would\u2019ve opened up the drama\u2019s scope by focusing on the most viable characters.<\/p>\n

Moreover, in spite of the handful of westerns from the fifties (Broken Arrow<\/strong>) where Hollywood attempted to humanize the once demonized \u2018marauding Indian,\u2019 the sixties failed to build on those advances, and Stagecoach<\/strong> depicts native Americans as a shrill, mindless mob who wage \u2018total war\u2019 without reason; men are warriors, and women are speechless housewives to be bought and sold among traders. End point.<\/p>\n

Although the film begins with a kinetic and surprisingly bloody massacre (one Yankee bluecoat gets axed in the face, spewing Red Blood Colour #16), the film’s midsection offers little action to break up the stale characters, and it\u2019s actually quite shocking how clumsily Douglas staged a \u2018treacherous\u2019 cliffside crossing during a rainstorm. Instead of intercutting wide shots that reveal the dangerous terrain and the group\u2019s progress as they lurch along the edge of a muddy road, Douglas focuses on angles that bear no resemblance to the rarely seen matte shots: the day-for-night lighting fails when the nearby arc lights unnaturally illuminate the rain droplets, and one never doubts the actors are on a safe slope at a ranch because the camera never covers the wobbling carriage in a wide shot, with some fake rocky edge at the bottom frame to maintain continuity. (To suggest the cliff’s instability, however, Round Styrofoam Boulder #22 is used early in the scene.)<\/p>\n

Not all pathways used for the stagecoach’s travelling shots appear authentic. One particular curvaceous segment is a clean-cut, perfectly flat auto-friendly road on a ranch; and an aerial shot that follows the stagecoach into a thicket shows a well-worn set of tire tracks used for the camera car’s fast tracking shots \u2013 which is just plain sloppy.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also evidence there may have been more scenes or longer dialogue exchanges, as the script is somewhat clumsy with details. In the first example, Marshal Wilcox\u2019s intro scene with Buck serves to detail Ringo\u2019s recent breakout from jail and his vengeance for the Plummers for killing family members, but the Plummers’ murderous deeds (as well as the Plummers themselves) are wholly ignored by the filmmakers (a brief, murky stagecoach exchange with Doc Boone excepted) until the finale, when Ringo demands to be uncuffed from the stagecoach and enter the saloon and exact revenge on the Plummer clan. Secondly, in their first conflicted love exchange, Dallas refers to seeing scars on Ringo\u2019s back, which he explains stem from a sadistic warden \u2013 yet this factoid is delivered with the presumption of some prior scene in which she\u2019s shown or glimpses the physical evidence of his torment.<\/p>\n

At 115 mins., Stagecoach<\/strong> works, but considering the pedigree, it\u2019s a half-hearted attempt to update a classic \u2013 perhaps a sign that cosmetic changes and transposing action sequences to different settings (such as the cliffside trek) don\u2019t work. A careful rethink or radical changes might have yielded a more satisfying drama, but this isn’t the classic western some fans may be hoping to see.<\/p>\n

Twilight Time\u2019s DVD features a sparkling transfer of the film, with rich and stable colours, lovely detail, and a virtually perfect print source. The mono sound mix is a bit worn with some evident shrillness in the highs, but Jerry Goldsmith\u2019s evocative score manages to transcend the technical flaws. The music score is available in clean stereo on an isolated music track, and like TT\u2019s Flim-Flam Man<\/strong> DVD, one wishes it were possible to remix the film with the stereo music stems.<\/p>\n

The sleeve art makes use of the original poster art and superb character portraits by Norman Rockwell (who has a small role), and the portraits are also seen in the End Credits. Although segments of the art is used in the DVD\u2019s lushly illustrated booklet, one wishes the DVD contained a stills archive, or scanned promo materials for what must have been sold by Fox as an event picture.<\/p>\n

Julie Kirgo\u2019s booklet notes are effusive towards the film (which undoubtedly has admirers), and she cites the parallels and tonal differences between both \u201939 and ’66 versions.<\/p>\n

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Postscript<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Douglas continued to work in diverse genres, closing a 42-year career with a TV version of Nevada Smith<\/strong> (1975) for producer \/ writer Martin Rackin, and the dud Viva Knievel!<\/strong> (1977). Stagecoach<\/strong> was remade once again for TV in 1986.<\/p>\n

Crosby retired from film and appeared in a handful of TV projects, and Cummings would star in Harry Alan Towers\u2019 Five Golden Dragons<\/strong> (1967) before working exclusively in TV after a 34-year career in movies. Cord never achieved the success Wayne enjoyed after playing the Ringo Kid, but then Cord wasn\u2019t an emotive nor broadly skilled actor. His best work within his mostly TV-heavy C.V. are multiple guest appearances in diverse TV series, plus the unsuccessful Gene Roddenberry pilot Genesis II<\/strong> (1973).<\/p>\n

Connors found success a year later in TV\u2019s Mannix<\/strong>, Powers achieved modest cult fame in the short-lived The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.<\/strong> (1966-1967), and Ann-Margret eventually broke her sex-kitten persona in the edgy Carnal Knowledge<\/strong> (1971) until naughty Ken Russell made her writhe in excremental baked beans and copulate plushy furniture in Tommy<\/strong> (1975).<\/p>\n

During the same year, Jerry Goldsmith scored a series of memorable features, including Our Man Flint<\/a><\/strong>, The Trouble with Angels<\/strong>, The Blue Max<\/a><\/strong>, Seconds<\/a><\/strong>, and The Sand Pebbles<\/strong> \u2013 a helluva multi-genre mix for 1966.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2011 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References<\/em>:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Soundtrack Album<\/a> — Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Film: Good\/ DVD Transfer: Excellent\/ DVD Extras: Good Label:\u00a0Twilight Time \/ Region: 0 (NTSC) \/\u00a0Released: October, 2010 Genre: Western Synopsis: 9 people ride a stagecoach through dangerous territory, evading Indians yet falling victim to their own personal struggles. Special Features: \u00a0Isolated Stereo Music Score \/ 8-page colour booklet with notes by Film Historian Julie Kirgo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[838,837,835,545,836,834],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-XZ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3719"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3719"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9772,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3719\/revisions\/9772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}