Tue 26 Apr 2016
A Western Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: WAGON MASTER (1950).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[9] Comments
WAGON MASTER. RKO Radio Pictures, 1950. Ben Johnson, Joanne Dru, Harry Carey Jr., Ward Bond, Charles Kemper, Alan Mowbray, Jane Darwell. Director: John Ford.
It suffices it to say, I’m not going to be breaking any new ground here with my thoughts upon recently viewing John Ford’s Wagon Master. Considered an excellent film by many, and one of Ford’s personal favorites, the black and white film features Ben Johnson as Travis Blue, a horse trader tasked with leading a Mormon wagon train across perilous terrain and toward the San Juan River in Utah.
Riding alongside Blue is his friend, Sandy Owens (Harry Carey, Jr.). Leading the Mormons is the gruff, but lovable patriarch, Elder Wiggs (Ward Bond). Along the way, the group runs into whimsical fun with a medicine show group; danger in the face of a family outlaw gang; and cross-cultural understanding (and misunderstanding) with Navajos.
Filmed on location in the American Southwest, Ford’s elegiac tribute to westward pioneers is both a compelling narrative and visual work of genius. The movie isn’t so much filmed as it is photographed, with perfectly framed portraits of the characters making an indelible imprint on the viewer. Add to that the music and the songs, performed by Sons of the Pioneers and you have yourself a classic.
There are, however, some minor flaws in an otherwise extraordinarily solid work. For instance, the outlaws first appear at the very beginning of the film, only to reappear more than thirty minutes or so later. And there’s a marshal, tasked with hunting the aforementioned criminals, whose role in the film remains somewhat uncertain. But, as I said, minor flaws in an otherwise great Western, one that I suppose many readers of this review have themselves watched time and again.
April 26th, 2016 at 8:27 pm
I found Wagon Master wanting but for an entirely different reason. Every time Ben Johnson, who was fine in his part, I kept hearing, and seeing, John Wayne.
April 27th, 2016 at 9:30 am
Thank you for a good review.
Wagon Master is indeed a great film. And as your review states, it centers on its visual style and beauty.
April 27th, 2016 at 3:23 pm
Someone called it an “intimate epic” and I can’t do any better than that…. except to say Alan Mowbray and Ben Johnson are two of my favorite character actors.
April 27th, 2016 at 4:17 pm
Barry, Comment #1.
I like your suggestion of wanting to see John Wayne in Ben Johnson’s role. I think it would have changed the dynamics between the characters quite a bit. Whether for the better or not, that’s what’s making me think a lot about it.
I watched this with Jon, and I enjoyed seeing Joanne Dru in this movie, as one of the members of the traveling medicine show.
This is tough to admit, but I think this is the first time I’ve even seen her in a movie.
Back in the 50s, it’s quite possible I did without my remembering it now, but she definitely caught my eye this time around.
April 27th, 2016 at 4:20 pm
Mowbray, of course played the drunken Shakespearian actor in Ford’s MY DARLING CLEMENTINE in a notable role.
For a non star picture featuring character actors in lead roles this works really well. Johnson may lack star charisma, but he brings an assurance and realism to his character that helps this film. It really is a quiet elegiac Western.
I don’t know that it is at the top of anyone’s list of favorite Ford Westerns, but it is usually on every list. I honestly find something new every time I watch it.
April 27th, 2016 at 7:34 pm
Steve
I had the same feeling with Cheyenne Autumn, and then had that observation confirmed. The picture had been prepared for Wayne but he was at the stage of having had enough John Ford and Widmark was called in.
April 28th, 2016 at 9:47 pm
Steve,
Dru, in a very similar role, is the leading lady to Monty Clift and Wayne in Howard Hawks RED RIVER, and if you never saw that one find a copy and see it ASAP. She’s also in SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON, ALL THE KINGS MEN, DRANGO, HELL ON FRISCO BAY, THUNDER BAY. THE PRIDE OF ST. LOUIS, VENGEANCE VALLEY, 711 OCEAN DRIVE, and FORBIDDEN with Tony Curtis. This was her 5th movie, RED RIVER, RIBBON, and KINGS MEN her second third and fourth, not a bad run for from 1948 to 1950. All four films are very assured performances for a woman who had made her debut in ABIES IRISH ROSE only a couple of years earlier.
I agree with you and Barry about how Wayne would have changed the dynamic, and I have no idea if Ford wanted him for this one and couldn’t get him, this was right after RIBBON where he had groomed Johnson for bigger things as the dashing ex Confederate officer turned Yankee sergeant. It’s entirely possible he was trying to groom a second Wayne as he had in STAGECOACH with an eye toward Johnson filling that role.
And it may have been Ford tired of Wayne since the same year saw the release of RIO GRANDE, the final film in the cavalry trilogy.
Several critics suggest Wayne may never have been offered the role since Johnson’s character is basically passive and good natured and has to be backed into action where Wayne could not have played the role as written and been convincing. In a lot of ways Dru is the strongest character in the film. I tend to wonder if it wasn’t written with Johnson and Carey in mind to give them a boost after their strong roles in RIBBON and in RIO GRANDE that same year.
I’ve always understood this to have been the film Ford had in mind all along for good or ill, smaller and more intimate than the more epic cavalry trilogy. Whatever else it turned out Johnson could not carry a film at the box office, or Ford without a name star.
IMDb offers the trivia that the scene where the dog attacks Bond and rips his pants during a fight wasn’t in the script but an overexcited mutt and that Ford left it in then afterwards offered to pay for the dog to have a tetanus shot if it had accidentally bitten Ward Bond.
April 29th, 2016 at 8:05 pm
David
Of those Joanne Dru movies you list, and there are many more good ones there than I might have expected, I’ve seen about half of them. And I was right, only one in the last 40 or 50 years, that one being SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON, which I saw for the first time two or three years ago. She was good in that, but she was even better in this.
When I see this one again, I’m going to watch what’s going on the background. When the wagons are stopped for the night, I seem to remember seeing both men and women doing their everyday chores, kids playing and otherwise running around with dogs jumping around with them. And everyone was dressed the way I think western pioneers dressed, not in the handsomest of clothes, but plain and ordinary.
April 29th, 2016 at 8:32 pm
Coincidentally, just literally finished running She Wore A Yellow Ribbon. Joanne
Dru has a line about Captain Brittles, John Wayne’s character; “I felt like cheering.” Me too.