STAGECOACH

John Ford's Stagecoach is the quintessential western and one of the best ever made in the genre. After years of apprenticeship in undistinguished westerns, John Wayne broke out with his performance in this movie. He never forgot John Ford gave him his major break and the pair worked together on a number of movies, mostly westerns, despite their political differences. 

From an original short story that was published in Colliers, Ben Hecht and Dudley Nichols wrote a screenplay for Ford who had bought the rights to "Stage to Lordsburg." It had been years since Ford had made a western, even though today his westerns are what he is best known for. Producing it wasn't easy because westerns were thought of as B or even C pictures made on poverty row - Monogram and Republic studios - and John Wayne wasn't an established actor at this point. So Ford set up financing with independent producer Walter Wanger. The picture was released through United Artists. Stagecoach was an immediate hit upon release with critics and audiences and revived western moviemaking in Hollywood.

Screenwriter Dudley Nichols wrote many classics during the Golden Era of Hollywood: The Informer, Bringing Up Baby, For Whom the Bell Tolls and several John Ford directed. He won an Academy Award for The Informer but refused the award because the Writer's Guild was on strike at the time; the first award recipient to turn the golden bald little Oscar down. Despite this, Nichols was nominated three more times by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 

Everyone one in the cast is perfect, especially Thomas Mitchell playing an alcoholic doctor named "Doc." The Academy thought so too and awarded him an Best Supporting Acting award. In the same year Stagecoach was released he played Scarlett O'Hara's pa in Gone With the Wind. Claire Trevor plays the good hearted whore, Dallas,with a certain tough weariness that I guess most whores have. Trevor received top billing.When Ford was in talks with David O. Selznick to produce Stagecoach Selznick wanted Marlene Dietrich for the part of Dallas.