3 Godfathers (1948)
3 Godfathers (1948), directed by John Ford.
Three bank robbers -- they're bad men but not bad men -- flee a crafty marshal into the desert and suffer mightily. This is the driest, thirstiest film I have seen since Sahara (1943).
They help a stranded woman deliver her baby before she dies, promising to care for it. Escape, survival, and child care: how do you do all at once?
Like Wagon Master (1950), this is a lesser-known Ford western but a pretty good one. Ford is so deft you begin to take him for granted after a while. The color photography seems particularly fine this time.
Misc notes:
Ward Bond is sharp but humane. "They don't pay me to kill people" he tells the deputy after shooting the fugitives' water bag. He gets a bit more intense later.
The strategic game of outlaws vs the marshal is well done here.
A poignant segment is the desolation of a pregnant woman alone in the desert with no one but rough men to help her. And yet: they treat her gently and with respect, dropping their guns outside the wagon so as not to frighten her.
We have a long comic scene where they learn to care for the baby. Inventive, but long enough. The baby is a actually a little girl, her only screen credit.
Unusually, Ford uses the Bible as a prop to support his theme of redemption.
This is a remake of Ford's own silent film, Marked Men (1919) -- now lost -- which was a remake of The Three Godfathers (1916). Harry Carey starred in both earlier films, and this 1948 version is dedicated to him. It also introduces his son, Harry Carey, Jr.
There was another version: Three Godfathers (1936) with Walter Brennan, and the Japanese animated film Tokyo Godfathers (2003) is adapted from the same 1913 novel. (Later: I see still more other versions, including William Wyler's Hell's Heroes (1929)).
The subtitles translate Pedro Armendáriz's excited moments of Spanish. (John Wayne: "Quit talkin' Mex around the baby!")
We have Hank Worden and Ben Johnson again. And Jane Darwell. Guy Kibbee's last movie.
It's a Christmas film. "Wise" men, baby, and even a star to guide them.
Available on DVD. The Technicolor print needs restoration, although the middle reels are a bit better than the beginning or end.
