John Ford in Navajo Country

Wagon Master blogging

for

The John Ford Blogathon,

essay 4 of 6

Wagon Master:  No Indians Die

John Ford wanted real faces in his films.  While he would settle for Hollywood professionals when necessary, his preference was for authenticity over professionalism.  Ford liked the rugged look of the residents of Moab, the small Utah town that served as the hub for filming Wagon Master (1950).  He welcomed the locals as extras.

Navajo actors playing Navajo Indians
 in Wagon Master (1950).

But Ford imported his Indians from Monument Valley, approximately 150 miles south of Moab.  When filming his classic film Stagecoach (1939) ten years earlier, Ford was introduced both to Monument Valley and the Diné—the Navajo people who lived in the area.  He instinctively liked and trusted them.  Over time, many came to return the respect, calling Ford “Natani Nez” which means “tall leader.”  A core of about fifty Navajo emerged who would serve from that point on as Ford’s all-purpose Indians (regardless of the tribe they were supposed to be from).   

John Stanley often served as the unofficial leader of Ford’s Indian crew, organizing his team and translating for the Hollywood folk.  Other key players among the Navajo were Bob Many Mules, Harry Black Horse, Pete Gray Eyes, George Holliday, Billy Yellow, Talks a Lot, Keith Smith, Lee and Frank Bradley, Stanley’s father Jack, and his brother Yellow Hair.  Ford treated them fairly well, but they rarely received credit and their names remain largely absent from the standard film histories.

During the winter of 1948, less than a year before the filming of Wagon Master, an unusually deep snow endangered the Native inhabitants of Monument Valley.  According to Scott Eyman in the Ford biography Print the Legend, Ford swiftly and generously responded with Operation Haylift, arranging for friends in the military to airdrop food to the Navajo.  The following fall, he invited the Navajo wing of the Ford stock company to Moab for filming of his latest western.

Lee Bradley on right as the leader of the
Navajo band in Wagon Master (1950).

For the only time on a John Ford picture, the Navajo in Wagon Master were allowed to speak their own Navajo language on film.  During the first tense encounter between the Navajo and the Mormon settlers, Travis Blue (Ben Johnson) volunteers Sandy Owens (Harry Carey Jr.) to translate.  “He knows the language better than anyone,” Travis says.  There was some truth to this as Carey had learned more than a smattering of the language from his Navajo nurse while growing up on a ranch near Hollywood.  Linguistically, the exchange in Wagon Master is probably more authentic than you’d find in any other Hollywood western of the period.  The important speaking role of the Navajo chief is played by Lee Bradley with impressive authority.

Even though tensions between the cultures run high during the scene in the Navajo camp, the Indian viewpoint is respected.  Best of all, the situation is resolved peacefully.

I love that this is a John Ford western which prominently includes Indians—and in which no Indians die.

Harry Carey, Jr., Ben Johnson, and Ward Bond approach the Indians.

Jim Thorpe at the Dance

While most of the Indian actors in Wagon Master are Navajo, two are not.  Maria “Movita” Castenada, who plays the part of the woman attacked by an outlaw, was not Native American.  And the very memorable Jim Thorpe was a Native American, but not a Navajo.

Jim Thorpe at the 1912 Olympics.

Jim Thorpe came from Oklahoma, raised as a member of the Sac and Fox tribe.  He became an international sensation when he dominated the 1912 Olympics, winning gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon.  Then he became even more famous when he was stripped of his Olympic medals after the press revealed that he had played two seasons of semi-professional baseball.  Subsequently, Thorpe excelled in professional baseball, football, and basketball, gaining a reputation as the greatest all-around athlete of his day.

When the Great Depression hit, Thorpe was in his early 40s, his athletic career behind him.  Like so many others, he went to Hollywood, looking for work.  From 1931 on, he appeared in bit parts in more than fifty movies.  Wagon Master was the last of them, filmed when he was 61 years old.  The following year, he was hospitalized for lip cancer.  His health failing, he died of heart failure in 1953.

In Wagon Master, Jim Thorpe is the Indian who dances next to Jane Darwell, a core member of the John Ford stock company.  They share a fascinating shot together.  Thorpe inscrutably stares straight ahead, his large body moving to the rhythm.  Beside him, in strong contrast, Darwell is small and almost girlishly enthusiastic, looking up at her companion with an innocent amazement.

I bet Ford loved that shot.

Jim Thorpe and Jane Darwell at the dance at the Navajo camp.

Ford contrasts Thorpe and Darwell with another pairing of
Mormon pioneer and Navajo at the dance.

Navajo Tributes to John Ford

In Print the Legend, Scott Eyman’s invaluable biography of John Ford, Eyman recounts how the Navajo presented Ford with a ceremonial deer hide during the filming of The Searchers, six years after Wagon Master.  It was inscribed to Ford, with the second stanza adapted from a Navajo night chant:

We present this deer hide

to our fellow tribesman

Natani Nez

As a token of appreciation for the generosity

and friendship he has extended to us in

his many activities in our valley

In your travels may there be

beauty behind you

beauty on both sides of you

and beauty ahead of you

from your friends the Navajo of Monument Valley

Utah—Arizona

Many years later, when a statue of John Ford was dedicated in his hometown of Portland, Maine in 1998, a contingent of representatives from the Navajo Nation traveled across the country to participate in the ceremony.  At the age of 96, medicine man Billy Yellow, who had served as a member in good standing of Ford’s stock company, led a prayer in honor of the director who had brought the Navajo’s beautiful homeland to the attention of a vast worldwide audience.

John Ford's credit on Wagon Master (1950).

Special thanks to Paula Vitaris who manages the Ben Johnson Fan Page for generously sharing screen captures and providing valuable background information and insight! 

Reference Sources

Print the Legend: The Life and Times of John Ford by Scott Eyman

About John Ford by Lindsay Anderson

John Ford: The Man and His Films by Ted Gallagher

The Nicest Fella: The Life of Ben Johnson by Richard D. Jensen

Company of Heroes: My Life as an Actor in the John Ford Stock Company by Harry Carey Jr.

Lest We Forget: The John Ford Stock Company by Bill Levy

Music in the Western: Notes from the Frontier, edited by Kathryn Kalinak (essay “John Ford, Walt Disney, and Sons of the Pioneers” by Ross Care)

When Hollywood Came to Town:  A History of Movie Making in Utah by James D’Arc

Wagon Master Warner Home Video DVD commentary by Harry Carey Jr. and Peter Bogdanovich

Watch Wagon Master...

Purchase the Wagon Master DVD at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Rent Wagon Master at Netflix or other rental service.

© 2014 Lee Price

Wagon Master's Promised Land

Wagon Master blogging

for

The John Ford Blogathon,

essay 3 of 6

Mormons Without Guns

Mormons on the move--heading west in this classic image
from John Ford's Wagon Master (1950).

“Guns are a big part of our state tradition. If you think of the Mormon pioneers, I mean, they came into the valley holding a plow in one hand and a gun in the other.”

Representative Carl Wimmer

Former member, Utah House of Representatives

I haven’t found anything in historical sources to refute Wimmer’s vision of two-fisted, gun-toting Mormon pioneers, but it sure isn’t the image you get in Wagon Master (1950)!  Director John Ford conceives of the Mormons as traveling without guns, an important plot point of the movie.

Plain folk in town:  Ward Bond, Russell Simpson,
and Kathleen O'Malley.

I wonder if Ford confused his Mormons with the Quakers?  Or maybe the Mennonites?  Or the Hutterites?  The plot of Wagon Master is consistently respectful of the peace church traditions held by those denominations, but the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has never professed a pacifist doctrine.  For that matter, Ford’s Catholic tradition usually hasn’t sided with the religious pacifists either (with a few notable exceptions).

Many critics have suggested that Ford’s presentation of these peaceful pioneers is meant to be viewed ironically.  The unarmed Mormons achieve their Promised Land only because they accept non-Mormon protectors—Travis Blue (Ben Johnson) and Sandy Owens (Harry Carey, Jr.)—who gun down their enemies.

But I disagree with this critical consensus—which shouldn’t be too surprising to anyone who knows my personal Mennonite/Anabaptist convictions.  Solidly in the peace church tradition, these very un-Mormon-like pioneers are determined to remain steadfast in their faith and principles.  No, they probably wouldn’t make it to their Promised Land without Travis and Sandy but their convictions would remain intact.  They are presented as a people who live their faith.  If this means the bad guys shoot them down, so be it.

A farewell to violence:  Travis
throws his gun away.

John Ford’s presentation may not be historically valid for Utah or the Mormons, but it speaks to me.  I love the movie’s openness to accepting differing points of view—it’s a big tent movie that welcomes pacifists, show folk, horse traders, and gunfighters.  No one gets turned away.  Everyone’s invited to join the wagon train to the Promised Land.

Most telling of all, Travis turns his back on violence at the end in a seeming endorsement of the peace church tradition.  His participation in the final gun battle is his last violent act before gaining religion.  When we see him at the end, paired off with his girl Denver, I think we can assume that he’s found his home among these good people.  I see a purely happy ending, without a drop of irony.  Travis finds his Promised Land on the wagon trail, beside his girl, and without a gun.

John Fordian Geography

“Hell ain’t cussing.  It’s geography—the name of a place. Like you might say Abilene or Salt Lake City.”

Sandy Owens (Harry Carey, Jr.)

in Wagon Master (1950)

Geography never meant much in a John Ford western.  In his movies, the west is a mythic land where the town of Tombstone (located in the hot, parched lower desert of Arizona) can overlook Monument Valley (located on the high desert of the Colorado Plateau).

Pulling in to Crystal City, somewhere out west.

Wagon Master opens in the town of Crystal City.  If this is meant to be Crystal City, Colorado, it’s a location far south of both the Wyoming-based Mormon Trail and the Overland Route that most Mormon pioneers followed.  Now a ghost town, Crystal City was once a rugged Rocky Mountain mining town, located 200 miles west of Denver.  Travis Blue (Ben Johnson) refers to the Navajo country as lying to the southwest, which would match this location.

The goal of the Mormons is to reach the San Juan River Valley, “a valley that’s been reserved by the Lord” according to Elder Wiggs (Ward Bond).  The San Juan River flows through the Four Corners area, starting in southwestern Colorado then weaving through New Mexico and Arizona before meeting up with the Colorado River in southern Utah.  Despite the river’s presence, there isn’t much in the nature of a fertile green valley in this arid area.

According to James D’Arc’s book When Hollywood Came to Town, co-screenwriter Pat Ford (John Ford’s son) suggested “filming the story where it happened” and that’s what led the film crew to Moab.  But Moab isn’t on the San Juan River, which is located around 100 miles due south at its closest.

The time period of the movie seems to be shortly after Brigham Young arrived in Salt Lake City in 1847.  Since there is no mention of the Civil War (and Ford westerns frequently reference the Civil War), it would suggest that the story is taking place before 1861.  Pat Ford may have based his script in part on the Mormon establishment of the Elk Mountain Mission near Moab in 1855. The mission failed quickly.  The Mormons in Salt Lake City launched a San Juan Expedition in 1879 that brought settlers eastward across Utah to Moab—the reverse of the movie’s westward journey.  The final clearing of the mountain path in the movie may be based on the 1879 effort to create the Hole in the Rock trail through Glen Canyon.

Many of these elements were probably in play as the fictional narrative was constructed.  As in most Ford movies, history is a very imaginative reconstruction:  It depicts Mormons who don’t act like Mormons following a route that no Mormons followed to reach a valley that never existed.  If you actually tried to follow the movie’s route, you’d probably end up like Travis, quietly sharing a concern with his partner:  “To tell you the truth Sandy, I’m lost.”

Google Maps suggests some walking routes
from Crystal, Colorado to Moab, Utah.

Come, Come, Ye Saints

"Come, Come, Ye Saints" swells on the
soundtrack as the Mormon pioneers
gaze on their Promised Land.

Heard at various points in the movie on Richard Hageman’s orchestral score, the Mormon pioneers finally get to sing their famous anthem “Come, Come, Ye Saints” at the end as they gaze across the river at their Promised Land.  In his memoir Company of Heroes, Harry Carey, Jr. recalled how Ford told him that he would have to learn the hymn for his leading role in the movie.  Then, one day on location, surrounded by Mormon extras from the surrounding area, Ford announced to the team:  “This young man here with the red hair is Harry Carey, Jr.  He’s one of the leads in the picture, but the important thing is, he knows the Mormon Hymn.  So he’s now going to show you how it goes.”  Then he lowered his voice and said to Carey, “Go ahead, kid, sing the hell out of it.”

After Carey finished doing the best job possible under the circumstances, Ford addressed the crowd again:  “My goodness, I can’t believe it.  A young man from Hollywood has to come all the way up here to teach the Mormon people how to sing ‘Come, Come, Ye Saints.’  That’s amazing—just amazing.”

Come, come, ye saints, no toil nor labor fear;
But with joy wend your way.
Though hard to you this journey may appear,
Grace shall be as your day.
Tis better far for us to strive
Our useless cares from us to drive;
Do this, and joy your hearts will swell -
All is well! All is well!

"All is well!"  The happy ending at the end of the trail.

Special thanks to Paula Vitaris who manages the Ben Johnson Fan Page for generously sharing screen captures and providing valuable background information and insight! 

Reference Sources

Print the Legend: The Life and Times of John Ford by Scott Eyman

About John Ford by Lindsay Anderson

John Ford: The Man and His Films by Ted Gallagher

The Nicest Fella: The Life of Ben Johnson by Richard D. Jensen

Company of Heroes: My Life as an Actor in the John Ford Stock Company by Harry Carey Jr.

Lest We Forget: The John Ford Stock Company by Bill Levy

Music in the Western: Notes from the Frontier, edited by Kathryn Kalinak (essay “John Ford, Walt Disney, and Sons of the Pioneers” by Ross Care)

When Hollywood Came to Town:  A History of Movie Making in Utah by James D’Arc

Wagon Master Warner Home Video DVD commentary by Harry Carey Jr. and Peter Bogdanovich

Watch Wagon Master...

Purchase the Wagon Master DVD at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Rent Wagon Master at Netflix or other rental service.

© 2014 Lee Price

Ben Johnson as the Wagon Master

Wagon Master blogging

for

The John Ford Blogathon,

essay 2 of 6

Ben Johnson, Cowboy

Ben Johnson with his horse
Steel in a RKO publicity still
for Wagon Master (1950).

Much like a wagon master himself, actor Ben Johnson sets the pace of Wagon Master (1950).  He confidently nudges the movie along, knowing it’s headed in the general right direction and content to let it take its unhurried time getting there.  There isn’t much talk.  Scenes develop naturally.  The mood is amply generous, good humored, and polite.  When Travis Blue (Ben Johnson) rescues a man who falls from his horse during a stampede, the man responds, “Thank you kindly, brother.”  Travis replies:  “You’re welcome.”  It’s a rare movie that minds its manners even in the midst of a major action scene!

Johnson was 31 when Wagon Master was filmed in the fall of 1949.  He had successfully handled only one leading role and that was in Mighty Joe Young (1949), where he was really a supporting actor to a stop-motion animated gorilla named Joe.  But to the extent that Mighty Joe Young is a reworking of King Kong (1933), Johnson’s romantic lead is the only element in the film that really improves upon Kong.  While Bruce Cabot brought some believability to his comparable sailor role in Kong, he was a little out of his depth in the love scenes.  In Mighty Joe Young, Johnson projects confidence whether on his horse, interacting with Joe, or playing the love scenes.

Ben Johnson playing second banana to a gorilla with
a banana.  Terry Moore, Ben Johnson, and Joe Young
in Mighty Joe Young (1949).

To some degree, Johnson’s role in Mighty Joe Young wasn’t much of a stretch.  He essentially plays himself—a professional horseman and rodeo enthusiast flirting with show business.  He had arrived in Hollywood in 1940 at the age of 21, first working with Howard Hughes on The Outlaw and then gaining experience as a freelance stuntman.  His riding expertise was his calling card.  Westerns were popular and he made good money.

John Ford signed him to a contract with his own production company Argosy Pictures in 1947.  For Argosy, Johnson starred in Mighty Joe Young (directed by Ernest Schoedsack) and then played a memorable supporting role in John Ford’s She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949).  Wagon Master came next.  He was a player on the cusp of stardom, untutored in the fine points of acting but possessing a natural talent.  John Wayne had gone far with comparable gifts as had many others.

Ben Johnson and his horse Steel
in Wagon Master (1950).

Working together, John Ford and Ben Johnson kept it real, with Ford allowing Johnson’s low-key authenticity to resonate on the screen.  Many stars didn’t like the way Ford mercilessly cut dialogue, but Johnson didn’t mind.  Most stars didn’t do their own stunts, but out on location on the high deserts of Utah, Ford relied upon Johnson to do all his own stunts.  As Ford knew, the viewer can see the difference.  No other stuntman could ride a horse like Ben Johnson.

Ultimately, Johnson’s thoughtful performance is the single strongest element in Wagon Master, one of Ford’s greatest movies.  It would have been nice if it had catapulted Johnson into full-fledged stardom.  But when Wagon Master failed to register at the box office, Johnson took it in stride, slowly building a career as one of the most respected supporting actors in the business.  Johnson was fine with the way things turned out.  He never liked handling all that dialogue anyway.  He’d rather be out riding.

Doing Honest Business in Wagon Master

While it may look like they're just whittling, Ben Johnson
and Ward Bond are actually negotiating business
in this scene from Wagon Master (1950).

Follow the money:

Ben Johnson does the math as the
two cowboys ride into Crystal City
in the opening scene of John Ford's
Wagon Master (1950).

1. The Goal:  In Wagon Master, Travis Blue (Ben Johnson) is the smart one and his partner Sandy Owens (Harry Carey, Jr.) is something of a hayseed.  In their first scene, they discuss how much they’ll earn for the horses they hope to sell.  Sandy figures that 12 horses at $30 a head will get them $340.  Travis corrects him:

$30 x 12 = $360 to be split between them ($180 apiece)

But Travis reminds Sandy of $20 that he owes him.  Therefore:

Sandy can count on $160, and Travis will get $200.

This is fine with Sandy, and he seems happy to have someone else doing the hard work of math for him.

Ten coins for a horse, dropped in the hat
by the town's marshal.

2. Business in Town:  Arriving in town, Travis sells a horse to the marshal for $10.  We can assume this is largely for political reasons.  The figure is significantly less than the $30 per head that Travis had anticipated but it keeps them in town and in business.

When the leader of the Mormons, Elder Wiggs (Ward Bond), asks how much for the horses, Travis says $50 a head (the whittling scene shown above).  That’s:

11 remaining horses x $50 = $550.

Travis and Sandy are back in business.  But Elder Wiggs is only interested in purchasing the horses if the two agree to sign on to their wagon train to lead them to their new home.  He offers an additional $100 for wagon master duty.  Travis is non-committal.

3. Goal Achieved:  A scene later when Travis belatedly accepts Elder Wiggs’ offer, he asks for $450 silver dollars due when they reach the San Juan River Valley.  Elder Wiggs shakes his hand and it’s a deal.

The business deal, sealed with a handshake.

If we assume that Travis and Sandy are still getting $100 for leading the wagon train, that leaves $350 for the horses.  Count in the $10 paid by the marshal, and you’ll see that Travis estimated correctly in the beginning:  They’ll be getting $360 for the horses.

Elder Wiggs thinks he got the best of the deal and Travis got what he thought was a fair deal for the horses all along.

That’s how friendly business is conducted in the old west of Wagon Master.

(A less sympathetic reading could be that Travis miscalculates and thereby loses $200 from the original offer by Elder Wiggs.  But I prefer to think that Travis always considered $30 a head to be the fair price and he wasn’t out to cheat anyone.)

Song of the Wagon Master

For the Wagon Master premieres, Ben Johnson, Harry Carey, Jr., and songwriter Stan Jones traveled to targeted cities.  According to The Nicest Fella by Richard D. Jensen, the trio appeared at the Oklahoma premiere of Wagon Master on August 20, 1950 and performed a sing-along before the movie.  I assume they sang “Song of the Wagon Master,” as it’s the song that Travis and Sandy briefly sing together in the movie (and reprise just seconds before the final credits, joined by Ward Bond).

On the DVD commentary, Carey recalls that Johnson was particularly fond of his singing talent, boasting that he “sang like a young robin.”  Carey enjoyed singing, too.  Looking back on their promotional appearances, Carey said, “That was a terrific trip.”

I left my gal in West Virginny

Fell in ’hind the wagon train

Another I left in old Kentucky

Fell in ’hind the wagon train

I left my gal in Indiana

Fell in ’hind the wagon train

Another I left in old Missouri

Fell in ’hind the wagon train

Oh, the white tops are a-rollin’, rollin’

The big wheels keep on turnin’, turnin’

And when I reach that promised land

For my gal I’ll still be yearning.

(Note:  To reflect the movie’s final romantic pairings, the last chorus of the movie changes the last two lines to:  “There’s a new little gal in the promised land/ Already I’m a yearnin’.”)

Harry Carey, Jr. and Ben Johnson sing two verses of
"Song of the Wagon Master" as they agree to sign on
for wagon master duty.

Special thanks to Paula Vitaris who manages the Ben Johnson Fan Page for generously sharing screen captures and providing valuable background information and insight! 

Reference Sources

Print the Legend: The Life and Times of John Ford by Scott Eyman

About John Ford by Lindsay Anderson

John Ford: The Man and His Films by Ted Gallagher

The Nicest Fella: The Life of Ben Johnson by Richard D. Jensen

Company of Heroes: My Life as an Actor in the John Ford Stock Company by Harry Carey Jr.

Lest We Forget: The John Ford Stock Company by Bill Levy

Music in the Western: Notes from the Frontier, edited by Kathryn Kalinak (essay “John Ford, Walt Disney, and Sons of the Pioneers” by Ross Care)

When Hollywood Came to Town:  A History of Movie Making in Utah by James D’Arc

Wagon Master Warner Home Video DVD commentary by Harry Carey Jr. and Peter Bogdanovich

Watch Wagon Master...

Purchase the Wagon Master DVD at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Rent Wagon Master at Netflix or other rental service.

© 2014 Lee Price

Wagon Master (1950): Be Gentle Now

Wagon Master blogging

for

The John Ford Blogathon,

essay 1 of 6

Wagon Master:  Uncle Jack’s Favorite

“Uncle Jack (director John Ford) always said Wagon Master was his favorite picture.  I think The Searchers was his best film, but Wagon Master was the most joyful.  The entire filming was done in a spirit of friendliness, every member of the company doing their best.  One month of total unity and happiness—that was Wagon Master.”

from Company of Heroes,

a memoir by Harry Carey, Jr.

I think the high spirits of the film crew infuse the whole film of Wagon Master (1950).  Juggling plot elements that he had played with for years, Ford strategically placed them in new contexts.  He dropped the earthy heroics of John Wayne and the steely idealism of Henry Fonda for a rambling folksiness more akin to his earlier work with western star Harry Carey (father of Harry Carey, Jr.) and Will Rogers.  “Be gentle now,” the words of Ben Johnson to the horses, become an appropriate refrain throughout the movie.

This laid-back spirit manifests itself in scene after scene, detail upon detail.  It creates an unusual tone of acceptance, tolerance, and generosity—one of the most humanistic of Hollywood’s westerns.

From a wealth of delights, here are ten moments in Wagon Master that are always guaranteed to make me smile:

1. Friendship:  Our two lead cowboys, Travis Blue (Ben Johnson) and Sandy Owens (Harry Carey, Jr.) climb over the fence with near-perfect choreography, like Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor on the prairie.  Their in-synch movements silently communicate their close friendship.

Ben Johnson and Harry Carey, Jr. completely in-synch.

2. Visual splendor:  It’s hard to select a single shot to praise the beauty of the Moab Valley, but the one below has an appropriate grandeur to serve as an example.  Ben Johnson, Ward Bond, and Harry Carey, Jr. are in the foreground, with the Colorado River and the sandstone bluffs that comprise the southern border of Arches National Park in the background.  Taking a break from his usual iconic western location of Monument Valley, Ford completely embraced Utah’s Moab Valley, later writing to the local Chamber of Commerce, “I have never known a troupe to enjoy a location so much.”

Ben Johnson, Ward Bond, Harry Carey, Jr., and scenic beauty.

3. Romance:  Harry Carey, Jr. remembered that Ford didn’t enjoy filming love scenes, but maybe it was just the romantic dialogue that Ford objected to.  In the background of numerous scenes, Carey and Kathleen O’Malley carry on a constant flirtation.  The shot below is where it begins.  On the left side of the screen, Ben Johnson talks business.  On the right side of the screen, Carey’s full attention is fixed on O’Malley.

On the right, Carey's attention is not focused on business.

4. Authenticity:  Ben Johnson gets a love story of his own through his romance with Joanne Dru.  In the DVD commentary, Carey marvels that “Ben was such a natural actor.”  His line readings are uniquely his own, graced with an ironic and gentle cowboy wit.  Johnson didn’t enjoy dialogue and neither did Ford, so they pared his lines to the basics.  My favorite Johnson reading of a line is when he says, “Sandy, I think I’ll go a-courtin’” before riding off to propose to Dru.

Ben Johnson goes a-courtin' Joanne Dru.

5. Nonviolence:  In other Ford westerns featuring Indians, there’s generally a large Indian death count as the cavalry guns them down.  Not in Wagon Master.  While the initial encounter with the Indians is a stock moment, the narrative moves toward mutual respect rather than confrontation.  Understanding is established between the cultures and the Indians generously offer hospitality.  The guns don’t go off.

The respectful collision of cultures.

6. Respect:  While Ford once said, “My sympathy was always with the Indians,” his attitude was often better expressed in his conduct off-screen rather than the scenes he placed on-screen.  He established a long-term friendship with Navajo Indians in Monument Valley and used them as part of his stock company of actors.  But they tended to be cast as Apaches or Comanche rather than as Navajo.  For the only time in a Ford movie, the Navajo Indians in Wagon Master are allowed to act Navajo and speak Navajo.

Lee Brady, a Navajo, as the leader of the Navajo band.

7. Comedy:  When Ford was casting Kathleen O’Malley, he asked her what she’d been doing lately.  “Working with the Three Stooges,” she replied.  Ford approved.  “Well, that’s very good training,” he said and gave her the role.  There are numerous instances of slapstick humor throughout the movie.  My favorite occurs at a very tense moment as the wagon train leaders lie to a posse about the presence of outlaws among them.  Knowing the outlaws must maintain complete silence, Ben Johnson casually wallops one of them with a side of bacon.  It’s a good Three Stooges moment.

Bacon vs. gun.  The slab of bacon wins this round.

8. Art:  Ford famously claimed that he was just a director of westerns, rarely admitting to a knowledge of the artier filmmakers of his day.  But he was a dedicated student of F.W. Murnau and familiar with Danish filmmaker Carl Dreyer, too.  In Scott Eyman’s Ford biography Print the Legend, a close friend recalls how Ford watched Dreyer’s silent masterwork The Passion of Joan of Arc, claimed to be unimpressed, and then snuck back the next day to watch it again.  Check out the image below from Wagon Master.  It’s Dreyer in the old west.

An austere Ford composition:  The pioneer women at the Indian camp.

9. The Journey:  I love the way that Wagon Master stumbles at the end, unable to deliver on a climax to the journey.  The Mormons are explicitly traveling to the Promised Land and they do reach it—we see their faces glowing with joy.  But we don’t see them enter the Promised Land and we never clearly see what they’re seeing.  Instead, Ford retreats into flashbacks of the journey itself.  Finally, he settles on a metaphorical shot to close the movie—a colt scrambling up a river bank after a hard river crossing.  It makes sense in the context of a movie where life is never about arriving at a destination… life is what happens when you’re on the journey.

Last shot of the movie:  A colt scrambles up the bank.

10. Horses and real estate:  As John Ford once lectured screenwriters Frank Nugent and Laurence Stallings, “… a running horse remains the finest subject for a motion picture camera.  Now forget this dialogue stuff and give me some horses and real estate.”  Wagon Master abounds in horses and real estate.  And it’s got the best horseman of its day, Ben Johnson, front and center, doing what he did best—riding horses.

Ben Johnson on a Horse

Ben Johnson
on his horse Steel.

“He can ride a horse, boy, oh boy, oh boy…” Harry Carey, Jr. muses on the Wagon Master DVD commentary.

A skilled rider himself, Carey remained in awe of Johnson’s skill.  After watching Ben Johnson gracefully vault onto his horse bareback, Carey said on the commentary that, “I never learned how to do that.”  Peter Bogdanovich:  “How did he do that?”  Carey:  “I don’t know.  He did it so easily.  He was a great athlete.”

Well, this is how you do it, as we look at Ben Johnson mounting his horse Steel:

Ben Johnson makes it look easy.

Johnson’s left leg by the horse’s front left leg, his left hand reassuringly steady on horse’s chest, and right hand gently on mane.  His weight shifts to his left side, and he swings his right leg…

Higher…

Higher…  He leans in low over the horse as he goes airborne.  He makes sure the horse know where he is at all times.

Johnson settles on, releasing his left hand.  If you do it just right, like this, the horse will barely notice.

He steadies himself with his hands, providing constant reassurance to the horse.  And off he goes.

Ben Johnson was a real cowboy.  He could ride like the wind.  In the shot below, pursued by Indians, Johnson is riding the stunt horse Bingo.  On the commentary, Carey remembers, “(Ford) loved to watch him ride.”

Ben Johnson rides in a classic Ford composition.

The Chuckwalla Swing

RKO publicity still from Wagon Master (1950).

Four Stan Jones songs are prominently featured in Wagon Master.  “Chuckwalla Swing” is the most light-hearted.  It’s associated with the two young cowboys, Travis Blue and Sandy Owens, and also anchors the movie’s central scene of community formation (a running theme in Ford movies)—the square dance.  The tune is played at the start of the dance scene on pioneer instruments, the Sons of the Pioneers sing the main version, and composer Richard Hageman inserts the melody into the score on several occasions.

Sonoran chuckwalla,
photo by Azhikerdude,
from Wikimedia Commons.

Way out west there’s a dance that’s being done

The chuckwallas do it so it must be lots of fun.

All around the floor you can beat and swing

And listen to the music as they gaily sing:

You put your arm around her and you swing her round the floor

When you do it once then you’ll want to do it more,

High on your toes now then clap your heels

You’ll know just how the chuckwalla feels.

Right foot, left foot, clap and sing

Swing all around and do it all again.

Chuckwalla, chuckwalla, chuckwalla swing

We’ll dance till the floors and the rafters ring.

Reference Sources

Print the Legend: The Life and Times of John Ford by Scott Eyman

About John Ford by Lindsay Anderson

John Ford: The Man and His Films by Ted Gallagher

The Nicest Fella: The Life of Ben Johnson by Richard D. Jensen

Company of Heroes: My Life as an Actor in the John Ford Stock Company by Harry Carey Jr.

Lest We Forget: The John Ford Stock Company by Bill Levy

Music in the Western: Notes from the Frontier, edited by Kathryn Kalinak (essay “John Ford, Walt Disney, and Sons of the Pioneers” by Ross Care)

When Hollywood Came to Town:  A History of Movie Making in Utah by James D’Arc

Wagon Master Warner Home Video DVD commentary by Harry Carey Jr. and Peter Bogdanovich

Watch Wagon Master...

Purchase the Wagon Master DVD at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Rent Wagon Master at Netflix or other rental service.

© 2014 Lee Price

On Hiatus

Daffy Duck struggles with a rewrite
in The Scarlet Pumpernickel (1950).

(Cross-posted in Tour America’s Treasures…)

With apologies for the unexplained radio silence, I’ve been enjoying a temporary hiatus from both my blogs, Tour America’s Treasures and 21 Essays.

During this dormant period, I’ve been devoting much of my free time to one more rewrite on The Poem Beasts, the young adult fantasy novel that my son and I wrote several years ago.  A year ago, I published several poems from the novel on 21 Essays where they’ve received a fair amount of attention and praise.  My goal is to have the next draft of The Poem Beasts completed by the end of January 2014.

I hope to return to regular posting of a restructured Tour America’s Treasures in February.  At that time, I anticipate making some significant changes to the blog in order to accomplish the original goal:  to cover more than 1,300 sites in six years.  At the current rate of publication, it would be more like sixty years…

After Tour America’s Treasures returns to steady production, I’ll turn my attention to reviving 21 Essays.

© 2013 Lee Price

Maurice Sendak's Gracious Farewell

Max prepares to depart.
Maurice Sendak designed this opera production of
Where the Wild Things Are for the Glyndebourne Festival Opera.

Several weeks ago, I added a Maurice Sendak quote to the right column of this blog: 

“There’s something I’m finding out as I’m aging—that I am in love with the world.”

I hope I can say something similar when I’m 83.  More than anything, I want to continue falling ever more deeply in love with the world.

The quote comes from an interview that Terry Gross conducted with the beloved children’s author and illustrator on Fresh Air, a popular National Public Radio program.  Almost more an intimate talk with a friend than a standard interview, Sendak openly acknowledged his failing health and advancing age, taking the opportunity to say goodbye to his host with an eloquence that is deeply moving.

Unable to come to the studio, Sendak spoke from his home, mentioning in passing that even walking has become difficult.  He’s confined in space, looking out the window at the trees—but he even finds joy in this.

“And I look right now, as we speak together, out my window in my studio and I see my trees and my beautiful, beautiful maples that are hundreds of years old.  They're beautiful.  And you see I can see how beautiful they are.  I can take time to see how beautiful they are.

“It is a blessing to get old.”

But side-by-side with the blessing is the overwhelming melancholy of loss.  It’s his King Lear interview, as he strives to express the fragility, irrationality, and comedy of life.  The knowledge of death informs the interview.  He wears his vulnerability bravely.

While I respect Sendak’s atheism, his last words of the interview sound like a blessing—a benediction from the heart:

“I wish you all good things.  Live your life, live your life, live your life.”

This is my 200th entry on 21 Essays.  I hope to keep it going for at least thirty more years, until I’m turning 83 and considering a series on the beautiful maples outside my window.

If you haven’t heard it, enjoy the interview!  And have tissues handy.  Here’s a link to the full 18-minute interview at the NPR site (click on “Listen to the story.”).

And here’s a sweet tribute to the interview by Christoph Niemann, creatively illustrating the last five minutes of the interview:

© 2013 Lee Price