Stubs - 3 Godfathers

3 Godfathers (1948) Starring John Wayne, Pedro Armendáriz, Harry Carey, Jr., Ward Bond Directed by John Ford. Screenplay by Laurence Stallings, Frank S. Nugent Based on the novel The Three Godfathers by Peter B. Kyne (New York, 1913). Produced by John Ford, Merrian C. Cooper. Run time: 107 min. Color. USA Western, Christmas.

Sometimes directors get a second chance at a story. Alfred Hitchcock had that with The Man Who Knew Too Much, making it twice in 1934 and in 1956. John Ford got the same chance with adapting Peter B. Kyne’s novel The Three Godfathers. Marked Men (1919), directed by Ford starred Harry Carey, Joe Harris and Ted Brooks, made by Universal, is now considered lost. When Ford decided to remake the story, Harry Carey was no longer available, having died in 1947.

While another long-time collaborator, John Wayne, would have the lead role, Ford did bring in Harry Carey, Jr. Even though this was not his first film, he is given an “Introducing” sort of credit. To round out the three, Ford hired Pedro Armendáriz, a Mexican-American actor who was appearing in only his third film, having appeared in only two other films, both directed by John Ford, The Fugitive (1947) and Fort Apache (1948).

Ford wanted to make the film in Mexico, however, it was shot on location in Death Valley, CA, with some additional shooting in Lone Pine, CA. Ford made the film through his own production company that he co-owned with Merrian C. Cooper, Argosy Pictures. Since the story rights were owned by MGM, Argosy negotiated a one-picture releasing contract with MGM. This also marked the first time that MGM accepted a distribution deal without a financial investment or creative input in the production.

A few days before Christmas, three Texas outlaws, Robert Marmaduke, Sangster Hightower (John Wayne), Pedro Roca Fuerte (Pedro Armendáriz) and William Kearny, "The Abilene Kid," (Harry Carey, Jr.), ride into the small town of Welcome, Arizona to rob the bank. This is a town Pedro knows, but it has been a long time since he’d been there. They don’t even know where the bank they plan to rob is located.

Mrs. Sweet (Mae Marsh) and Buck Sweet (Ward Bond) serve coffee to William Kearny, "The Abilene Kid," (Harry Carey, Jr.).

The first thing they notice in town, however, is a name on a fence “B. Sweet” and the man (Ward Bond) standing in the yard admits that is his name, Buck. The three outlaws have quite a laugh at the sound of the name and the fact that the man’s wife (Mae Marsh) calls him Perley. Even then, the man and his wife (Mae Marsh) are very welcoming to the strangers, even providing them with coffee, and there is polite conversation between them.

The robbers are even introduced to Mrs. Sweet’s niece, Ruby Latham (Dorothy Ford), the wife of the town's bank president. Buck and his wife also mention that their daughter and her husband are late to arrive. She wonders out loud if they could have made a wrong turn at Terrapin Tanks.

Buck Sweet turns out to be Sheriff in Welcome.

Just before the robbers leave, Buck puts on his work vest and they see that he also the Sheriff.

The name that William gives, “The Abilene Kid,” sticks with Buck and with the assistance of his deputy, Curly (Hank Worden), they go through wanted posters back in the office and find one for him. It is at that moment that the three hold up the bank.

Pedro Roca Fuerte (Pedro Armendáriz), Robert Marmaduke Sangster Hightower
 (John Wayne), and William Kearny make a run for it.

Buck commandeers a horse and buggy and takes chase. The Abilene Kid gets wounded in the escape and shares a ride with Robert as they manage to stay one step ahead of their pursuers. While Buck doesn’t stop them, he does blow a big hole in the water bag attached to Pedro’s horse. When the three turn to head across the desert, Buck stops the pursuit, deciding instead to take a different approach.

Deputy Curly (Hank Worden) and Buck stop chasing when the bandits head out across the desert.

Back in Welcome, Buck deputizes members of his posse and organizes a manhunt to capture the three bank robbers. One of the members of the posse, Posse Man #1, is portrayed by Ben Johnson.

Ben Johnson (center) plays Posse Man #1.

Using the train lines, deputies are dropped off at the Mojave water tank, the nearest source of desert water. It was where the three were headed and they are close enough to see the deputies arrive just as they approach the water tank. Even though there are only three guards left, they are armed with Winchesters and the outlaws only have six-shooters.

The bandits have to change plans when they see the Mojave water tank is being guarded.

Buck continues to the next water source, the tank at Apache Wells. There is a lone outpost there run by Miss Florie (Jane Darwell), who is happy to have company, especially men around for a change.

Sensing the trap that Buck is laying out for them, Robert decides instead to head north to Terrapin Tanks and after that to escape across the Mexican border. However, the three find themselves in a sandstorm. They are forced to continue on foot after the horses run off in the storm.

Meanwhile, when the robbers fail to show up at Apache Wells, Buck realizes that they must have doubled back, and goes in search of them.

The three robbers arrive at Terrapin Tanks, only to discover that the tanks have been dynamited and contain no water. Robert figures it was some tenderfoot who couldn’t or wouldn’t dig down for the water just below the surface. Now, there was no hope there would ever be water there again.

Dying mother (Mildred Natwick) makes the three Godfathers to her son.

Near the water tanks, the three bandits find a pregnant woman alone in a covered wagon. Unknown to the bandits, the woman (Mildred Natwick) is Buck's daughter. The bandits take pity on her and Pedro helps her deliver her child. The mother, though, is in bad shape and after giving birth, she not only names the baby after them, Robert William Pedro Hightower, but she makes them the baby’s Godfathers, something the three agree to. She asks them to promise to keep her baby safe from harm just before she dies.

The three bandits on the run find they have no idea how to take care of a baby.

After the mother dies, the three desperados find themselves responsible for an infant they have no idea how to take care of. There is a book in the mother’s things, by Dr. Meachem, that speaks about care and there are six cans of condensed milk, which the book recommends if nature’s choice is not available.

William carries the baby as the three walk across the desert looking for water.

Since heading to Mexico would endanger the baby, they decide to return to Welcome and arrest. Water is in very short supply and it is the lack of water that ultimately kills the Kid, who collapses and dies on the trail.

Later, Pedro, while carrying the baby, trips and falls, breaking his leg in the process. Knowing he can’t go on, Pedro tells Robert to leave him. Reluctantly, Robert goes on. He is not too far away when Pedro, seeing no hope, commits suicide.

Robert continues, braving the punishing desert heat. However, he stumbles over the rocks and nearly gives up. But he finds inspiration in a passage in the mother’s Bible he has been carrying with him.

Lone survivor Robert makes it to a bar in Welcome with the baby before he collapses.

Soon after arriving in Welcome, Robert enters a saloon and orders milk for the baby and a beer for himself. Buck arrives soon afterward and Robert collapses on the floor before he’s taken into custody.

Robert and the infant quickly recover from the arduous journey. Robert is held in jail during his trial, but Buck brings him home to eat with him and his wife. They treat Robert like he’s part of the family, in part because he has custody of their nephew.

The jury finds Robert guilty of robbery, and the Judge (Guy Kibbee) offers Buck a choice. If he’ll sign over custody to the baby to Buck and his wife and promises never to come back to Welcome, he’ll let him off. But Robert refuses. Still, he receives a light sentence, one year in prison, in consideration of his heroic deed.

On the way to the train to take him to prison, Robert is flirted with.

He gives the Sweets temporary custody as he is sent off to prison as a hero.

One of the questions you might ask, because I did, is what rights do godparents have to a child? I’m not a lawyer, but the usual thought is none. However, it could be argued that the dying mother gave the three desperados her child, which would make them guardians. I’m not sure how the old West worked, but everyone acts like Robert has legal custody, so maybe this is how it was.

It was interesting to see John Wayne play a bandit in this film. I know that he played a killer in Stagecoach, but in that case, he seemed to have been justified. Here, he’s an out and out bad guy. There is something about Wayne, Westerns and John Ford that seems to work. Wayne has a real presence on the screen. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times seems to agree and even goes beyond, writing, “John Wayne as the leading badman and ultimate champion of the child is wonderfully raw and ructious.”

I had never seen Pedro Armendáriz in a film before, but he comes off as a force. He had a career in Mexican cinema, often being teamed with Delores del Rio before coming to Hollywood. He would also go on to star in films made in the UK, including his final film From Russia with Love (1963); France, including Lucrèce Borgia (1953); and Italy, as well as continuing to make films in Mexico. He’s very good in this role.

Harry Carey, Jr. was not new to films, but amongst the leads, he is a greenhorn by comparison. He would appear in such films as Red River (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), and The Searchers (1956). While he worked in Westerns, he also, like his father, became a character actor, appearing in such films as Monkey Business (1952), Niagara (1953), and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). Here, despite being wanted and already known as The Abilene Kid, he is treated, at least by Robert, as being new to robbery. He is relegated to watching the horses when Pedro and Robert rob the bank, for example. Even Crowther treated him as such, writing, ”And Harry Carey Jr. does an even more touching job as a tow-headed kid from Texas who gets mixed up in banditry.” I won’t disagree that Carey does a good job as the junior partner.

As much as John Wayne was a staple of Westerns, I can’t imagine Ward Bond was too far behind. Known as a character actor, his presence as Sheriff Sweet instantly adds a layer to the story that no other actor could add so easily. Despite his name, you can tell Sweet will be tough but fair.

Mae Marsh, who plays Sweet’s wife, had a career going back to Biograph and working for D.W. Griffith. Her big break came in Man's Genesis (1912), a short film in which she replaced Mary Pickford, who refused the role. This led to her role in The Sands of Dee (1912), in which she got the lead over Pickford. March recalled years later, “...and he called rehearsal, and we were all there and he said, ‘Well now, Miss Marsh, you can rehearse this.’ And Mary Pickford said ‘What!’ and Mr. Griffith said ‘Yes, Mary Pickford, if you don't do what I tell you I want you to do, I'm going to have someone else do The Sands of Dee. Mary Pickford didn't play Man's Genesis so Mae can play The Sands of Dee.’ Of course, I was thrilled, and she was very much hurt. And I thought, ‘Well it's all right with me. That is something.’ I was, you know, just a lamebrain.” She would go on to appear in both Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916).

Having retired from films in 1928, she came back and had a career playing mostly character roles until Cheyenne Autumn (1964). In 3 Godfathers, her role is small, but she is still very good in the role. Crowther wrote, “Mae Marsh is cute as his sweet wife…”

It’s hard to give a negative review to John Ford and a Western he directed. The man, who did direct a variety of genres, seemed most at home with this genre and excelled at storytelling. His version of 3 Godfathers is good. There’s some heartfelt sentiments, humor and character development. I would recommend it, not only to fans of Ford’s work, but Wayne’s work and of Western’s in general. However, having just recently seen Hell’s Heroes (1929), another film version of the same story, I prefer that retelling to this one.