Stubs - Three Godfathers (1936)

Three Godfathers (1936) starring Chester Morris, Lewis Stone, Walter Brennan. Directed by Richard Boleslawski. Screenplay by Edward E. Paramore Jr. and Manuel Seff. Based on the novel The Three Godfathers by Peter B. Kyne (New York, 1913). Produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz Run time: 85 minutes. Black and White. USA. Western, Christmas.

The Three Godfathers by Peter B. Kyne a 1913 novel, was a very popular source for films in early Hollywood, being made into several productions, including The Sheriff's Baby, a 1913 Biograph film directed by D.W. Griffith and starring Harry Carey, Lionel Barrymore, and Henry B. Walthall; a 1916 Bluebird film directed by Edward J. Le Saint and starring Harry Carey and Stella Razeto; a 1919 Universal picture called Marked Men directed by John Ford that also starred Carey; a 1930 Universal picture called Hell's Heroes, directed by William Wyler and starring Charles Bickford; and a 1948 MGM picture called 3 Godfathers, again directed by Ford, and starring John Wayne, Pedro Armendariz and Harry Carey, Jr. A television movie version entitled The Godchild appeared on the ABC network in 1974, directed by John Badham and starring Jack Palance.

In this case, we’re looking at the 1936 MGM version Three Godfathers directed by Richard Boleslawski. Filming took place between November 27, 1935 and January 4, 1936 was partially shot on location in Mojave, California. The film was released on March 6, 1936. It would be retitled Miracle in the Sand when it was shown on television.

Bob Sangster (Chester Morris), James "Doc" Underwood (Lewis Stone),
Sam "Gus" Bartow (Walter Brennan) near New Jerusalem.

A few days before Christmas, in the late nineteenth century, Bob Sangster (Chester Morris) returns to his home town of New Jerusalem. Accompanying Bob are James "Doc" Underwood (Lewis Stone), Sam "Gus" Bartow (Walter Brennan) and Pedro (Joseph Marievsky) to rob the local bank. They’re an odd foursome, Bob is a cynical renegade, Doc is a well-educated tubercular outcast, Gus is an illiterate drifter, and Pedro is a troubadour.

Except for Bob, they arrive separately as strangers in town and are welcomed to attend the town’s Christmas church social. When Bob arrives, in time for the dance, everyone knows him and no one seems happy that he’s returned.

At the dance, Bob makes a play for Molly (Irene Hervey), a woman he was once in love with.

At the dance, he meets Molly (Irene Hervey), with whom he was once in love, but who now is engaged to banker Frank Benson (Joseph Marievsky). Bob offers Molly what he claims is his mother's watch as a wedding present, but when he accuses her of marrying Frank to forget him, Molly angrily returns the watch.

Bob then trades the watch for drinks at the bar, where he meets Blackie (Dorothy Tree), a woman that he no doubt has fooled around with before. Later, he tricks the bartender into returning the watch to him by telling him that it was his dead mother's legacy.

  

 Pedro (Joseph Marievsky) next to Bob on the day of the robbery.

The next morning, while the townsfolk are busy at a pie sale to raise money for charity, Frank is at the bank trying on a new Santa Claus outfit. He uses a courier bag to make him look fat. At the same time, the four outlaws rob the bank. But before they leave, Sam shoots Frank, claiming “There’s no such thing as Santa Claus.”

 Banker Frank Benson (Joseph Marievsky) dressed like Santa during the robbery.

The townspeople scramble and pursue the robbers. In an exchange of gun fire, Pedro is killed and Doc wounded.

The robbers manage to lose the posse in the desert before they come across a poisoned water hole. Doc, who seems to know such things, says that the poison in the water takes an hour to kill someone. On their way to the next water hole, they find the body of a man who had committed suicide. The only thing of value that Sam finds, which he takes, is a gun personalized with his name, George Marshall, on the handle. Soon after, they find the now dried-up water hole with a box of dynamite that had been used on it.

Mrs. George Marshall (Helen Brown) on her deathbed.

Close by is a covered wagon. Inside, they find a half-dead woman, Mrs. George Marshall (Helen Brown) and her infant son (The Kirschner Twins), though he is not a newborn. The woman tells them that her husband had gone to search for water and that he had tried to dynamite the well to get the water to run.

Taking pity on the woman, Doc tells her that her husband reached New Jerusalem and sent them to help her. With her dying breath, she begs them to care for her child, but Bob refuses to travel with the baby and resolves to make the eighty-eight-mile trek to the next water hole by himself.

The next morning, though, they discover that their horses had wandered off during the night in search for water, but died from drinking poisoned water. Unable to walk the distance to the next water hole, they decide to turn back to New Jerusalem.

Bob seems to have no interest in helping the baby (Jean Kirchner).

After combining the last drops of their water, Bob divides up the last three cans of the baby's milk, but Doc offers to buy Bob's can with his share of the bank loot. Despite his weakened condition, Doc carries the baby until he collapses and is near death. Gus wants to stay with him, but Doc convinces him to continue on with the infant. After writing wills for himself and Gus, Doc bequeaths Gus one of his books and then shoots himself while reciting the words "out, out, sweet candle" from Macbeth.

Gus and Bob then continue their arduous journey back to New Jerusalem when Gus, half mad with heat and thirst, takes Doc's book and wanders off into the desert during the night.

Bob awakens to find the note that Doc had written for Gus, pleading with Bob take care of the child if Gus had died. Bob ignores Gus's plea, then picks up the money bags and leaves the baby behind. But when he sees a rattle snake slithering toward the infant, Bob shoots the snake and returns to give the child the last drop of water. He decides to take the baby with him.

The last man standing, Bob ends up taking care of the baby.

Five-and-a-half miles from New Jerusalem, Bob collapses at the poisoned water hole, unable to continue, and prays to God to help the baby. Remembering that Doc had said the poison takes one hour to kill, he takes a big drink, hoping that it will give him enough strength to make it to reach New Jerusalem.

Knowing it will kill him, Bob drinks the poisoned water so he can
have the strength to get the baby to New Jerusalem.

When Bob reaches the town, it is to the strains of the church congregation singing Christmas hymns. He staggers into the church, much to the surprise and shock of the townsfolk. After placing the infant in Molly's arms, Bob collapses and dies. The baby grasps Bob's watch in his fist, and when a member of the congregation wonders where Bob stole it, Molly replies that he did not steal it, the watch belonged to his mother.

Molly ends up with the baby and Bob's mother's watch.

I can’t find anything relating to how this film was reviewed when it first opened in 1933. But from what I’ve read, big-budget Westerns were not necessarily popular at this time during the Depression. And most studios were trying not to make big budget anythings. MGM was also not a studio known for making Westerns, especially ones on location, which may explain some of the shortcomings of this film.

The backstory that the film gives Bob is unique, as far as I can tell, to this version of the film. Usually, the bank robbers are strangers in town, not ex-residents back to seek revenge, the way Bob is in this telling. There is a little too much time spent in setting up his backstory and connections to New Jerusalem and the pace of the film suffers for that. While the story is really about the three outlaws taking care of a young baby for a dying mother, we don’t get to this until more than a third of the film has passed. This may have been done to elevate the role of the lead, Chester Morris.

Perhaps best-known for playing Boston Blackie, a criminal turned detective in a series of films for Columbia Pictures, it is easy to forget that at one time, Morris was nominated for an Academy Award in 1929 for his role in the film Alibi. The Western seemed to be a departure for a star whose popularity had begun to wane. Somehow, though, and perhaps it’s been my exposure to his career, but he seems out of place in a Western, the same way James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart did in The Oklahoma Kid (1939).

The same can be said for Lewis Stone. Also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1929 for his role in The Patriot, Stone was perhaps best known for the role of Judge Hardy in the Andy Hardy series at MGM. But if, like cats, there were indoor and outdoor actors, Stone would be, at least in my opinion, an indoor actor. That’s not to say that he isn’t as good as he could be in the role of Doc, it’s just that he seems miscast as a bank robber.

That can’t be said for Walter Brennan. He was one of the best character actors to ever appear on the silver screen and can play almost any role given him. A very versatile actor, he can handle the dramatic and the comedic with ease and does provide some of the lighter moments early in the film. The film doesn’t really do a good job of setting up his wandering to his death in the desert, but that’s not Brennan’s fault.

It may not come as a surprise that this was director Richard Boleslawski’s first and only Western. The Polish-born director began making films in Hollywood in 1930 and is better-known for films like Rasputin and the Empress (1932), teaming Ethel, John, and Lionel Barrymore; Men in White (1934) starring Clark Gable; and The Painted Veil (1934), featuring Greta Garbo. There are some interesting shots here and there in the film, but nothing to take it beyond what would be a run-of-the-mill Western. Sadly, it would be one of his last films, as he would later die that year while making The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1937), starring Joan Crawford and William Powell.

Of the Western versions that I have seen of this Christmas drive-by story, this is my least favorite. Most of the actors seem out of place, the story moves too slow and while the ending is fairly strong, the juice is not worth the squeeze, as they say.