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Stagecoach

Stagecoach (1966)

June. 16,1966
|
6.1
|
PG
| Western

A group of unlikely travelling companions find themselves on the same stagecoach to Cheyenne. They include a drunken doctor, a bar girl who's been thrown out of town, a professional gambler, a travelling liquor salesman, a banker who has decided to embezzle money, a gun-slinger out for revenge and a young woman going to join her army captain husband. All have secrets but when they are set upon by an Indian war party and then a family of outlaws, they find they must all work together if they are to stay alive.

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Reviews

Stometer
1966/06/16

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

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SpuffyWeb
1966/06/17

Sadly Over-hyped

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VeteranLight
1966/06/18

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

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Zandra
1966/06/19

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

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redwhiteandblue1776
1966/06/20

Just a couple of observations. Pausing the film before the last big fight with the Indians chasing the stagecoach, I counted 25 Indians on horseback. During the fight, there were 41 shot off their horses. Hummm? The director must think horses lope (run) everywhere? It's a good thing they were making a movie and the horses got breaks along with the actors or they would have keeled over dead from all that running. When a gun is fired, it recoils or jumps back. Here they pretty much stay still. And guns are LOUD. Yet no one ever flinches or even reacts to the noise. Shots inside that stagecoach would be deafening. Firearms only hold a given number of bullets yet the guns in this movie never seem to run out. Firearm accuracy! I've shot a lot and even hitting a still target it hard but these movie cowboys must be the world's most accurate shooters, hitting Indians on running horses and shooting from a fast moving stagecoach. Pretty impressive! And lastly, if they had to have a floozy in the movie, I'm glad they picked Ann Margaret 'cause she had to be the hottest dance hall girl in the old west. Probably not many looked like that. Just sayin'.

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TheLittleSongbird
1966/06/21

The original 'Stagecoach' from 1939 was, and still is, a benchmark of the western genre, and a wonderful film in its own right too. Considering the generally dodgy track record of how remakes fare in quality, was honestly expecting this 1966 'Stagecoach' to be an insult and with no point or merits.Expectations that were mostly proved very much wrong. Yes, it is a far inferior film to 1939's 'Stagecoach' (whereas the original is a masterpiece this is just fair), and, yes, one does question the point of it with so much of the content already seen previously and with much more impact. However, it does have a lot of merit, with it being made with competence, with respect being shown and with attempts to bring some freshness or build on what was seen previously (characters like Plummer being richer in characterisation here).Starting with the faults, not all the casting comes off. Mike Connors sleepwalks through a role in need of so much more intensity than what actually came off. Stefanie Powers is an attractive but rabbits-in-the-headlights blank, but coming off worst is Alex Cord as a pivotal character crying out for much more charisma and personality than what was given in Cord's very wooden and vacuous take on it.Gordon Douglas' direction is competent with a keen visual eye, but, in terms of momentum and storytelling, it's a case of everything done pleasingly and correctly with nothing offensive but with some lack of invention or oomph and with a sense of routine-ness about it all. The story is actually a good one and the characters are still interesting on the most part, but apart from a few scenes much of it has already been done before and with more excitement.However, it's a great-looking film. While the scenery doesn't have the magnificence of Monument Valley it's still sweepingly beautiful and the cinematography is similarly striking, especially in the aerial shot and the chase sequence. Production, set and costume design register strongly too and who can't help love those paintings. Jerry Goldsmith's score is rousing, atmospheric and extraordinary in instrumentation, while the theme song is very much a memorable one.Meanwhile, it's nicely scripted, and there are sequences that register strongly, especially the chase sequence (the highlight), the storm on the cliff and the opening massacre. Also appreciated an ending where what happens is shown with more clarity and less ambiguity. The cast are fine generally, Bing Crosby plays his boozy-doctor-with-a-heart role perfectly in his final screen appearance, while Van Heflin is similarly terrific, Slim Pickens brings some welcome humour and Keenan Wynn is frightening (even though not on screen long).Ann-Margaret shows how to be an alluring presence while also being able to act with sass and compassion, while Robert Cummings is good enough (he has been better though) and Red Buttons shares a strong touching rapport with Crosby in a remarkably subdued performance.Overall, inferior and maybe pointless but nowhere near as bad as expected. A lot is done right and nothing offends, but at the end of the day even whether compared to the 1939 film or out of context it just felt a little bland. 6/10 Bethany Cox

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zardoz-13
1966/06/22

There is no shortage of action in "Rio Conchos" director Gordon Douglas' remake of John Ford's venerable western classic "Stagecoach." Comparatively, the original ran 96 minutes, while the Douglas remake clocks in at 115 minutes. The impressive cast won't make you forget John Wayne, Claire Trevor, and Thomas Mitchell, but they make you believe them. This revenge-driven Twentieth Century Fox release qualifies as an above-average remake. Douglas and "Rio Conchos" scenarist Joseph Landon shun a scene-by-scene remake, but they preserve a lot of Dudley Nichols's dialogue from the 1939 masterpiece. Like the Oscar winning original, this "Stagecoach" remake assembles a number of diverse characters and cramps them within the claustrophobic confines of a stagecoach. The passenger list constitutes a microcosm of nineteenth century society. A pregnant cavalry officer's wife, an amoral Southern gambler, a whiskey drummer, a soused doctor, an ostracized saloon girl, a crooked banker, and a lawman make up this gallery of oddballs. Veteran lenser William Clothier, who shot his share of John Wayne westerns, makes producer Martin Rackin's sumptuous production look larger-than-life. Although it doesn't unfold in scenic Monument Valley like the Ford original, the Twentieth Century Fox remake features its own stunning scenery in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Mind you, Douglas isn't the cinematic poet that Ford was. Nevertheless, he is no slouch, and this version of "Stagecoach," the second of three, . Alex Cord appropriates the role that made John Wayne a star. Sexy Ann-Margaret steps into Claire Trevor's role. Bing Cosby steps into Best Supporting Oscar winner Thomas Mitchell's shoes as a drunken doctor. Red Buttons is splendidly cast as the whiskey drummer that Cosby takes advantage of during the trip. Some scenes, particularly the battle with the Native Americans, stand out. "Stagecoach" shows Douglas in fine form.

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moonspinner55
1966/06/23

Poorly-written remake of the 1939 John Wayne chestnut has stagecoach full of disparate people encountering personal strife and drama on the treacherous route to Cheyenne. Since the characters are such an obvious lot (what with a prostitute, a pregnant woman, a bank robber, a wily alcoholic, an outlaw, etc.) and are written and portrayed as caricatures, there's nobody here to care about. Newcomer Alex Cord broods mightily as the outlaw, but this actorly process of cool non-projection is a snooze by now; Ann-Margret, as the saloon girl with the shady life, is only comfortable in her carefully-posed close-ups, her line readings rendered false by a peculiarly twangy accent and no conviction in her behavior (she reverts too easily on being 'lewd' without giving the character any other dimensions). The direction is sloppy, the pacing leaden, and even the Colorado scenery fails to enliven the proceedings. *1/2 from ****

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