Stagecoach to Dancers' Rock

Last updated

Stagecoach to Dancers' Rock
Stagecoach to Dancers' Rock poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Earl Bellamy
Screenplay byKeneth Darling
Story byKeneth Darling
Produced byEarl Bellamy
Starring Warren Stevens
Martin Landau
Jody Lawrance
Judy Dan
Don Wilbanks
Del Moore
Robert Anderson
CinematographyEddie Fitzgerald
Edited byBuddy Small
Music byFranz Steininger
Production
company
Gray-Mac Productions
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date
  • October 1, 1962 (1962-10-01)
Running time
72 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Stagecoach to Dancers' Rock is a 1962 American Western film directed by Earl Bellamy, written by Keneth Darling, and starring Warren Stevens, Martin Landau, Jody Lawrance, Judy Dan, Don Wilbanks, Del Moore and Robert Anderson. [1] [2] [3] It was released on October 1, 1962, by Universal Pictures.

Contents

Plot

In 1873, a stagecoach pulls into Tucson, Arizona. The passengers are U. S. Cavalry Maj. John Southern, Ann Thompson, a woman on her way to San Francisco to study medicine, and Indian agent Hiram Best. In Tucson they pick up gambler Dade Coleman and Loi Yan Wu, a young Chinese-American woman who is on her way to San Francisco to work as a librarian. At a stop for food, the stage adds a sixth passenger – gunslinger Jess Dollard.

Following the food stop, Loi Yan Wu becomes ill. Her illness is diagnosed by Ann as chicken pox, but the driver and guard believe it to be smallpox. Realizing they’ve all been exposed, they continue their journey, but the driver and guard plot to abandon the passengers. Stopping in the middle of the desert, the driver and guard claim to be resting the horses, but when most of the passengers are out of the coach, they take off and leave them. Best, the Indian agent, stays in the coach.

The five passengers set out on foot, with John Southern carrying the stricken Loi Yan Wu. They spend the night in the desert and are able to get food and water from some plants they find. They travel on, weaker and weaker, and then see the stagecoach ahead of them. As they get closer, they see that the driver, guard and Hiram Best have been killed by Apaches, who took the horses and the men’s guns. They bury the men and camp out around the stage.

Coleman finds a canteen of water and hoards it, but Dollard sees him sneaking a drink from it and takes the canteen to share with the others. That night Coleman steals Dollard's gun and a knife Dollard had given to Ann. When Southern tries to attack him, Coleman kills Southern and then wounds Dollard. He then forces Ann under the stage, where she and Loi Yan Wu had been sleeping, and rapes her.

Dollard is nursed back to health by Loi Yan Wu while Coleman forces Ann to be his servant. Eventually Coleman sends Dollard and Loi Yan Wu away, telling them to walk into the desert. They go a little ways off and wait for Coleman to weaken, as Ann has confided to them that Coleman now has chicken pox. But before that can happen, they all see a stagecoach approaching. Coleman realizes that it’s the stage to Tucson, and that if he and Ann are both rescued, she can testify against him, so he immediately shoots her, then runs toward the stage waving his arms. The stage, however, has been attacked by Apaches, and everyone is dead except the driver, who is wounded and delirious. The driver, seeing Coleman in the road waving his arms, mistakes him for an attacking Indian and shoots him. Loi Yan Wu and Dollard, using the horses from the stage, set off, hoping to eventually settle in San Francisco together.

Cast

Related Research Articles

<i>Stagecoach</i> (1939 film) American film by John Ford

Stagecoach is a 1939 American Western film directed by John Ford and starring Claire Trevor and John Wayne in his breakthrough role. The screenplay by Dudley Nichols is an adaptation of "The Stage to Lordsburg", a 1937 short story by Ernest Haycox. The film follows a group primarily composed of strangers riding on a stagecoach through dangerous Apache territory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gila Bend, Arizona</span> Town in Maricopa County, Arizona

Gila Bend, founded in 1872, is a town in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. The town is named for an approximately 90-degree bend in the Gila River, which is near the community's current location. As of the 2020 census, the population of the town was 1,892.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stagecoach</span> Type of covered wagon

A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are drawn by six horses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glenn Strange</span> American actor (1899–1973)

George Glenn Strange was an American actor who appeared in hundreds of Western films. He played Sam Noonan, the bartender on CBS's Gunsmoke television series, and Frankenstein's monster in three Universal films during the 1940s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pearl Hart</span> 19/20th-century Canadian-American outlaw

Pearl Hart was a Canadian-born outlaw of the American Old West. She committed one of the last recorded stagecoach robberies in the United States, and her crime gained notoriety primarily because of her gender. Many details of Hart's life are uncertain, with available reports being varied and often contradictory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Butterfield Overland Mail</span> Stagecoach service in the US (1858–1861)

Butterfield Overland Mail was a stagecoach service in the United States operating from 1858 to 1861. It carried passengers and U.S. Mail from two eastern termini, Memphis, Tennessee, and St. Louis, Missouri, to San Francisco, California. The routes from each eastern terminus met at Fort Smith, Arkansas, and then continued through Indian Territory (Oklahoma), Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Mexico, and California ending in San Francisco. On March 3, 1857, Congress authorized the U.S. postmaster general, at that time Aaron V. Brown, to contract for delivery of the U.S. mail from St. Louis to San Francisco. Prior to this, U.S. Mail bound for the Far West had been delivered by the San Antonio and San Diego Mail Line since June 1857.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom London</span> American actor (1889–1963)

Tom London was an American actor who played frequently in B-Westerns. According to The Guinness Book of Movie Records, London is credited with appearing in the most films in the history of Hollywood, according to the 2001 book Film Facts, which says that the performer who played in the most films was "Tom London, who made his first of over 2,000 appearances in The Great Train Robbery, 1903. He used his birth name in films until 1924.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruth Roman</span> American actress (1922–1999)

Ruth Roman was an American actress of film, stage, and television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Percy Helton</span> American actor (1894–1971)

Percy Alfred Helton was an American stage, film, and television actor. He was one of the most familiar faces and voices in Hollywood of the 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noel Neill</span> American actress (1920–2016)

Noel Darleen Neill was an American actress, pin-up girl, and model. She played Lois Lane in the film serials Superman (1948) and Atom Man vs. Superman (1950), as well as the 1950s television series Adventures of Superman. She appeared in 80 films and television series in her career.

<i>Black Bart</i> (film) 1948 film by George Sherman

Black Bart is a 1948 American Western Technicolor film directed by George Sherman and starring Yvonne De Carlo, and Dan Duryea as the real-life stagecoach bandit Charles E. Boles, known as Black Bart. The movie was produced by Leonard Goldstein with a screenplay written by Luci Ward, Jack Natteford and William Bowers. The film, also known under the alternate title Black Bart, Highwayman, was released by Universal Pictures on March 3, 1948.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">(Do the) Mashed Potatoes</span> 1960 single by Nat Kendrick and the Swans

"(Do the) Mashed Potatoes" is a rhythm and blues instrumental. It was recorded by James Brown with his band in 1959 and released as a two-part single in 1960. For contractual reasons the recording was credited to "Nat Kendrick and the Swans".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eddy Waller</span> American actor (1889–1977)

Edward Waller was an American stage, film and television actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Tenbrook</span> Norwegian-American actor (1887–1960)

Harry Tenbrook was a Norwegian-American film actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Butterfield (businessman)</span> American businessman and transportation pioneer (1801–1869)

John Butterfield was a transportation pioneer in the mid-19th century in the American Northwest and Southwest. He founded many companies, including American Express which is still in operation today. The Butterfield Overland Mail Company was the longest stagecoach line in the world. The line operated from 1858 to 1861 on the Southern Overland Trail and established an important connection between the new state of California and the government and economy of the contiguous eastern states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Megabus (North America)</span> American commercial intercity bus service

Megabus is an intercity bus service of Coach USA/Coach Canada operating in the eastern, southern, midwestern, western, and Pacific United States and in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It is the North American service equivalent to the European Megabus.

The Overland Trail was a stagecoach and wagon trail in the American West during the 19th century. While portions of the route had been used by explorers and trappers since the 1820s, the Overland Trail was most heavily used in the 1860s as a route alternative to the Oregon, California, and Mormon trails through central Wyoming. The Overland Trail was famously used by the Overland Stage Company owned by Ben Holladay to run mail and passengers to Salt Lake City, Utah, via stagecoaches in the early 1860s. Starting from Atchison, Kansas, the trail descended into Colorado before looping back up to southern Wyoming and rejoining the Oregon Trail at Fort Bridger. The stage line operated until 1869 when the completion of the First transcontinental railroad eliminated the need for mail service via stagecoach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert H. Paul</span> American sheriff (1831–1901)

Robert Havlin Paul was a law enforcement officer in the American Southwest for more than 30 years. He was sheriff of Pima County, Arizona Territory, from April 1881 to 1886. He was also a friend of Deputy U.S. Marshall Virgil Earp and his brother Wyatt Earp. At 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) and 240 pounds (110 kg), he was described as "larger than life". Others described him as "powerful, fearless and very lucky".

<i>Stage to Tucson</i> 1950 film by Ralph Murphy

Stage to Tucson is a 1950 American Western film directed by Ralph Murphy and written by Robert Creighton Williams, Frank Burt and Robert Libott. It is based on the 1948 novel Lost Stage Valley by Frank Bonham. The film stars Rod Cameron, Wayne Morris, Kay Buckley, Sally Eilers, Carl Benton Reid and Roy Roberts. The film was released in December 1950, by Columbia Pictures and remade by them in 1956 as The Phantom Stagecoach, reusing extensive footage from the earlier film and changing it from Technicolor to black and white.

References

  1. "Stagecoach to Dancers' Rock (1962) - Overview". TCM.com. Retrieved December 20, 2015.
  2. Sandra Brennan (2015). "Stagecoach-to-Dancers-Rock - Trailer - Cast - Showtimes". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times . Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved December 20, 2015.
  3. "Stagecoach to Dancers' Rock". Afi.com. October 15, 1962. Retrieved December 20, 2015.