Three Godfathers (1936 film)

Last updated

Three Godfathers
Three Godfathers FilmPoster.jpeg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Richard Boleslawski
Screenplay by Edward E. Paramore, Jr.
Manuel Seff
Based on The Three Godfathers
1913 novel
by Peter B. Kyne
Produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Starring Chester Morris
Lewis Stone
Walter Brennan
Irene Hervey
Cinematography Joseph Ruttenberg
Edited by Frank Sullivan
Music by William Axt
Production
company
Distributed by Loew's Inc.
Release date
March 6, 1936
Running time
81 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Three Godfathers is a 1936 American Western film directed by Richard Boleslawski and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer starring Chester Morris, Lewis Stone, Walter Brennan, and Irene Hervey. It was adapted from the novel of the same name by Peter B. Kyne. Three bank robbers find a newborn baby and his dying mother in the desert.

Contents

Directors Edward LeSaint and John Ford had previously filmed silent versions of the film titled The Three Godfathers (LeSaint in 1916) and Marked Men . [1] (Ford in 1919), both of which starred actor Harry Carey. The first sound version was Hell's Heroes , which was also William Wyler's first all-talking film; it starred Charles Bickford, Raymond Hatton, and Fred Kohler. John Ford would later film yet another version of the film as 3 Godfathers (1948) dedicated to Carey, and starring John Wayne, Pedro Armendáriz, and Carey's son, Harry Carey Jr.

Plot

A week before Christmas, four bandits ride through the desert and pause on a rise over the town of New Jerusalem: Bob Sangster, returning to his hometown; Doc Underwood, a cultured man with a Ph.D.; Gus Barton; and Pedro, who always plays his guitar and sings as he rides.

The whole town is at a Christmas social, celebrating a few days early. Doc and Gus are welcomed, but Bob's arrival casts a chill on the festivities. When he meets Molly, the girl he loved, his face changes, briefly. They dance. Bob offers her a watch that he says belonged to his mother. He insists that she still loves him, even though she is going to marry Frank Benson. When Bob seizes her, she slaps him, then thanks him for showing her the truth. She gives the watch back, telling him to return it to the woman he stole it from, and walks away. Bob goes to the bodega and finds solace in the arms of Blackie, a girl who works there.

The next morning, Frank, the young bank president, is trying on a Santa Claus outfit when the bandits come into the bank. Benson offers no resistance, but Bob shoots him in cold blood, saying, "There ain't no Santa Claus." As they flee, Pedro is killed by the dentist, and Doc is wounded in the arm.

Reaching the first waterhole, the robbers see it is marked as poisoned. On the way to the next watering spot, they find the body of George Marshall, a tenderfoot who shot himself. At the waterhole, they find a wagon sheltering a dying woman—Marshall's wife—and her baby boy. The waterhole has been destroyed: Marshall dynamited it, trying to get water, then set out to get help. Knowing it is too late for her, she commits her child to their care. After she dies, they camp for the night.

Doc and Gus want to take the baby with them, but Bob is in favor of "putting him out of his misery." In the morning, they find that their horses dead from drinking at the dynamited well. They must go back to New Jerusalem.

Bob hands a can of milk to each man and starts to drink his. Doc buys it for the baby with his share of the stolen gold. His arm is festering, but he carries the child. He writes out a will that he gives to Gus. Finally, unable to go any further, Doc tells them to take the baby and leave him. As Gus and Bob walk away, a shot rings out.

Later, while Bob sleeps, Gus hesitatingly says a prayer. He leaves his share of the gold and the will beside the baby and walks into the desert.

In the morning, Bob reads the will, which is actually a note to him from Doc asking him to "give the kid an even break." However, he leaves the baby behind. When the child wails, Bob shoots a rattlesnake near the baby. Telling himself that he is crazy, he picks up the baby and sets off. He gives the child the last of the water. Eventually, Bob drops everything except the boy. At last in despair, he falls to his knees and prays. Suddenly he sees the signposts at the poisoned well. They are 5 1/2 miles from New Jerusalem; he remembers Doc saying that it would take an hour for a man to die from the poisoned water. Saying "Here's to you kid," he drinks deeply.

Bob stumbles into town. Everyone is in church. He staggers in, kneels and gives Molly the baby. He struggles to his feet, turns and falls, dead. As Molly carries the baby down the aisle, someone notices that he is using Bob's watch as a teething ring and wonders where Bob stole it. Molly says it was his mother's.

Cast

See also

Related Research Articles

Dad (<i>Angel</i>) 10th episode of the 3rd season of Angel

"Dad" is episode 10 of season 3 in the television show Angel. After Darla sacrifices herself to save her baby, Angel takes the newborn back to the hotel where he tries to be a good father to his child. But Angel and the gang's problems multiply when they are trapped at the hotel by several groups of enemies, including vampire cults, demon cults and satanic humans, bent on kidnapping his infant son. After brushing off Sahjhan, Holtz goes about Los Angeles recruiting new help for his quest to kill Angel by hiring humans whose families were also victims of vampires, starting with one bitter, working-class woman, named Justine Cooper, as his right-hand person and recruiter.

<i>Peacock</i> (2005 film) 2005 Chinese film

Peacock is a 2005 film directed by Gu Changwei, written by Li Qiang. This is Gu's first film as director after a lengthy career as a cinematographer for some of China's top directors. The film premiered simultaneously in both China and in competition at the 2005 Berlin International Film Festival, going on to receive Berlin's Jury Grand Prix Silver Bear.

<i>3 Godfathers</i> 1948 film directed by John Ford

3 Godfathers is a 1948 American Western film directed by John Ford and filmed primarily in Death Valley, California. The screenplay, written by Frank S. Nugent and Laurence Stallings, is based on the 1913 novelette The Three Godfathers by Peter B. Kyne. The story is something of a retelling of the story of the Three Wise Men in an American Western context.

<i>Manhandled</i> (1949 film) 1949 film by Lewis R. Foster

Manhandled is a 1949 American film noir crime film directed by Lewis R. Foster and starring Dorothy Lamour, Sterling Hayden and Dan Duryea. It is based on the 1945 novel The Man Who Stole a Dream by L. S. Goldsmith.

<i>Payment on Demand</i> 1951 film

Payment on Demand is a 1951 American drama film directed by Curtis Bernhardt and starring Bette Davis and Barry Sullivan. The screenplay by Bernhardt and Bruce Manning chronicles a marriage from its idealistic early days to its dissolution.

Bob and Sally is 1948 American drama film produced by J. G. Sanford at Universal Studios and directed by Erle C. Kenton. Director of photography was Ellis Carter and the original screenplay was written by Mary C. Palmer.

<i>Port of Seven Seas</i> 1938 film by James Whale

Port of Seven Seas is a 1938 American drama film starring Wallace Beery and featuring Frank Morgan and Maureen O'Sullivan. The movie was written by Preston Sturges based on the plays of Marcel Pagnol and the films based on them, and was directed by James Whale, the director of Frankenstein (1931) and The Invisible Man (1933). The cinematography is by Karl Freund, who filmed Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) and I Love Lucy (1951-1957).

<i>The Secret Man</i> 1917 film

The Secret Man is a 1917 American silent Western film, directed by John Ford and featuring Harry Carey. Two of the five reels of the film survive at the Library of Congress film archive.

<i>Roped</i> 1919 film

Roped was a 1919 American Western-comedy film directed by John Ford and featuring Harry Carey. The film is considered to be lost. Roped is one of at least 25 films in which director John Ford and actor Harry Carey collaborated on between the years of 1917 and 1921. Ford saw Carry as a mentor and their worked on the story ideas for several of their films together.

<i>The Three Godfathers</i> (novel)

The Three Godfathers is a 1913 novel by American author Peter B. Kyne, about a trio of bank robbers who become godfathers to a newborn child. The story was originally published in The Saturday Evening Post, illustrated by N. C. Wyeth.

Waterhole #3 is a 1967 Western comedy film directed by William A. Graham. It is considered to be a comic remake of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

<i>The October Man</i> 1947 British film

The October Man is a 1947 mystery film/film noir starring John Mills and Joan Greenwood, written by novelist Eric Ambler, who also produced. A man is suspected of murder, and the lingering effects of a brain injury he sustained in an earlier accident, as well as an intensive police investigation, make him begin to doubt whether he is innocent.

<i>Hells Heroes</i> (film) 1929 film

Hell's Heroes is a 1929 American pre-Code Western sound film, one of many screen adaptations of Peter B. Kyne's 1913 novel The Three Godfathers.

<i>Free Willy: Escape from Pirates Cove</i> 2010 American film

Free Willy: Escape from Pirate's Cove is a 2010 American family film written and directed by Will Geiger with the story by Cindy McCreery. It is a reboot as well as the fourth and final installment in the Free Willy film series. It stars Bindi Irwin, in her film debut, and Beau Bridges. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 23 March 2010 in the United States, and on 2 August in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

<i>Warpath</i> (film) 1951 film by Byron Haskin

Warpath is a 1951 American Western film directed by Byron Haskin and starring Edmond O'Brien, Polly Bergen and Dean Jagger and Harry Carey Jr. The film was released as a Fawcett Comics Film #9 in August 1951.

<i>A Close Call for Boston Blackie</i> 1946 film by Lew Landers

A Close Call for Boston Blackie is a 1946 American crime film directed by Lew Landers. It is the tenth of fourteen Columbia Pictures films starring Chester Morris as Boston Blackie.

<i>Radar Secret Service</i> 1950 film by Sam Newfield

Radar Secret Service is a 1950 action film starring John Howard, produced by Barney A. Sarecky and directed by Sam Newfield. The film was featured on the American television show Mystery Science Theater 3000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Connie Corleone</span> Fictional character from The Godfather series

Constanzia "Connie" Corleone is a fictional character in The Godfather, a 1969 novel by Mario Puzo, and the 1972 film The Godfather. In the film, Connie is portrayed by Talia Shire, the sister of the director Francis Ford Coppola. Shire was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Connie Corleone in The Godfather Part II.

Gus Grimly is a fictional character in the FX television series Fargo. One of the main characters of the first season, he is portrayed by Colin Hanks. He appears as a guest in season 2, with Hanks briefly reprising his role in a cameo.

References

  1. Scott McGee. "Three Godfathers (1936)". Turner Classic Movies.