Screen Directors Playhouse: Stagecoach

The NBC Theater presents... ...Stream Director's Guild Assignment, Production Stagecoach, Director John Ford, Stars John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Ward Bond. This is the Screen Director's Guild production of the United Artists Motion Picture Classic Stagecoach, starring John Wayne, Claire Trevor, and Ward Bond, and introducing the director of the film, John Ford.

Before we begin our story, Here are a few words about the entertainment you will hear tonight and in future weeks at this time. The NBC Theater is proud to welcome the president of the Screen Directors Guild and the eminent director of such films as Variety Girl, The Parals of Pauline and Tap Roots.

Mr. George Marshall. Thank you, and good evening. This is the first performance of a series of Screen Directors Guild productions in which the directors will personally bring you their favorite film assignments, along with the stars who created the original roles.

Tonight your director is John Ford. John, if you remember, is the winner of five Academy Awards. The guiding hand behind such great pictures as the informer. How green was my valley? And of course, stagecoach.

You're on this at John. Thank you, John. And good luck in our first production. Stagecoach is ready to roll. The last time I made that crack was about ten years ago. I first had the opportunity of putting on film as romance to the West.

For the cast, the picture offers an array of colorful character types, ripe for the act as talents. Now the story in the cast, I united again. Here is Stagecoach with John Wayne as the Ringo Kid, Claire Trevor as Dallas and Ward Bond as Doc Boone.

In 1885, the Stagecoach was the only means of travel of travel on the American frontier. And in those days, no names struck more dread into the hearts of travelers in Geronimo, leader of the warlike Apaches. This folks is a story of a party of people who travel from Tonto to Lordsburg by stagecoach in 1885. It's a

story still told by the Indians. In the land of Arizona, land of the Apache Indian, where the roaming Chiracawa fought the The mighty white invader stood the white man's city tunt, tunto where the flying wagon, that the white man called the stagecoach, stopped to take men to the westward, where Geronimo was leader, chief of the Apache Indian.

The party is hooked, Geronimo's a patches one war path up ahead, burning every ranch insane. Then the question before the party assembled in this stagecoach is, shall we continue? I say yes. Continue.

But Mrs. Mallory, should you be traveling in your condition? My husband is in Apache Wells with his troops. I want to be with him when our baby arrives. Madam, I am a gambler, and I admire and respect a bald gambler.

But aren't you gambling with a life besides your own? Oh, I forgot to tell him at that field. We're getting a cavalry escort for Apache Wells. That settles it. I'm going on. Count me in, of course, but...

All right, I will find my shotgun guard. You don't have to go no further, Buck. What? Curly! Well, don't go! Now, how are you, Sheriff? Fine, thanks, and I'll be right in shotgun up next to you this chip, Buck.

You, what further? Erringo Kid escaped from prison. I'm looking for him. The fellow who shot Jed Michael dead? I hear he's heading for Lordsburg to shoot it out with the three plumber boys. So I'll be right up there next to you, Buck, all the way to Lordsburg.

There she comes! Tuck in the hill now! They're close to the stage, coach! Let her stand back, mid-doc! Yeah, stand down in the road there, Dallas, girl! Thanks, Doc. Hail the stage-brushed chariot, Doc! Doc, why do I have to leave town?

Because all these women here say I have to? I don't want to go to Lord Spurney. No more, do I, Dallas? But you are a lady somewhat too hospitable to gentlemen. I am a doctor, somewhat too hospitable to spirits.

We girl are the Dreg Zootonkhold. They send us from their midst. Come, Dallas, be a glorified Dreg, like me. Ha! You have acquired two more Eregressors. The engines are as in duck. I thank them for that mark of respect.

Della may be seated now. Answer, Dallas. Thanks, Tom. Take your place beside the other lady. Then forward. I'm Zilajberg! Watch your drive into this canyon, Buck. I am to be hard to shoot at, in case you're on them all the patches are in these hills.

I'm with you, Buck, the law. That don't make me bully pants. Down, kingdom high. Here she comes, a patter. Keep your shirt on and stop the coach. It ain't a patchy's. Summing up ahead, blocking the road with a rifle.

Whoa! Whoa! Here he comes, whoever he is. It's Ringo Kid! That's right, Buck. Hiya, Curly. Ringo. Didn't expect to find the sheriff riding shotgun. I was heading for Lordsburg, same as you Ringo. Well, my horse went lame, so you got another passenger.

I'll take that rifle first, Ringo. That's so sheriff. You're under arrest. The murder of Jed Michael. Sorry, Curly, but this Winchester here says difference. Sorry, Ringo. But if you look back up the road apiece, you'll see our escrow to United States cavalry coming up.

Oh. I'll take that rifle now, Ringo. Sure, Sheriff. You better hold on to it. You may need it before we get to Lord's Burke. Thanks. You can get into the coach now. What's your blade, Sheriff?

Get going, Buck. Yup. Silly. Yup. So you're the famous Ringo kid, huh? My friends call me Ringo. Right name's Henry. Henry, I remember you. Say I fixed your arm when you was just a little sprock.

You had no higher than a quart of bourbon. That was my kid brother, Broggy's arm. You did a good job too, Doc, even if he was drunk. Well, thank you, son. How's your brother now?

He was murdered. Oh, no. Him and my dad. What a three plumber boy. Well, good luck when you get to Lordsburg, son. Thanks, Doc. Mrs. Mallory, you're tired. Would you like to rest your head on my shoulder?

No, thank you. Mr. Hatfield, would you mind if I sat over on your side of the coach? Not at all, ma'am. Excuse me, yes, of course. Right here, Mrs. Mallory. Thank you, Mr. Hatfield. I must have the plague, huh, Dallas?

You! Oh, no, it's not you. Have a drink, hot field! No, thank you. No, thank you, he said. Have a drink, Doc? Yes, thank you. You're not gonna move away from me, are you? No, Ringo.

Well, I guess I can't expect a break out of prison and into society in the same way. Shh, she'll hear you. I guess I'm pretty dumb for sitting down beside a lady like you, Dallas.

Lady? Thanks for an unmoving. Don't, don't please. Why are you looking at me like that? Ain't I seen you someplace before? No. No, no, you haven't. I wish I had though. I know you. I mean, I know who you are.

I used to be a good cow, Ann. A few years back, things happened. Yes, things happened. But only love, Paolo. Drink up, Doc. Doc's getting a snoot ball. Things happened. And now they'll take you back to prison.

Not till I finish your job in Lordsburg. Ringo, I wish you wouldn't. Wish I wouldn't, what? Oh, nothing. Nothing. Paddoo, lub, ba-doo. Wow! Unfound that driver, why doesn't he drive more carefully? He's playing at Smart Hatfield.

He took to the mountains. Apaches don't like Snoll. Well, he might have some consideration for Mrs. Mallory and her condition. Oh. I'll be all right, Mr. Hatfield. Thank you. Paddoo, lub, ba-doo, ba-doo. I'll pat you well, got the head.

Paddoo, ba-doo. Mr. Hatfield, why didn't my husband and his troops The Wrangler tells me that Captain Mallory has been sent ahead to Lord's Bird. Lord's Bird? Well, we'd better turn around and follow the cavalry escort to Tonto.

We can't do that. With the patches on the war, path it ain't safe to go through a patch of country without escort. I say we ought to turn back. There's only one way to find out. Take a vote. What do you say, Mrs. Mallory?

On to Lord's Bird go back to Tonto. I want my husband with me when our baby's born. Doc, ain't you forgot this lady? You mean Dallas? Dallas. Oh I say go. I've nothing to go back to. Doc?

Mm-hmm. Lord's Burg. Pass the bottle. Pass the bottle. Ringo. Ringo is my prisoner. I'm voting his proxy. I say Lord's Burg. Hadfield. I am at the service of Mrs. Mallory. Thank you. Buck. Now Lord Burg it is. Alice don't step inside and get some grub.

Look, spy! You better take my arm up these steps, Mrs. Mallory. No, thank you. Really, I'm qua- Shut the- I-I'm qua- Mrs. Mallory, you've got a- Oh! Dr. Boone! Uh-huh! Mrs. Mallory, need your help.

Oh, it's no use, he's drunk. Ringo! Yeah? I don't know for sure, but I think you better go inside and start eating some water. All you want in them, son? I'll carry her inside, Mr. Hatfield.

Oh, allow me. Allow me. I'll carry her myself, you sottie. Thank you, sir. You drunken swine. Thank you. Now, if you'll open the door for me, Dallas. Yes, sir. Drunken swine of a doctor? Dop.

Honest. Ain't you ashamed? Did I understand that swine to call me a drunken swine? I wish I could do something. There is something you can do, Buck. Yeah, but what can you do in your condition?

I can drink all of the hot black coffee you can make. I serve him a doctor. Now get busy. Get busy. The NBC Theater is presenting the Screen Director's Guild production of Stage Coach, starring Claire Trevor, John Wayne and Ward Bond, with Screen Director John Ford.

Apache Wells, the white man called it. Here the white score had her child. While the flying wagon waited, waited while my tribesmen gathered. On the hills and on the desert gathered the Apache warriors, while the white score had her child and the flying wagon waited.

Oh, it makes me nervous being held up like this in the patchy country. You just want to hear mad at us again? Quiet, Buck. Someone's coming. Dallas? It's a little girl. A girl? Let me see it.

Well, I'll be dog-go. That's real fine, ain't it, Dallas? Real fine. Oh, yes, girl, it's fine. A baby. How... I mean... I'll explain it to you sometime, Buck. Listen boys, duck boom. Three cheers for duck boom. Never mind the three chairs, just pour me four fingers instead. I'm thirsty.

It's me, Ringo. You wanted to be outside here at night alone. That's his like to pick off strays. Well, you're here now. I watched you with that baby today.

You looked... You looked well, nice. I just wanted to hold it a minute. You're visiting in Lordsburg? Oh, I have friends there. Oh, good. Ringo, why don't you sleep? I aim to, in Lordsburg. Why not now?

Why not go over the border now? My father and brother were shot down by the plumber boys. I guess you don't know how it feels to lose your folks that way. My folks were killed by Indians when I was a kid.

Oh, that's tough. It's a hard country. Especially for a girl. You have to live no matter what. That's it. Look, Miss Dallas, you've got no folks, neither have I. Maybe I'm crazy to ask you, but...

Well, I still got a ranch down across the border and I... Well, I guess I'm crazy being close to you like this, but... No. Ringo, you don't know me. You don't know who I am or...

I know I want to marry your Dallas. I didn't even answer Dallas. Ringo, you can't go to Lautzberg. Not now. The plumber boys will be three to one against you. You'll get killed. Can't tell. You can't win. Can't run away from it either.

How can you talk about our life together when you want to throw your life away? Well, what do you want me to do? Get away. I'll follow you. You mean that, Dallas? Well, I just can't leave Mrs. Mallory and her baby now, but...

But listen. There's a horse all saddled and ready for you in the corral. What? Yeah, and there's a rifle in the saddle boot. Now get going. I'll come after you. I'm counting on that, Dallas, with my life.

Goodbye, Ringo. Watch out for a patchy's. I got a rifle now, and I got you. Don't worry, Dallas. I'll be waiting. Oh, hold it. Easy! Smoke signals on the ridge. Apaches. I gotta warn Dallas and the others. I gotta go back.

Yeah! Yeah! The ridge and on the miss are smoked at your aquafires. Rise the fires told my nation. Strike the white man's flying wagon. Rise my kinsmen, rise up at you, Chiefton's horsemen, lance's rivals!

Stage coach on the Lord's Bug Trail. What's the signals on the mace? What's the writing in the sky? That's my fierce Apache horsemen, following the Lord's Bug Trail. Ah, well, making good time. I say we're out of danger now, thanks to Ringo here.

There are decent of you to come back, Ringo. I wouldn't be too sure we're out of danger yet, Adfield. We'll be in Lordsburg soon then. Very soon. How's the baby? Sleeping. Doc told me what you did for me.

Thank you very much, Dallas. You know, danger of what's my appetite, indeed it does. Let me see. There must be a bottle of something left in this bag. Look. A bullet. It just missed your head, Doc.

On the floor, Ms. Mallory. Dallas, you and Ms. Mallory, get out! A patchy's hundreds of them. Hey! Here he goes! Curly's calling you from the driver's seat ringo. And you've been chesty using me and using it!

Thanks! Got my rifle. Wait! See that engine on that Mustang coming alongside? Don't talk! Shoot! Allow your scene. And now you're gone. You ladies all right? You're all right. Now you're seen. And now you're gone.

Lady all right? Yes, baby. This is what you want. You channel will be good enough to shoot Indians instead of... I feel the hit. Get that Apache. I'll help Hatfield. I'll help Hatfield. Got it!

Well, Mrs. Ma'ari, you get hurt easy, Hatfield. I can use the warm-up, I'm here. Give me your pistol, Doc. Take it. Pat, hello, Jim Jones. Patches all have big families. Don't talk, shoot. I can't.

How damn the enaition? Why have Buck and Curly stopped firing outside? Buck's hit. Curly's empty, too. This looks like it. No, no. I have only three bullets left. That's enough. and you won't get you or Mrs. Mallory or the baby.

No. No, they won't. Listen, Flordsberg! How's that feel? Gentlemen. Well, good night, Ringo.

This is where you live in Lordsberg. I told you. I warned you. I told you you didn't know me. This part of town is no place for a nice girl, but it's all right for me.

I say goodbye, Ringle. Say goodbye. I asked you to marry me, didn't I? I'll never forget you asked me. Go on back and wait for me in a stagecoach. Where are you going? Business. Well, the plumber boys, I'll just take a slow walk down Main Street and see what happened.

Dear Lord, this stagecoach don't pass much for church, but I'm praying till you hear. Please, Lord. It's three to one against Ringo out there, and the plumber boys are dead shots. Ah! Awful dead shots, Lord.

Ah! Like I was saying, Lord, it's two to one, Lord. He's all I got, and all I ever want. So please, dear Lord, please let me have him back. Please, please, please, please. Who's that out there?

Yeah. You heard. No. You did good. Let's get out of here then. Escape. Don't have to anymore. Before he cashed in Luke Plummer confessed he killed Jed Michael. Yeah. You're free? Yeah. And they didn't even hurt you. Dead shots like the plumber boys.

Deadest dead judge ever saw. Oh, Ringo! Tell us, what are you crying for? Nothing's happened. Thus the story of those brave men, Riders of the Flying Wagon, In the land of Arizona, where Geronimo was chief, In the great land in the desert, where the Flying Wagon galloped, That the white men called the Stagecoach,

bringing brave men to the west. Our stars will return in just a moment. The NBC Theater has presented the Screen Directors Guild production of Stagecoach, starring John Wayne,

Claire Trevor, and Ward Bond, and introduced by John Ford. In the weeks to come, the Screen Directors Guild will bring you Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Robert Montgomery, Rosalind Russell, James Mason, and Irene Dunn. And next week, the NBC Theater presents Screen Director Richard Wallace, introducing the current film comedy, Let's Live a Little, starring Robert Cummings.

And now, here again is our special guest, the president of the Screen Director's Guild, Mr. George Marshall. The premier production of the Screen Director's entry into radio has now joined the stagecoach itself in that great fund of memories known as the past.

And speaking for the guild, I'd like to express our gratitude to the National Broadcasting Company for the opportunity to better acquaint the public with the work and role of the screen director. Take it away, John Ford.

Well, how do you hardy frontiersman like pioneering in an MBC studio instead of the badlands of Arizona? Very much. You know, just the memory of that dust is enough to send me running home to wash my hair.

I mean, this is wonderful. Lane, wonderful. What do you mean? No getting up early in the morning and arguing with a horse. You know, I think it's wonderful that the screen director is being honored like this.

He's the fellow who really makes the movie. As for us actors and actresses. Where we be without you, Papi and others like you. That's right. You tell us our business. That's all I can say.

Thanks. They're talking about wonderful things. It's a wonder that Papi here hasn't yet displayed his fine, tyrannical hand. How do you do? That's so warm. John, look. as long as we're speaking about fine, tyrannical hands.

Look, are we going to do this again because if so, I'd like to take you full of hope. Yeah, I thought so. You'd have something to say about it. We had that same trouble 10 years ago.

Hey, can you go on and read? Now, look, John, don't you remember? This is radio. There are no retakes. Good night, everybody. Our thanks to our stars, John Wayne, Claire Trevor, and Boardbom, and the screen director, George Marshall, and John Ford. Also heard were Barbara Fuller, Peter Leeds, Horace Murphy, Norman Field, Dan

Riss, Ken Carson, and Eddie Fields. Tonight's story was adapted by Milton Geiger, and original music was composed and conducted by Henry Russell. Production was under the supervision of Howard Wiley, your announcer, Frank Bartley. John Wayne can soon be seen in John Ford's Argusic production Three Godfathers, and Claire Trevor appears in the soon-to-be-released

the amusement enterprise's picture, The Lucky Stiff. Ward Bond is currently appearing in the Victor Fleming production, Joan of R. Listen again next week when the NBC Theater presents... Screen director's deal of assignment, Production lets live a little, director, Victor Wallace, Star Robert Cummings.

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