Yeee hah!

Last night was our western themed Old Movie Night. We felt it was time to pull out a good ol' John Wayne movie. We encouraged people to dress up in their fanciest western garb, but only like two people actually did it. Suckers!

Anyway, after much deliberation (there are about 2 million John Wayne movies) we decided on Stagecoach. I'd not seen it, but people always talk about, so I thought it may be a good one to try.

This is the oldest movie we've watched so far. Up to this point, we've mostly picked films from the 50's and 60's. This one is 1939. Now that's an old movie. At least to people who don't watch old movies.

Quick summary: There are some people in a town and they need to get to another town so they have to take a stagecoach. They hear there are some Apache Indians that may cause trouble for them but they go anyway. They're a special bunch of characters: A Mr. Peacock (for some reason no one can remember his name in the movie. I remembered it.) who sells whiskey or something, an alcoholic doctor who takes kindly to Mr. Peacock (for obvious reasons), a skank who's being run out of town by some stuffy old broads, some old man who stole money and left his wife, a very proper, pregnant lady (though you're not really sure she's pregnant until she actually gives birth) and some other very skinny guy with a long face. Along the way, they pick up John Wayne who escaped from jail and is on the run.

They travel around, trying not to die and finally they get attacked by Indians and John Wayne kills them all of course. Also, the United States Cavalry come to back him up. Then he falls in love with the skanky lady and he doesn't seem to know what her profession is (prostitute I presume) even though everyone else in the movie seems to know just by looking at her. This was a topic of great discussion as she is treated like scum by everyone in the movie; but how did they know she was a floozy? I say despite her floor length dress showing absolutely no obscenities at all, it is her overall appearance that gave her away. She had her hair all done up real flashy and her dress was all plaid and rather fancy for a stagecoach trip. We imagined, had the movie been in color, that the dress would have been yellow, red and blue. Now if that isn't an 1800's prostitute, I don't know what is.

By the end, John Wayne has a shoot out with some guy in a town and wins (of course) and he and his prostitute ride off into the sunset. Actually, they ride off to Mexico so that he won't go to jail.

This movie didn't go over as well as some of the others we've watched, but I think people enjoyed it. The drunk doctor provided some comic relief and, as this was a John Ford picture, there were some beautifully laid out shots that one can't help but admire.

Seeing as Stagecoach was only 97 minutes long, it was still light out by the time it was over and we were not ready to be done watching movies. Much to the boys' dismay and keeping with our western theme, we pulled out 7 Brides for 7 Brothers. I'd not seen this movie, but of course I've heard of it and I'm sure I should have seen it long ago. So we made the boys watch it. At first I believe they were a bit disturbed, but they quickly figured out that the characters may break out into song at any moment, so it stopped being so strange after awhile. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. I wouldn't say it's one of the best musicals ever, but some of the dancing was simply amazing. It was highly entertaining and a great conclusion to our western Old Movie Night.