Silver Screen Icons: John Ford Westerns

3 Godfathers (1948)

One of the best-loved John Ford/John Wayne Westerns was this "three outlaws and a baby" drama. On the run after robbing a bank, a trio of fugitives (Wayne, Pedro Armendáriz, and Harry Carey, Jr.) encounters a dying woman who has just given birth. They make a promise to care for her newborn child and begin a harrowing trek across the desert with their charge. Ward Bond, Mildred Natwick also star. 106 min. C/Rtg: NR

She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949)

This memorable look at duty, devotion, and honor comes from director John Ford, and stars John Wayne as a middle-aged Cavalry captain who, on the eve of retirement, strives to forestall war between Indians and the army. His patrol is complicated by the presence of his commanding officer's wife and her niece--the "she" of the title bearing the wardrobe adornment that signifies a loved one fighting in Wayne's company. With Joanne Dru, Ben Johnson, and John Agar. 103 min. C/Rtg: NR

Wagon Master (1950)

Travis Blue (Ben Johnson) and Sandy Owens (Harry Carey, Jr.) are two horse traders who take a job leading a Mormon wagon train heading west. The travelers are soon joined on the trail by a medicine show troupe, but danger strikes when the outlaw Clegg family decides the caravan would serve as the perfect cover as they try to outrun a posse. Can Travis and Sandy save the day? Joanne Dru, Ward Bond co-star; directed by John Ford. 90 min. BW/Rtg: NR

Cheyenne Autumn (1964)

The final Western from director John Ford, this powerful, sweeping drama follows a group of Cheyenne Indians in 1880s Oklahoma as they, against a government order, leave their squalid reservation to return to their ancestral lands in Wyoming, a perilous 1,500-mile odyssey that puts the ragtag band at odds with the cavalry. Richard Widmark, Carroll Baker, Karl Malden, Ricardo Montalban, Edward G. Robinson, Gilbert Roland, and James Stewart star. 156 min. C/Rtg: NR

Standard/Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English, French, Spanish.