Vintage John Wayne in John Ford's supreme triumph - perhaps even the greatest Western of all time. Wayne, then languishing on the tiny backlots of Poverty Row studios, became a major star as an escaped prisoner who joins a stagecoach packed with an odd assortment of individuals for a journey through Apache territory that none of them will ever forget. Ford had not directed a western for 13 years, and the public were startled by its use, for the first time ever, of the remote Monument Valley. It was the first 'adult' Western to portray in-depth characters with allegorical themes running just beneath the surface plot of their life and death struggles. Most Westerns that followed owed it an undying vote of thanks and its influence could be seen for years. Ford had a tough job persuading any major studio to cast Wayne, and Claire Trevor received top billing. But the film's $392,000 budget looked money well spent when Stagecoach earned more than $1million on its first release.

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