On this day in movie history – Stagecoach (1939 movie & novel):

Stagecoach

directed by John Ford,

written by Dudley Nichols and Ben Hecht,

based on the short story Stage to Lordsburg by Ernest Haycox,

was released in the United States on February 2, 1939.
Music by Gerard Carbonara.

Cast:

Claire Trevor, John Wayne, Andy Devine, John Carradine, Thomas Mitchell, Louise Platt, George Bancroft, Donald Meek, Berton Churchill, Tim Holt, Tom Tyler, Dorothy Appleby, Frank Baker, Chief John Big Tree, Ted Billings, Wiggie Blowne, Danny Borzage, Ed Brady, Fritzi Brunette, Yakima Canutt, Nora Cecil, Steve Clemente, Bill Cody, Jack Curtis, Marga Ann Deighton, Patricia Doyle, Tex Driscoll, Johnny Eckert, Franklyn Farnum, Francis Ford, Brenda Fowler, Olin Francis, Helen Gibson, Don Hawks, Robert Homans, William Hopper, George Huggins, Si Jenks, Cornelius Keefe, Florence Lake, Al Lee, Duke R. Lee, Theodore Lorch, Chris-Pin Martin, Jim Mason, Louis Mason, Merrill McCormick, J.P. McGowan, Walter McGrail, Paul McVey, Jack Mohr, Kent Odell, Artie Ortego, Vester Pegg, Jack Pennick, Chris Phillips, Joe Rickson, Buddy Roosevelt, Elvira Ríos, Mickey Simpson, Margaret Smith, Chuck Stubbs, Harry Tenbrook, Leonard Trainor, Dorothy Vernon, Mary Kathleen Walker, Blackjack Ward, Bryant Washburn, Whitehorse, Hank Worden.

Recommended reading:

Stage to Lordsburg

By Ernest Haycox.

Filmed as Stagecoach (1939), directed by John Ford.

Short story.

First published 1937.

Published by Fantasy and Horror Classics.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 1447404130

ISBN-13: 978-1447404132

Description:

Ernest Haycox's 1937 short story, Stage to Lordsburg, was a bestseller and a classic of the Western genre. Popularized by the 1939 film adaptation Stagecoach, this Wild West tale vividly portrays Haycox's setting and characters.

Stage to Lordsburg follows a collection of characters as they journey from Tonto, Arizona Territory, to Lordsburg, New Mexico. A series of dangers and perils face the colorful group as they embark on the uncomfortable trip. Ernest Haycox presents a number of cliché Western characters and the point of view shifts between them as the short story progresses. This masterful tale by Ernest Haycox, a prolific writer of Western fiction, is not to be missed by fans of old cowboy narratives.