Three Godfathers

John Ford's Three Godfathers (1948), a remake of his own silent Western Marked Men (itself a remake), is a delightful little gem. A loose Western restaging of the Nativity and birth of Christ, it avoids the expected (or feared) "three men and a baby" cliches and comic pitfalls, and remains a poignant, emotional and mostly serious film. The religious symbolism is a bit heavy-handed, particularly towards the end, but it's in-keeping with the nature of the material. A combination of Western parable and sweet-natured pseudo-comedy, it's a fine piece of entertainment.

A trio of good-hearted outlaws - Bob (John Wayne), Pedro (Pedro Armendariz) and William (Harry Carey Jr.) - rob a bank in the small Arizona town of Welcome. Pursued by local Sheriff Sweet (Ward Bond), they ride into the desert, where they find themselves worn down by the elements, losing their horses in sand storm, and are outfoxed by the Sheriff at every turn. At a ruined waterhole, they find a dying woman (Mildred Natwick) in a wagon, who gives birth to a baby boy. The three outlaws promise the dying woman to take care of her baby, and they do so, trying to deliver him to New Jerusalem even as the posse bears down on them.

Three Godfathers shouldn't be more than light fluff, but under Ford's steady direction, it becomes something almost grand. The film's characters are all basically good people, even our trio of outlaws, all of whom redeem themselves for their sins as they care for the infant. The film's sentimentality is mostly low-key and quietly amusing, a pleasant surprise from Ford, who even in his best works has a tendency for broad, bawdy slapstick humor. Fortunately, we don't get any broad comedy of rough cowpokes raising an infant. The closest we get is a lengthy scene where the outlaws argue over whether or not to bathe the baby, leading to an amusing sequence where he's smeared in axel grease. These scenes come off as tender, quietly funny and touching rather than broadly humorous, and the film is all the better for it.

As expected, the film makes heavy use of religious (particularly Catholic, of course) imagery to tell the story; much of this creativly handled, if heavy-handed, until the climax, where things are saved by the advent of a miracle. Still, given how charming and entertaining the film is, it's a forgivable flaw. After all, this is the Ford of My Darling Clementine and The Quiet Man, who believed that the world was essentially a good place, and that progress was inevitable, not the angry Ford of The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and Cheyenne Autumn. Three Godfathers doesn't have the resonance of those films, but as a charming, optimistic bit of light entertainment it's hard to fault.

Disregarding the slight, religiously-tinged story, Ford's direction is inspired; this is one of his most visually-interesting films. He leaves his familiar Monument Valley for Death Valley, a much more hostile and alien environment, filming rolling mountains, forbidding, cacti-strewn sandscapes, and scorching alkali salt flats to emphasize the redemptive plight of our protagonists. The movie has some clear influences on other Westerns, with lengthy desert scenes not out of place in Lawrence of Arabia or The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The contrast between the harsh (but beautifully filmed) landscapes, the warm, friendly towns of Welcome and New Jerusalem, and the film's sentimental feel is pulled off marvelously. Even if the material is slight, this is clearly the work of a director at the top of his creative game.

John Wayne does a fine job, making Bob a righteous, good-hearted man in tough spot, determined to do the right thing but also wanting to save his neck. He softens his uber-masculine persona with little difficulty and has fun with the contrast. Pedro Armendariz (From Russia With Love) gives an excellent, conflicted performance as Pedro, the most overtly moral character in the film. Harry Carey Jr. (Tombstone), never much of an actor in my opinion, is surprisingly decent but little more. The supporting cast is filled with other members of the Ford stock company, including Ward Bond, Ben Johnson, Jack Pennick and Hank Worden.

Three Godfathers is no masterpiece, but it's a pleasant little gem and well worth checking out for fans of Westerns, John Ford and the Duke. If nothing else, it's a decidedly unique Christmas film.