THREE GODFATHER'S

£4.00 in Morrison's as part of their Father's Day display was this John Ford classic - one of the few John Wayne movies I didn't have on DVD. I don't need to tell you it flew off the shelf and into my hands as soon as I saw it - man, I love the Duke.

The film is actually a remake of Ford's 1919 silent movie, Marked Men (today no prints of this film are believed to exist) which in itself was an adaption of the novel written by Peter Kane. Basically it's the Biblical story of the three wise men in a western setting. And whilst it may not be up there with Ford's best it is an enjoyable western.

The film opens with the dedication To Harry Carey, bright star of the early western skies (Harry Carey actually starred in the original silent version) and this film features the debut of the actor's son, Harry Carey Junior who would go on to become a regular fixture in Ford movies. Other Ford regulars are Ward Bond and Hank Worden. The film is also notable for Pedro Armedariz who would later play Kerim Bay alongside Sean Connery in From Russia with Love.

Because of the plot - three outlaws on the lam, a posse in pursuit, come across a dying woman and make a promise to care for her newborn son, this is something of an off-beat western. There are some particularly effective scenes - one where the three man trudge through a sand storm , the sands looking like the waves of a sea in the grip of a perfect storm, is particularly thrilling. Indeed many hardships are suffered and only Wayne and the baby make it to town, the outlaw broken but not beaten as he stumbles, child in arms, into New Jerusalem on Christmas Day.