#647) 3:10 to Yuma (1957)

#647) 3:10 to Yuma (1957)

OR “Van Transit Ford”

Directed by Delmer Daves

Written by Halsted Welles. Based on the short story “Three-Ten to Yuma” by Elmore Leonard.

Class of 2012

The Plot: Dan Evans (Van Heflin) is a rancher in the Arizona Territory whose finances have taken a turn due to an ongoing drought. One day Evans witnesses a stagecoach robbery by a gang of bandits led by the infamous Ben Wade (Glenn Ford). When Wade and his gang arrive in the nearby town of Bisbee, Wade is arrested, and the stagecoach’s owner Mr. Butterfield (Robert Emhardt) offers $200 to anyone who volunteers to escort Wade to Contention City and make him board the 3:10 to Yuma, home of the territory’s main prison. Typically averse to confrontation or risk-taking, Evans volunteers because the money would get him out of debt. As the pair get closer to the train’s departure, Wade and Evans play a psychological cat-and-mouse game more dangerous than any shots fired along the way.

Why It Matters: The NFR calls the film “one of the best westerns of the 1950s”, praising its “progressive insight”, as well as the “innovative” work of Delmer Daves.

But Does It Really?: We have a rarity on this list: a Western I actually liked. “3:10 to Yuma” has a lot going for it; a solid storyline that cuts down on the genre’s mythologizing and focuses more on character, two great lead performances (especially Glenn Ford), wonderful cinematography, and if nothing else a runtime of only 92 minutes. “3:10” is not the first movie people think of when they think great westerns, but in many ways the film’s underratedness proved to be an asset in my viewing: no major plot points were spoiled for me beforehand, so I was able to experience the film’s tension effectively. I’ll put “3:10 to Yuma” in the “minor classic” category: Not the most important western ever made, but still entertaining enough (and referenced enough thanks to its remake) for me not to question its NFR standing.

Everybody Gets One: Delmer Daves started out in the film industry as a prop boy for 1923’s “The Covered Wagon”. By the 1930s Daves was a screenwriter, most notably co-writing the original 1939 “Love Affair”. His directorial debut was 1943’s “Destination Tokyo”, but he quickly found his niche helming Westerns that subverted the genre’s tropes (1950’s “Broken Arrow” featured one of the first Indigenous protagonists). Daves liked using the same roster of actors in his movies, and “3:10” includes Daves regulars Glenn Ford and Felicia Farr.

Title Track: In the aftermath of “High Noon“, “3:10” is another Western on this list with a title number. Composed by George Duning and Ned Washington, “The 3:10 to Yuma” is sung by Frankie Laine in what I consider his second-best title song performance. Shoutout to Washington for rhyming “Yuma” with “rumor”. [Chef’s kiss]

Seriously, Oscars?: No Oscar love for “3:10 to Yuma”, but the film received a handful of precursor nods, including a BAFTA nomination for Best Film from any Source, losing to “The Bridge on the River Kwai“.

Other notes

I definitely got the sense that “3:10 to Yuma” was based on a short story, but the film’s padding didn’t bother me as much as it has with similar NFR films. The original Elmore Leonard story constitutes the second half of this film, with the first half being an appropriate amount of setup and expansion of everyone’s motives.
We’ve covered three other Glenn Ford movies on this list, and this is the first performance of his that impressed me. Ford was originally offered the role of Dan (more in line with previous Ford roles), but he requested to play against type as Ben instead. I gotta say, maybe this should have been Ford’s type to begin with. Ben Wade has a Hannibal Lecter thing going: as a prisoner, he should have the lowest status of any character, but he manages to keep control with his low-key charm and his ability to exploit people’s psychological weaknesses. Ford is clearly having a field day playing the heavy, inviting you to sympathize with a character that would be villainized in any other Western.

If I’m going to go on and on about how great Glenn Ford is in this, I gotta give Van Heflin his due. Heflin’s only other NFR appearance is as a co-lead in “Shane“, so it’s nice seeing him take center stage here, with his restrained, conflicted performance meshing well with Ford’s showier part. Also is it just me or does Van Heflin kinda sound like Buster Keaton in his later years? There’s a gravely quality to both their voices that I associate with the vice-filled lifestyles of your Classic Hollywood stars.
I have no idea why the character of Emmy the saloon girl is here other than to pad the story and be “the girl” in the picture. Don’t get me wrong, Felicia Farr’s not bad, and she conveys a lot of character with her subtle glances, but Emmy doesn’t really add much and we never see her again once the plot kicks in. Farr also must have had a great agent, getting equal billing with Heflin and Ford despite having maybe 10 minutes of screentime. Fun Fact: Felicia Farr was married to Jack Lemmon!

I do love how much time Ben focuses on the color of Emmy’s eyes. It’s a black and white movie: Who cares? Also, how does Emmy fall for Ben’s creepy come-ons? Maybe I don’t understand how flirting work.
Robert Emhardt is giving me a sort of Sydney Greenstreet/Burl Ives-without-a-goatee vibe.
I love that the amount Mr. Butterfield offers Evans is the exact amount he needs to get out of debt. It’s like that Talent Show trope where the grand prize is the exact amount the gang needs to save the rec center. Wow, I don’t know what surprises me more: The fact that I just made a “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo” reference on this blog, or that it took me six years to do so.
Shoutout to Charles Lawton Jr., longtime Columbia cinematographer who shoots the hell out of the Arizona landscape and injects a surprising amount of noir-esque shadows into this western. We’ll see more of Lawton’s impressive cinematography when I finally get around to covering “The Lady from Shanghai”.
Henry Jones gives as much heft as he can to Alex Potter, the movie’s resident redemptive drunk. And every time the kids call him Mr. Potter I flash on Lionel Barrymore.
Man, Evans’ kids are annoying as hell. The younger one in particular is like a western Dennis the Menace. I laughed pretty hard at the mom’s added prayer to “give us the wisdom that comes with silence.”
The scenes in the Contention City hotel room (aka where the original short story begins) are understandably the best. Van and Glenn play their respective sides of the scenes with such impressive subtlety that I genuinely didn’t know how the scene would play out. Proof that a scene with just two people talking can be as thrilling as any action scene.

I’m confused by Alex’s line “I’m a family man in a way.” Is that a euphemism for something?
That’s an interesting ending. Not bad, but it just kind of happens. The climactic moment might be too obscured by the surrounding elements, but I do love the final shots as the end theme swells.

Legacy

“3:10 to Yuma” was released in August 1957, and was a hit with critics and audiences. Even Elmore Leonard considered it one of the better film adaptations of his work. You know who didn’t like this movie? Howard Hawks. Between this and “High Noon”, Hawks hated how philosophical and metaphorical Westerns were becoming, which inspired him to make his own Western in response, fellow NFR entry “Rio Bravo”.

Delmer Daves continued making westerns throughout the ’50s (most notably “The Hanging Tree”), but his weakening heart condition led him to withdraw from the on-location hazards of westerns for a safer in-studio climate. Daves’ later films include “Spencer’s Mountain” and “A Summer Place”, the latter of which has a theme song that I now have stuck in my head for the rest of the day.

This is one of those movies that tends to be referenced in pop culture mainly for its title. Someone will refer to a train (or any other important mode of transportation) as “the 3:10 to Yuma”, but that’s about it.
Did you know that Elmore Leonard wrote the books and short stories that would become the films “Get Shorty”, “Jackie Brown”, and the TV series “Justified”? If I knew any of that, I defintely forgot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9Bd4ShuEAw

After a bit of development turnaround, a remake of “3:10 to Yuma” hit theaters in fall 2007. Directed by James Mangold and starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, this “3:10” is on the list of rare remakes of classics that are as good as the original. When I told people I was covering “3:10” for the blog, a lot of them assumed it was the remake.

Perhaps the film’s most enduring legacy happened in another country. “3:10 to Yuma” was one of the last films released in pre-revolution Cuba and citizens used the film’s title as slang for Americans: “yumas” (a variation on “La Yunay”, their term for the United States). After the revolution, American pop culture was banned, but a wave of nostalgia for these old movies hit Cuba in the late 1970s, and some US titles started to make the rounds again. “3:10” returned to Cuban culture, as did the term “yumas”.

Bonus Clip: The theme from “A Summer Place”, so that we can all suffer this earworm together.