Three Faces West
| Three Faces West | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover |
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| Directed by | Bernard Vorhaus |
| Produced by | Sol C. Siegel |
| Written by | F. Hugh Herbert Joseph Moncure March Samuel Ornitz |
| Starring | John Wayne Sigrid Gurie Charles Coburn |
| Music by | Victor Young |
| Cinematography | John Alton |
| Editing by | William Morgan |
| Distributed by | Republic Pictures |
| Release date(s) | July 3, 1940 |
| Running time | 79 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $100,000 (estimated) |
Three Faces West is a 1940 starring John Wayne, Sigrid Gurie and Charles Coburn. An unusual film, with a political agenda that seems to be part pro New Deal, it is part anti-fascist and part pro good old American community values. It sometimes comes across a more conservative answer to The Grapes of Wrath.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Two refugees, a medical doctor and his 20-something-year-old daughter arrive in the USA from Nazi-annexed Austria end up in becoming the much-needed physician and nurse in a small North Dakota farm town. The local town located in the area known as the Dust Bowl and is being hard hit by the drought and dust storms. The local farmers and townspeople want to try to save their farms and the town by adopting newer farming methods, but are eventually convinced by the Department of Agriculture, and the continuing dust storms to pack up the whole town and move en masse to an undeveloped portion of Oregon, where a new dam will create a water supply for them to build a new farming community.
In a modern-day version of an old wagon train, the town moves to Oregon under John Phillip's leadership, not without differences of opinion and friction among the followers. The doctor and his daughter take a detour to San Francisco when they learn that the daughter's fiance was not killed by the Nazis in Austria, but has escaped and come to America. It turns out that the fiance has embraced fascism, which sends the doctor and his daughter back to rejoin the transplanted town in Oregon, where the daughter marries Phillips.
[edit] Cast
- John Wayne as John Phillips
- Sigrid Gurie as Leni 'Lenchen' Braun
- Charles Coburn as Dr. Karl Braun
- Spencer Charters as Dr. 'Nunk' Atterbury
- Helen MacKellar as Mrs. Welles
- Roland Varno as Dr. Eric Von Scherer
- Sonny Bupp as Billy Welles
- Wade Boteler as Mr. Harris, Department of Agriculture Official
- Trevor Bardette as Clem Higgins
- Russell Simpson as Minister
- Charles Waldron as Dr. William Thorpe
- Wendell Niles as Man-on-the-Street Radio Announcer
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Three Faces West at the TCM Movie Database
- Three Faces West at the Internet Movie Database
- Three Faces West at AllRovi
- Three Faces West article at Movie Morlocks (a Turner Classic Movies web site)
