Tuesday, April 7, 2015

THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE by CHERYL PIERSON (SATURDAY MATINEE)


Favorite western movies? I’ve got a few. But if I had to choose, I think it would have to be The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

This Hollywood classic, starring John Wayne as Tom Doniphon, Lee Marvin as Liberty Valance, Vera Miles as Hallie Ericson, and Jimmy Stewart as Ransom “Ranse” Stoddard has just about everything a western cinema fan could hope for: action, romance, right-over-might…and an unforgettable theme song.

Dorothy M. Johnson’s short story was made into a movie in 1962. It’s one of my oldest “movie” memories, as I was five years old when it made the rounds to the movie theaters and drive-ins.

Here’s the description of the movie according to Wickipedia:b>

Elderly U.S. Senator Ransom "Ranse" Stoddard and his wife Hallie arrive by train in the small western town of Shinbone, to attend the funeral of an apparent nobody, a local rancher named Tom Doniphon. Prior to the funeral, Hallie goes off with a friend to visit a burned-down house with obvious significance to her. As they pay their respects to the dead man at the undertaker's establishment, the senator is interrupted with a request for a newspaper interview. Stoddard grants the request.

As the interview with the local reporter begins, the film flashes back several decades as Stoddard reflects on his first arrival at Shinbone by stagecoach to establish a law practice.

A gang of outlaws, led by gunfighter Liberty Valance, hold up the stagecoach. Stoddard is brutally beaten, left for dead and later rescued by Doniphon. Stoddard is nursed back to health by restaurant owner Peter Ericson (John Qualen), his wife Nora (Jeanette Nolan) and daughter Hallie. It later emerges that Hallie is Doniphon's love interest.

Shinbone's townsfolk are regularly menaced by Valance and his gang. Cowardly local marshal Link Appleyard (Andy Devine) is ill prepared and unwilling to enforce the law. Doniphon is the only local courageous enough to challenge Valance's lawless behavior.


"You, Liberty...I said YOU pick it up..."

On one occasion, Doniphon even intervenes on Stoddard's behalf, when Valance publicly humiliates the inept Easterner. Valance trips Stoddard who is waiting tables at Peter's restaurant. Stoddard spills Doniphon's order causing Doniphon to intervene. Valance stands down and leaves. Doniphon tells Stoddard he needs to either leave the territory or buy a gun. Stoddard says he will do neither.

Stoddard is an advocate for justice under the law, not man. He earns the respect and affection of Hallie when he offers to teach her to read after he discovers, to her embarrassment, she's had no formal education. Stoddard's influence on Hallie and the town is further evidenced when he begins a school for the townspeople with Hallie's help. But, secretly, Stoddard borrows a gun and practices shooting.

Doniphon shows Stoddard his plans for expanding his house in anticipation of marrying Hallie, and reminds him that Hallie is his girl. Doniphon gives Stoddard a shooting lesson but humiliates him by shooting a can of paint which spills on Stoddard's suit. Doniphon warns that Valance will be just as devious, but Stoddard hits him in the jaw and leaves.

In Shinbone, the local newspaper editor-publisher Dutton Peabody (Edmond O'Brien) writes a story about local ranch owners' opposition to the territory's potential statehood. Valance convinces the ranchers that if they will hire him, he can get elected as a delegate to represent the cattlemen's interest. Shinbone's residents meet to elect two delegates to send to the statehood convention at the territorial capital. Valance attempts to bully the townspeople into electing him as a delegate. Eventually, Stoddard and Peabody are chosen. Valance assaults and badly beats Peabody after Peabody publishes two unflattering articles about Valance and his gang. The villains destroy Peabody's office. Valance also calls Stoddard out for a duel later in the evening after Valance loses his bid for delegate. Valance leaves saying "Don't make us come and get you!" Doniphon tells Stoddard he should leave town and even offers to have his farmhand, Pompey, escort him. But when Stoddard sees that Peabody has been nearly beaten to death, he calls out Valance. Stoddard then retrieves a carefully wrapped gun from under his bed and heads toward the saloon where Valance is. Valance hears he has been called out and justifies going out in self-defense. His wins his last poker hand before the duel with Aces and Eights.


"Pompey..."

In the showdown, Valance toys with Stoddard by firing a bullet near his head and then wounding him in the arm, which causes Stoddard to drop his gun. Valance allows Stoddard to bend down and retrieve the gun. Valance then aims to kill Stoddard promising to put the next bullet "right between the eyes," when Stoddard fires and miraculously kills Valance with one shot to the surprise of everyone, including himself. Hallie responds with tearful affection. Doniphon congratulates Stoddard on his success, and notices how Hallie lovingly cares for Stoddard's wounds.

Sensing that he has lost Hallie's affections, Doniphon gets drunk in the saloon and drives out Valance's gang, who have been calling for Stoddard to be lynched for Valance's "murder." The barman tries to tell Doniphon's farmhand Pompey (Woody Strode) that he cannot be served (due to his race), to which Doniphon angrily shouts: "Who says he can't? Pour yourself a drink, Pompey." Pompey instead drags Doniphon home, where the latter sets fire to an uncompleted bedroom he was adding to his house in anticipation of marrying Hallie. The resulting fire destroys the entire house.

Stoddard is hailed as "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" and based on this achievement, is nominated as the local representative to the statehood convention. Stoddard is reluctant to serve based upon his notoriety for killing a man in a gunfight. At this point, in a flashback within the original flashback, Doniphon tells Stoddard that it was he (Doniphon), hidden across the street, who shot and killed Valance in cold blood, and not Stoddard in self-defense. Stoddard finds Doniphon and asks him why he shot Valance. He did it for Hallie, he says, because he understood that "she's your girl now". Doniphon encourages Stoddard to accept the nomination: "You taught her to read and write, now give her something to read and write about!"

Stoddard returns to the convention and is chosen as representative. He marries Hallie and eventually becomes the governor of the new state. He then becomes a two term U.S. senator, then the American ambassador to Great Britain, a U.S. senator again, and at the time of Doniphon's funeral is the favorite for his party's nomination as vice president.

The film returns to the present day and the interview ends. The newspaper man, understanding now the truth about the killing of Valance, burns his notes stating: "This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

"Hallie, who put the cactus rose on Tom's coffin?"

Stoddard and Hallie board the train for Washington, melancholy about the lie that led to their prosperous life. With the area becoming more and more civilized, Stoddard decides, to Hallie's delight, to retire from politics and return to the territory to set up a law practice. When Stoddard thanks the train conductor for the train ride and the many courtesies extended to him by the railroad, the conductor says, "Nothing's too good for the man who shot Liberty Valance!" Upon hearing the comment, Stoddard and his wife stare off thoughtfully into the distance.


As a side note, one of the many reasons this film holds a special place in my heart is because I remember it as being the first time I made the connection between a scene onscreen representing a flashback. Remember the “flashback within a flashback” that the Wikipedia article mentions? The smoke from John Wayne’s cigarette moves and flows to take over the screen as he tells Jimmy Stewart, “You didn’t kill Liberty Valance. Think back…” That smoke took us back to the truth of what had happened, and my five-year-old brain was shocked—and enamored, even then, with the idea that time passage, or remembrances could be shown through the haze of cigarette smoke. It was the moment of truth for Ransom Stoddard.

For me, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance embodies the core of the west—good and evil, and how sometimes “the point of a gun was the only law”—and it all depended on the man who held the weapon.

Liberty represented the purest evil. Ranse was determined to fight him with the law he treasured—the desire to do things the legal way blinding him to the fact that Liberty didn’t respect that. In the beginning, his naivete is almost painful to watch, providing Liberty some rich entertainment. Though Tom finds it amusing, his growing respect for Ranse’s perseverance is portrayed to perfection by that familiar downward glance of John Wayne’s. Accompanied by the half-smile and his slow advice-giving drawl, the character of Tom Doniphon is drawn so that by the point at which he sees the handwriting on the wall and burns down the house he built for Hallie, the viewer’s sympathy shifts, briefly, to the circumstances Tom finds himself in.

But Ranse is determined to vanquish Valance one way or the other—with a lawbook or a gun—whatever it takes. In the final showdown, the lines of resignation are etched in Tom Doniphon’s face, and we know he is honor-bound to do the thing he’ll regret forever: save Ranse Stoddard’s life and lose Hallie to him.

I love the twist. Ranse truly believes he’s killed Valance. Again, to do the honorable thing, Tom tells him the truth about what really happened.

What do you think? If you were Ranse, would you want to know you really were not the man who shot Liberty Valance? Or would you want to be kept in the dark? If you were Tom, would you have ever told him? It’s a great movie!




Now you can sing along!

THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE

When Liberty Valance rode to town the womenfolk would hide, they'd hide
When Liberty Valance walked around the men would step aside
'cause the point of a gun was the only law that Liberty understood
When it came to shootin' straight and fast---he was mighty good.

>From out of the East a stranger came, a law book in his hand, a man
The kind of a man the West would need to tame a troubled land
'cause the point of a gun was the only law that Liberty understood
When it came to shootin' straight and fast---he was mighty good.

Many a man would face his gun and many a man would fall
The man who shot Liberty Valance, he shot Liberty Valance
He was the bravest of them all.

The love of a girl can make a man stay on when he should go, stay on
Just tryin' to build a peaceful life where love is free to grow
But the point of a gun was the only law that Liberty understood
When the final showdown came at last, a law book was no good.

Alone and afraid she prayed that he'd return that fateful night, aww that night
When nothin' she said could keep her man from goin' out to fight
>From the moment a girl gets to be full-grown the very first thing she learns
When two men go out to face each other only one retur-r-r-ns

Everyone heard two shots ring out, a shot made Liberty fall
The man who shot Liberty Valance, he shot Liberty Valance
He was the bravest of them all.

The man who shot Liberty Valance, he shot Liberty Valance
He was the bravest of them all.

35 comments:

  1. I can't believe that I didn't watch this film until about 2 years ago. It's now one of my favourites for a lot of the reasons you mentioned.

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  2. Joanne,

    Lots of people, especially the younger people, have missed out on so many good old western movies. I must admit, I always indoctrinated my kids with these westerns when they were little (family movie night with pizza!)

    My daughter who is now 26 says this movie is in her top 5 movies, and movies are how she makes her living, working at a casting and talent service. So she has seen plenty. LOL Neither one of us can watch this with a dry eye.

    I'm so glad you got to see it and that it's one of your favorites, too.
    Cheryl

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  3. "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." This quote from the editor has become virtually THE definition of the American West mythos, and what we do as Fictioneers. So this movie is extremely significant for being the source of that quote alone.

    And also... what a cast! Especially, for me, the villains... you had Lee Marvin at his belligerant best, with the always-cool Lee Van Cleef and, as chief toady, Strother Martin. To this day, whenever someone says "liberty", I can't keep from chiming in with my Strother Martin voice: "Liberty! Liberty! They've shot Liberty!" I'm lucky no one has tried to commit me.

    And even the supporting cast is awesome. Edmond O'Brien. Andy Devine. John Carradine. Denver Pyle. And of course, the great Woody Strode, who lent dignity to any role he played.

    This really is an awesome movie.

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  4. One of the best films ever made and an all-time favorite of mine. I still remember watching it the first time at the Eagle Drive-In with my dad, who was a big John Wayne fan. "That's MY steak, Valance!"

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  5. Great post, Cheryl. And a truly brilliant movie.

    Lee Marvin was a fantastic villain and Lee Van Cleef was a great supporting villain.

    I was brought up with the Sergio Leone movies, which were always popular in the UK. Lee Van Cleef was of course one of the stars of those movies and a great baddie. A couple of years ago we went walking in Almeria in Southern Spain. There are images of him everywhere. We actually stayed at a ranch where he stayed. Apparently, he and Clint Eastwood used to argue as to who was the fastest on the draw, so they filmed them and Lee Van Cleef won.

    Keith

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  6. Every once in awhile a film comes along that defines the West for another generation. Although I love this film, I have always been partial to the original 3:10 to Yuma. Perhaps it is the lean script and film style. It is amazing what we remember most. Doris

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  7. Troy, I'm laughing as I read this, because I do the same thing! "Liberty! Liberty! They've shot Liberty!" Although, I must say, I'm sure I don't do the Strother Martin voice as well as you do. LOLLOL Such a great movie, filled with all kinds of angst, and you're right--what a cast!

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  8. James, I saw it at the drive-in, too for the first time. Boy. That scene was just larger than life, wasn't it? I know a lot of people get on John Wayne's case about his acting, but I have to say, that scene is just mesmerizing. With those few words, the showdown begins. I love that. I was so young, but I remember actually thinking, "Uh oh. What is he going to do, now?"

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  9. Keith, I'm glad you enjoyed it. How neat to be able to go see where the spaghetti westerns were filmed! I love the trivia about Lee Van Cleef and Clint Eastwood. Wouldn't you have loved to have been a fly on the wall? LOL
    Cheryl

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  10. Doris, I really love The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, but my second fave is High Plains Drifter. Maybe that's why I love supernatural westerns now! LOL There are so many great westerns to choose from!
    Cheryl

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  11. This is hubby's favorite, Cheryl. We watched it again just a couple weeks ago. Lee Marvin is always the best creep ever. And John Wayne IMO did no wrong. That said, I totally LOVE McClintock LOL.

    For a more modern western and one I can't watch enough, I like Open Range with Robert Duvall (a king of cowboys) and Kevin Costner. Oh, and I can get enough western sugar just watching five minutes of Tombstone which seems to be on cable every minute of the day somewhere.

    xoxox

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  12. You can tar me, feather me, tie me to the drunken barber's chair and let him shave me with a rusty razor, but I have to confess, I've never been a fan of Westerns as a genre.
    However, this film has a redeeming quality: I love the treatment Gene Pitney gives the title song!

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  13. Hey, Tanya,
    Tombstone is my hubby's favorite. Well, okay. He loves most any western out there, and most of the JW westerns he has practically memorized. But Tombstone is the same way. Yes, it IS on cable about every minute, and let me tell you, every time it is on, we watch at least part of it (the remote is always in his hand.)LOLLOL Oh, McClintock is a great western, too. Lots of action.
    Cheryl

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  14. Paul, Paul, Paul...what are we going to do with you? LOL

    No tarring and feathering or rusty-razor shaving. BUT, I'm glad to hear you say that you at least love the song for The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance! LOL

    OK, I have a confession to make. I actually bought the piano music for it...I know what you're thinking, and the answer is, NO, it doesn't have the same "ring" to it as Gene Pitney's version. But I felt like I had to try. LOL

    Thanks for coming by today!
    Cheryl

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    1. Cheryl, even though Gene Pitney's song was a number one hit, it was never used in the movie due to a dispute between the music company and Paramount. It would have been a great theme for the movie and it is too bad they couldn't use it.

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  15. Doris: "3:10 to Yuma"... "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"... Surely it is no coincidence that those are aso two of the greatest western short stories of all time, by two of the genre's grand-masters.

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  16. Loved this movie--and after reading your article today, I just have to watch it again. I do confess that the first time I watched it, I had little respect for Hallie. That's sorta stuck with me.

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  17. Cheryl--what year was this? I've read where you've mentioned it, but I swear I've never heard of this movie, and certainly not the song by....somebody Pitney?
    If it was in the 60s or 70d, forget it...I had not idea what was going on, even the Vietnam War. My first grade son knew more about it than I did.
    Ever have a time in your life when you worked constantly at something from the time you got up--around six--and the time you finally went to bed--around midnight or often after? That was me.
    So, this completely eluded me. Oh, I'd love to see that movie!
    Someone mentioned 3:10 to Yuma, and I recall there were two versions of movies. Not sure, but wow, I loved that movie.
    Now, I need to find out more about TMWSLV.
    Goodnight..it's been a long day.

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  18. Jacquie, you know I was too young at the time to even consider that. As I got older, I guess I thought that Hallie just couldn't help who she fell in love with. Still, I don't think she truly meant to fall in love with Ranse--it just happened. But that scene where JW burns the house down just makes me ache every time. I guess I need to pull it out and watch it again, too. It's been awhile!LOL
    Cheryl

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  19. Celia, it's no wonder you didn't know what was going on around you! I think all parents go through some kind of time like that where you don't know which end is up. This movie came out in 1962, so I was five. I remember going to see it at the drive in. You need to go and BUY THAT MOVIE! You will definitely want to watch it more than once.

    Did you play the clip of Gene Pitney singing the song? That song will just stay with you and you won't be able to get it out of your head. Go get that movie!

    Cheryl

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  20. James Taylor did a version of the song, too, on an album in the mid-80s.

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  21. i like this movie, but I also like pretty much any John Wayne Western - particularly Rio Bravo and McClintock. Both are just hilarious to me. Open Range is another good one, as is Tombstone.

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  22. Troy, you are a fount of knowledge! I had no idea that James Taylor did a version of it. Now, you know I'm going to have to go and find it--maybe it's on youtube.

    Thanks for mentioning this.

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  23. J.E.S.,
    I'm like you--pretty much any John Wayne western is good with me. And I always love to see him paired up with Maureen O'Hara.

    Yes, Open Range is a good one, and Tombstone too. The good thing is, it seems like that one is always on somewhere. LOL

    Cheryl

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  26. Dorothy Johnson was a dear friend, and a great writer. She loved the movie. On the wall of her home was a photo of John Wayne, inscribed by the Duke: "Do you have anyone ELSE you want shot?"

    Great movie.

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  27. Stan, I would love to have known Dorothy Johnson! Her writing is just brilliant. And it's always good to hear that the author approves of a movie of their work. That's a great inscription! Thanks for sharing.
    Cheryl

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  28. I removed a couple of comments that had posted more than once, just FYI in case anyone wondered.
    Cheryl

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  29. I loved Lee Marvin. He was such a trip. He was great in Cat Ballou. I liked Who Shot Libery Valance. Boy, they don't make western movies the way they used to.
    I also liked Stagecoach and Rio Grande. Even though it's a fairly new film, I am still partial to Tombstone. Can't help it. Just loved it.

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  30. Sarah, you are not alone! A lot of people say Tombstone is their favorite western of all time. I think it's because the casting was really wonderful and the acting was great. Stagecoach is another favorite of mine. I just bought it the other day. I had looked in the stores for it and couldn't find it--finally ordered it from Amazon. I'm so glad you came by. I love Lee Marvin too. Liberty Valance was such a good role for him.
    Cheryl

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  31. There are two remakes of Stagecoach. John Wayne was Ringo in the original, Alex Cord played Ringo in the first remake and I believe Kris Kristoffison played the part in the second remake. I believe Johnny Cash was in the second remake also

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  32. Hi Carolyn,

    I knew that the song wasn't used in the movie, but didn't know why. That is such a shame, isn't it?

    I loved the original Stagecoach. I don't believe I ever saw the one with Alex Cord, but I did see the one with Kris Kristofferson. Not as good as the original...LOL

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  33. In the one with Alex Cord, Bing Crosby played the doctor and Ann Margaret played the love interest. It was pretty good. I didn't like the remake with Kris Kristoffison at all even though Johnny Cash was in it.

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  34. Yeah, I know what you mean. And sometimes it's best to just leave well enough alone with the original.
    Cheryl

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