While Stagecoach is not considered the best Western of early Hollywood, it is largely considered the first great one. At a time when Westerns had been relegated to B-movie status, John Ford decided to make a sprawling American epic to resuscitate the form. The result was Stagecoach, an adaptation of a short story that John Ford encountered in a literary magazine.
At the time that Ford was trying to sell the story to studios, many producers told him that Westerns were over. Writing about the film, Ford said, "I did the location scenes first. I had driven through Monument Valley, and I thought it would be a good place to shoot a Western. I used it for the first time in Stagecoach. There was a dry lake that was perfect for the Indian attack. We didn't have any camera cars in those days; we just put the camera on an automobile and shot on the run. It was fast. I asked the driver how fast we had gone, and he said 40 to 42 miles per hour. You wouldn't think that horses could go that fast, but they did." Ford was known for his straightforwardness and for his speedy and ambitious work ethic.
The film was a huge success upon its release. John Wayne said of the first screening, "I'll never forget the preview. It was at the Village Theater in Westwood, and it was sensational! The audience yelled and screamed and stood up and cheered. I never saw anything like it...Only Ford would have the guts to stage a big Indian chase, and then take me into town to finish off the business I had there. Any other picture-maker would have ended it with the chase."
