The Three Godfathers (1936)
At the Rialto.
J.T.M.
Published: March 9, 1936
By its disregard of that modern cinema imperative, the happy ending, "The Three Godfathers," a buskined horse-opera current at the Rialto, succeeds in catching the spirit of the Westerns of two decades back, when bad men could be heroes too, and grim-visaged Bill Hart frequently expired nobly in the cactus country in the performance of some glorious act of atonement to top off a screen life of iniquity.
Chester Morris succeeds in portraying the Bob Sangster of the film as perhaps the most callous, blackest-hearted rascal that ever returned to New Jerusalem to rob the bank of the Christmas savings of his one-time neighbors. Partners in the crime with him are Doc, who reads Schopenhauer between depredations; Gus, an unlettered desert rat, and Pedro, a guitar-strumming lookout who is dispatched as soon as the film can dispense with musical interludes.
The posse outwitted, and security awaiting them across a hundred miles of desert, the three remaining outlaws discover an infant boy beside his dying mother in a stranded covered wagon. Doc and Gus insist on taking the child along, although the water rations are low. The horses drink poisoned water that night, and the miscreants, rather than abandon the child and press on afoot to freedom, turn again toward New Jerusalem and retribution.
THE THREE GODFATHERS, based on the story of Peter B. Kyne, screen play by Edward E. Paramore Jr. and Manuel Seff; directed by Richard Boleslawski; produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Bob . . . . . Chester Morris
"Doc" . . . . . Lewis Stone
Gus . . . . . Walter Brennan
Molly . . . . . Irene Hervey
Blackie . . . . . Dorothy Tree
Frank . . . . . Robert Livingston
Pedro . . . . . Joseph Marievsky
Baby . . . . . Jean Kirchner
