3:10 to Yuma (Special Edition)
starring Glenn Ford, Van Heflin,
Felicia Farr, Leora Dana, Henry Jones
A Western Classic, Forget The Execrable Remake!
Struggling rancher and family man Van Heflin sneaks captured outlaw
Glenn Ford out from under the eyes of his gang and nervously awaits the
prison train in this tight, taut Western in the High Noon tradition. Adapted
from an Elmore Leonard story, this tense Western thriller is boiled down to
its essential elements: a charming and cunning criminal, an initially
reluctant hero whose courage and resolution hardens along the way, and a
waiting game that pits them in a battle of wills and wits. Glenn Ford
practically steals the film in one of his best performances ever: calm, cool,
and confident, hes a ruthless killer with polite manners and an honorable
streak. Director Delmer Daves (Broken Arrow) sets it all in a harsh,
parched frontier of empty landscapes, deserted towns, and dust, creating a
brittle quiet that threatens to snap into violence at any moment. --Sean
Axmaker

Personal Review: 3:10 to Yuma (Special Edition) starring Glenn
Ford, Van Heflin, Felicia Farr, Leora Dana, Henry Jones
"Destination Tokyo" director Delmar Daves' "3:10 to Yuma" (1957) qualifies
as one of the classic suspense westerns of the 1950s. Furthermore, in the
larger context of westerns, this frontier drama follows in the boot falls of
"High Noon" since it concerns a showdown between hero and villain based
on a time deadline. Everything about this oater is solid and realistic with
strong acting by a competent cast. Composer George Duning's haunting
score heightens the tension in scenarist Halsted Welles' spartan
screenplay. Welles' also penned another big western "The Hanging Tree"
(1959) with Gary Cooper. Welles does an exceptional job of capturing the
ironic essence of Leonard's short story, the first of the bestselling author's
work to reach the big-screen.
"3:10 to Yuma" opens with a close-up of parched earth somewhere in the
Arizona territory. The camera tilts up to show a stagecoach crossing the
landscape in long shot and then the stage swings around toward the
camera and its galloping six-horse team hauls the vehicle past the camera
trailing a plume of dust. Daves concisely establishes in this one take the
inhospitable nature of the surroundings. One of the themes is then man
versus nature. Later, we learn that a drought has devastated the area.
Seasoned lyricist Ned Washington's words--as sung by vocalist Frankie
Lane at his most doleful--enhances this western. An entire sub-genre of
sagebrushers emerged in the 1950s that opened with images of horsemen
riding through the opening credits with singers such as Frankie Lane or
Tex Ritter warbling an atmospheric theme song.
Glenn Ford makes a memorable entrance as ruthless but sardonic outlaw
Ben Wade. The notorious Wade gang hold up a stagecoach. During the
robbery, the stage driver gets the drop on the Wade gang member atop
the coach and shoves a gun into his back. The brave driver threatens to kill
the Wade gang member if the outlaws don't cease and desist. No sooner
has he delivered his ultimatum than Wade himself rides up and guns down
his own man and the stage driver.
The hero of "3:10 to Yuma" is a small potatoes rancher, Dan Evans (Van
Heflin of "Shane") who is waging a losing battle against nature for lack of
rain. Dan's cattle are dying, and all our hero requires is $200 dollars so he
can obtain six months water rights from a nearby rancher. Unfortunately,
Dan is dirt poor. Furthermore, he is stubborn and self-reliant and balks at
the idea of seeking a loan from the bank. There is nothing flashy about
Heflin's performance or wardrobe. Truly, he is a hero behind the 8-ball.
After the Wade gang rob the Butterfield Stage Company of a gold
shipment, they gallop brazenly into Bisbee, Arizona Territory, to alert the
local constabulary about the hold-up. In the saloon, where they are
drinking, they explain that they couldn't thwart the thieves. The marshal
(Ford Rainy of "Flaming Star") gathers a posse, but one of them, the town

drunk Alex Potter (Henry Jones of "Vertigo"), is late and rides out after the
posse has left. Meanwhile, Wade disperses his gang across the border
and tells them to rendezvous with him in Nogales. Wade hangs around the
saloon to sweet talk young beautiful Emmy (Felicia Farr of "Charlie
Varrick") and they get romantic. During this interval, the posse run into Dan
and the Butterfield Stage owner. They describe the gang and the marshal
realizes then that the cattle drovers back at the saloon were the Wade
gang. Alex rides up and tells them that the drovers left town but one of
them stayed. The posse heads back to town. Dan distracts Wade in the
saloon while the marshal sneaks up behind him and arrests him. The
Butterfield Stage owner (Robert Emhardt of "The Stone Killer") offers $200
to anybody that will help escort Wade to the train station for the titular
three-ten to Yuma. Initially, Dan refuses but decides that the $200 dollars
is worth the risk. Nobody else wants to get in on the money except Henry
Potter. For the remainder of the movie, Dan and Wade share the upstairs
bridal suite in the hotel while they await the train. Wade's second-in-
command Charlie Prince (Richard Jaeckel of "The Dirty Dozen") rides off
to prepare a reception for our hero and Wade. Eventually, the gang
capture Henry Potter and string him up in the hotel. During the suspenseful
wait in the hotel, Ben Wade begins to have a grudging admiration for Dan
Evans. When they make dash for the train, Ben actually helps Dan out and
they get aboard the train unscathed. Although this ending has been called
implausible, I don't think it is anything of the sort. Ben Wade is a
dangerous, egotistical killer who has the attitude of a cat playing with a
mouse. He is so confident of himself that he plays along with Dan, helps
him against his own gang, but ultimately you know that Ben Wade is never
going to serve a day in jail. He proved at the beginning that he was willing
to kill one of his own men.
"3:10 to Yuma" isn't the first time that Glenn Ford played a villainous killer.
He portrayed a corrupt, maniacal judge in "The Man from Colorado," and
before that he specialized in bad guys that turned good in westerns, like
"Texas" and "The Desperados." Charles Lawton's stark black and white
photography combined with striking camera angles that thrust us into the
vortex of the action go a long way toward making the action palatable.
Eventually, this drama boils down to two men shut up in an upstairs hotel
room as they wait for the arrival of the "3:10 to Yuma" train. Daves and
Lawton generate a lot of suspense throughout this western but none more
tangible than at the end when our hero and villain approach the puffing
train and are obscured by clouds of the steam while the outlaw gang stalk
them
For More 5 Star Customer Reviews and Lowest Price:
3:10 to Yuma (Special Edition) starring Glenn Ford, Van Heflin, Felicia Farr, Leora
Dana, Henry Jones 5 Star Customer Reviews and Lowest Price!