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Three Faces West
USA 1940
produced by
Republic
directed by Bernard Vorhaus
starring John Wayne, Sigrid Gurie, Charles Coburn, Spencer Charters, Helen MacKellar, Roland Varno, Sonny Bupp, Wade Boteler, Trevor Bardette, Russell Simpson, Charles Waldron, Wendell Niles, Frank Brownlee, Douglas Evans, Mary Field, Francis Ford, Byron Foulger, Si Jenks, Manuel París, Hank Patterson, Frederick Vogeding, Wolfgang Zilzer
written by F. Hugh Herbert, Joseph Moncure March, Samuel Ornitz, music by Victor Young
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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Dr Karl Braun (Charles Coburn) and his daughter Leni (Sigrid Gurie)
come to the US as refugees from the Nazi regime - but especially the
doctor, despite being in his 60's, is adamant to continue working as a
physician/surgeon as he did in Vienna, even if it's under harsher
condition ... and eventually, he and Leni are shipped of to the Dust Bowl
to a village hit by the worst dust storms in years. Leni insists on
leaving right away, but the doctor, seeing all the sickness going on in
the community, really can't just abandon ship - and interestingly, the vet
(Spencer Charters), who has so far doubled as a physician out of necessity
and who has feared the competition, becomes his first friend. As for Leni,
she somehow falls for John (John Wayne), who's the leading figure among
the local farmers, and who after the latest dust storm urges them to make
the country work, to make irrogation work, to fight for their land ... so
it's no big surprise that she falls for him and the two are already
engaged to get married when Leni receives news that Erich (Roland Varno),
her fiancé from back in Germany who has helped them free the country and
was believed to have given his own life, has actually survived and is
coming to the USA - a big blow for John. Eventually, even John has to
realize there's no surviving in the Dust Bowl, but the gouvernment has
promised him and his people land in Oregon, so the whole community forms a
treck going westwards - but he's strained as he knows Leni will leave him
at some point, and there are some among his flock who want to go to
California instead (where they would be nothing more than migrant harvest
workers instead of farmers), and at some point he just wants to bail and
elope with Leni - but ultimately he learns he has his duty with his people
and she has got hers, so he takes them to Oregon alright ... while Leni
reunites with Erich ... to find out he has become a Nazi - so their
meeting is brief before she returns to John to finally get married. While
certainly not free of clichées, Three Faces West is nevertheless a
rather ambitious film for little Republic, an actual drama
that touches some very sensitive subjects, attacks the Nazis before this
was en vogue. Plus while the film might lack the actual scale the majors
routinely afforded back in the day, the movie really does try to make the
best of its grand scenes (including a car treck through the desert). And
since narrative and direction are tight and the cast is nothing short of
competent, this is a pretty decent movie. No classic perhaps, but well
worth a watch.
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