There is something extremely unnerving about watching three sweaty, grown men in cowboy hats laughing so hard while greasing up a newborn baby.

After watching the 1936 version of "Three Godfathers" with Chester Morris, Lewis Stone and Walter Brennan in the titled roles, I knew it would only be a matter of time before I caught up with this 1948 remake. I didn't think it would take almost seven years but that's the way it goes sometimes. There's an earlier version yet, a 1916 silent featuring Harry Carey (Sr.) in the John Wayne role which I'll get around to eventually as well. For this film, director John Ford paid tribute to the elder actor with an opening screen dedicated to the memory of Harry Carey.The first thing to note with this movie was the surprising Technicolor format, very vibrant for 1948 and a plus for movie goers of the era. For this viewer however, the cinematography doesn't compensate for the superior way in which the story was presented in the 1936 film. For a picture from the Thirties, that one seemed to do a much better job of developing the principal characters, casting them as more reprehensible villains than the way Wayne, Harry Carey Jr. and Pedro Armendariz are presented here. In fact, following the Welcome bank robbery, Robert (Wayne), Pedro (Armendariz) and William (Carey) almost instantly acquire good guy status by virtue of their 'adoption' of the infant who's mother died after giving birth. By contrast, Chester Morris in the Hightower role (his name was Bob Sangster in the 1936 film), actually manhandled the baby pretty roughly. If he had a can of grease available, he probably would have dipped the kid in it! But if you haven't seen both films to make the comparison, this is more than a passable story. There's some humor thrown in to contrast the dire situation the three 'godfathers' find themselves in as they trudge their way through the Arizona desert. The 'baby greasing' scene was something of a hoot, and John Wayne's character got some good mileage out of that running gag reminding Pedro not to speak 'Mex' in front of the infant. While all this was going on, Sheriff Perley 'Buck' Sweet (Ward Bond) kept up a crafty chess-like strategy trailing the outlaws through the desert until there was only Hightower left to pursue.One other contrast stands out between this and the earlier 1936 film, and that's in the amount of overt religious symbolism and references. Not a bad thing necessarily, as the Bible the godfathers find in the covered wagon with the baby and it's mother serves as a beacon leading them toward their ultimate salvation and redemption. Though William and Pedro don't make it to the end of the story, they die for a noble cause, one for which they entered willingly and without reservation once fate dealt it's ultimate hand.

John Ford western with familiar ingredients, mostly entertaining returns. Three amiable bank-robbers hope to evade the law by riding (and then walking) across the parched, sand-swept Arizona desert; complicating matters is a newborn infant they adopt along the way after his mother dies post-childbirth. Screenplay by Laurence Stallings and Frank S. Nugent, from a well-trodden story by Peter B. Kyne, is slanted towards religious parable, which probably made the film a cinch to advertise to 1948 audiences but today feels half-baked. John Wayne gets a windy monologue in the second act that doesn't come off too well, but he's in good spirits and ably shares the screen with cohorts Pedro Armendariz and Harry Carey Jr. Even better is Ward Bond as the Arizona sheriff (named 'Perley') who is slyly introduced to us working in his garden before putting on his badge (the best-directed sequence in the whole picture). Outstanding cinematography by Winton Hoch, some wonderful sequences (including the finale), though the editing flags in the midsection, prolonging the obvious. A solid entry for genre buffs and Wayne-addicts, though not the best film from he and John Ford. Other versions include "The Three Godfathers" from 1916 (starring Harry Carey, to whom this version is dedicated) and John Ford's own "Marked Men" in 1919, which also starred Carey. **1/2 from ****

A really touching, naive, heart-warming Christmas movie, even if it may be quite a tear-jerker, especially at it's end: great cinematography - watch out for the wonderful impressions of the desert (the director of cinematography started with documentaries) -, great direction and one of John Wayne's best performances - this man was not only a big star, he was a wonderful actor, too!!! Between the end of the forties and the end of the fifties Ford knew how to lead Wayne to an artistic peak. And, not to forget of course: Hank Worden, Ben Johnson, Ward Bond, Pedro Armendariz, Harry Carey jr, ... what an ensemble did Ford build up around himself!!! Highly recommended to all those who want their hearts to be touched in rough times during a cold winter evening ...