TCM Movie: 3 Godfathers (1949)

According to Hollywood legend, the well known and loved Western actor Harry Carey died at the age of 69 from a Black Widow spider bite at his home in Brentwood. Other sources believe he passed away of lung cancer or coronary thrombosis, having smoked cigars for most of his adult life. Carey had acted in two prior iterations of the Peter B. Kyne novel "3 Godfathers" (1916) as well as the John Ford directed "Marked Men" in 1919 which is now considered lost. 

"Marked Men" was still owned by MGM who Ford still had major issues with when it came to Louis B. Mayer. MGM's policies towards independent directors was not the easiest for mavericks like Ford and a little before the film began to make its roots, that was when Carey, a friend and mentor to Ford, had passed away. "3 Godfathers" would be an homage of the film he had once made in technicolor. The homage went as far as to opening the film eulogizing the actor as the "bright star of the early western sky" as well as opening on a wide shot of a lone rider (Cliff Lyons) silhouetted and sitting on the horse like Carey had done in the many Western films he had made. Ford even cast Carey's son, Harry Carey Jr., as "The Abilene Kid," one of the "three wise men" who are resorted to take care of an orphaned newborn boy after its mother had died in childbirth. 

But "Uncle Jack," as Jr. had known him as his whole life, was not very nice to him throughout the shooting. One instance involved Ford picking up a rock and "lobbed it straight at Carey's face. The actor ducked, and the rock landed square in Pedro Armendariz's stomach." Ford did let it be known that Carey was "going to hate my guts before the picture is over." If he wasn't verbally bemoaning that "we should have gotten Audie Murphy!", Ford would have had his honorary nephew bend over and kick him hard for some mistake Carey had made during a scene. For as much abuse Jr. had been put through, Ford made sure he wouldn't be on set when shooting the beginning shot that eulogized his father with his father's favorite horse, Sonny. "Once Carey's final scenes were shot, Ford demanded him to go home. Carey refused, thinking Ford was just being mean, but Ford won out in the end. [...] Ford knew that watching the scene shot would be too much for the young Carey, so he shielded Carey from it, as a doting "uncle" would a "nephew."" ("3 Godfathers" - 1949 - Articles - TCM.com")

The John Wayne-helmed film was released December 1, 1948 and ended up #62 on the Top-Grossers of 1949, earning 2,078,000 in the U.S. and Canada and 763,000 overseas. Bosley Crowther at the New York Times praised Ford's cinematography as "film[ing] it so that the characters and gritty atmosphere that slosh from the screen great warm sluices of grandeur and emotion." Wayne was considered "wonderfully raw and ruticous," Armendariz "colorful [with a] a real note of pathos," and Harry Carey Jr., for all of the abuse he was put through, as "touching."

3 Godfathers will air on TCM December 15 at 9:30 EST/8:30 CST