Part 2 – At last we meet the notorious Luke Plummer, the man who, with his two brothers, murdered Ringo’s father and brother. Luke is informed that Ringo is in town and he knows that this can mean only one thing, a fight to the death. One of the men he is playing poker with comments on his winning hand by saying “dead man’s hand, Luke”.

The “dead man’s hand” consists of the aces of spades and clubs along with the eights of spades and clubs; “black aces and black eights”. It is called “dead man’s hand” because the most famous gun fighter in the old west, Wild Bill Hickok, was murdered while he played poker. The hand he was holding as he was shot and killed was “black aces and black eights” and one other unknown card. Ever since Hickok’s murder the hand has been considered extremely bad luck.

Part 4 – What remains to be worked out is the seemingly impossible love between Dallas and Ringo. Doc, Curly and Buck all look miserable as the two young lovers walk away because they all know that Ringo is about to find out that Dallas is a prostitute. They also know that regardless, Ringo is also almost certainly going to be killed in a gunfight with the Plummer brothers. Ringo and Dallas walk through the noisy streets of Lordsburg where we hear tinny piano music and drunken laughter and we see the prostitutes and their customers lingering in the doorways. Dallas wants to say goodbye and she admits, seemingly to herself, that she has just been having a crazy dream. But for Ringo it seems he has not quite woken up just yet. Go to excerpt number 5.

Part 5 – Ringo continues to accompany Dallas while on her face Ford shows us the increasing despair she feels with every step as Ringo gradually realizes what she is. They come to a flight of stairs leading down. Again, always gentle, but finally giving up all her hopes and dreams Dallas says “Well, Kid, I told you not to follow me” as if she were talking to a lost puppy she cannot take home. She goes down the stairs. Ford is using symbolism here. Dallas going “down” represents her “fall”. In Christianity the devils in Hell are actually angels who “fell” from heaven because they disobeyed God. It was very common for a prostitute to be called a “a fallen woman” because the common belief was that prostitutes were “sinful and wicked” women. But as Dallas goes down the steps like a descent into hell, Ringo follows her. He makes no long speeches because he is a westerner and a cowboy and he doesn’t have much to say, but what he says is deeply moving: “I asked you to marry me” and she replies through her tears “that’s something”. It is now clear that he does not care that she has been a prostitute because he knows that whatever else she is, she is a good, kind and gentle person and he loves her! And now WE WANT HIM TO KISS HER!…..but instead, he just says “wait here”. What the hell is this boy doing? I am going to call this “one of the two greatest kisses that never happened in a Western”.

However, I don’t think Ford made a mistake by not having them kiss. A kiss would have been a “cliché” (a cliché is something that lacks originality or which has become so familiar it is boring…one could perhaps say that the kiss would have been tatemae). A kiss would also have been out of character for Ringo. After all, the main thing he has on his mind is fighting the Plummers. He knows what his priorities are. He must have his vengeance before he can kiss the girl. Dallas will wait, but she quite sensibly believes he is going to die. Everyone believes he is going to die.

Part 6 – The final gunfight is unusual because it takes place at night. Gunfights in Western films usually happened in the daytime and usually at “high noon”, 12:00 p.m. when the sun is at its highest point in the sky. This actually makes a great deal of sense because it means that neither person could have the sun behind them (and so in the eyes of his opponent). But Ford set this gunfight late at night perhaps because neither Ringo nor the Plummers have the patience to wait for daytime. These men are intent on killing. Interestingly, in his second to last Western, Ford will once again have the final and crucial gunfight happen at night.

Part 7 – One of Luke’s brothers is quite drunk as they walk through the darkened town when suddenly a black cat runs across their path (another instance of bad luck) and the other brother, Hank, tries to shoot him but misses. The drunken brother laughs at this, but it is clear these men are cursed.

The conflicts among the characters on the stagecoach journey were often quite complex, but the final confrontation between Ringo and the Plummers is as simple as…well… White Hat vs Black Hat! Look at images 2 and 3

Part 8 – In Cimarron the good guy showed he was a faster and better gunman than the bad guy, but in Stagecoach even Ringo’s friends admit that Luke is probably a better gunman than Ringo. So how can Ringo possibly win this fight when Luke all alone is better than he is and both his brothers are there to back him up? Ringo resorts to a trick to win his fight. Rather than stand there and exchange fire with the Plummers, the sneaky little bastard shoots while diving to the ground and gets off his next two shots almost immediately. To us it looks like a practical solution to the problem, and it was…but it was also shockingly unusual in a Western.

In Western films gunfights usually went the same way. There would be a lot of dramatic build up, but in the end, it is a test of pure skill; who is faster and who shoots more accurately. But that is not how it goes in Stagecoach. Ringo diving to the ground looks…well, cowardly. But what else is he supposed to do, stand there and try to outshoot three men at once? Instead, he surprises them with his dive and gets one shot off as he does so (probably the one that hit Luke since Ringo would have wanted to take out the most dangerous brother first). Then he fired the next two while on the ground killing both of the other brothers. It still required a lot of skill killing all three with one shot each, but it would have been impossible if he had just bravely stood there exchanging fire with them in the “honorable” way.