3:10 to Yuma (1957) (2013 Sony 4K restoration)

Delmer Daves: 3:10 to Yuma (US 1957) with Glenn Ford (Ben Wade) and Van Heflin (Dan Evans). La Cinémathèque française.

Delmer Daves: 3:10 to Yuma (US 1957) with Felicia Farr (Emmy) and Glenn Ford (Ben Wade). Il Cinema Ritrovato 2005. 

3h10 pour Yuma / Armoton ase / 3.10 till Yuma.

    US © 1957 Columbia Pictures Corporation.

Delmer Daves / États-Unis / 1957 / 92 min / DCP / VOSTF – n&b – 1.85:1

D'après la nouvelle 3h10 pour Yuma (1953) d'Elmore Leonard.

Avec Glenn Ford, Van Heflin, Felicia Farr, Leora Dana.

Theme song: "3:10 to Yuma" words and music by Ned Washington and George Duning, sung by Columbia recording artist Frankie Laine. Backing: Norma Zimmer.

Loc: Arizona:

– Old Tucson – 201 S. Kinney Road, Tucson, (Contention City backdrop) – Sedona (Bisbee exterior set, about Mogollon Dr) – Contention City – Texas Canyon (stagecoach ambush and Evans' ranch).

    Digital restoration: Sony Pictures / Grover Crisp / 4K / 2013 [estimate, no date was given]

    E-sous-titres français Scéna International.

    Vu samedi 19 avril 2025, La Cinémathèque française, Le Western, en 25 films indispensables, Salle Henri Langlois, 51 Rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris, M° Bercy Lignes 14, 6

Joël Daire (La Cinémathèque française) : "Souvent comparé à Le Train sifflera trois fois (High Noon, Fred Zinnemann, 1951), 3h10 pour Yuma repose sur des ressorts dramatiques et psychologiques bien différents. Là où Zinnemann exposait un drame de la solitude, Daves édifie une violente confrontation psychologique, et parfois physique, entre deux tempéraments que tout oppose : Ben Wade (Glenn Ford), hors-la-loi pilleur de trains, séducteur pervers et corrupteur machiavélique, et Dan Evans (Van Heflin), fermier ruiné, au caractère buté et mutique, méprisé par sa famille, chargé, par nécessité économique, de convoyer Wade jusqu'au train qui le conduira en prison. Sur ce canevas, Daves élabore une magnifique progression dramatique, des plaines arides de l'Arizona au huis clos d'une chambre d'hôtel où se concentre leur affrontement. La force de la mise en scène est de conduire le spectateur à éprouver une égale sympathie pour les deux hommes, et par de subtiles variations, de les amener l'un et l'autre sur une voie où ils ne peuvent plus que s'entre-détruire ou pactiser. Mais leurs enjeux personnels ne sont pas égaux : pour Wade le prisonnier, il s'agit de reconquérir sa liberté, alors qu'Evans le loser doit racheter sa dignité bafouée. Entretenant le suspense au prix d'un long plan-séquence qui conduit les deux hommes jusqu'au train, Daves, deus ex machina humaniste et bienveillant, fait pleuvoir sur ses héros une eau quasi baptismale qui laisse espérer, pour l'un et l'autre, un heureux dénouement."

AA: Delmer Daves's 3:10 to Yuma I see for the first time on a cinema screen – in a brilliant digital restoration, presumably from Sony Pictures / Grover Crisp / 4K / 2013 (no restoration credit is given).

Glenn Ford (1916–2006) appears for the only time as a villain on his career of 110 movies. His presence is different from the usual – unique, in fact. He is usually genial, focused and persistent but holding back, protecting the sociopsychological balance, refusing to dominate. As Ben Wade he is extroverted, assertive, alert, calculating and controlling. Under his smooth, smiling, sympathetic appearance he is a brutal killer.

Elmore Leonard (the author of the original story), Halsted Welles (the screenwriter) and Daves were obviously inspired by High Noon. The titles of both movies declare that they are about time – a deadline. In both, a man must face alone the threat of a band of outlaws. There are two women, a wife and a barmaid. The railway station setting in the middle of the desert and the long shadows on the streets of a small sunlit town are further similarities.

The man of law and order is not a sheriff but the farmer Dan Evans, played by Van Heflin in an interpretation that evokes Shane. In contrast to the outlaw Ben, Dan is a family man. Ben is glamorous and charismatic; Dan, unglamorous and ordinary. Ben is intelligent and articulate; Dan, simple, taciturn, salt of the earth. On his barren land, suffering from drought, he has fallen on hard times, and therefore accepts the assignment to escort the outlaw to the train station. "Some have greatness thrust upon them" (Shakespeare). In the finale, Dan sticks to the assignment alone, defying the risk of an almost certain death.

In the lineage of William S. Hart's soul fights, the battle of good and evil is a complex chain of events that takes place in a moral twilight. Like in The Naked Spur, a transference arises between the outlaw and his guardian. Ben smooth-talks Dan into doubting his mission and offers to double the pay.

Female characters are important. Dan's wife Alice (Leora Dana) suffers together with her husband. She hopes for better times, also because "then maybe we won't be so tired all the time", referring to deprivations of her female needs. The barmaid Emmy (Felicia Farr) appears in a scene necessary for the plot (explaining why Ben Wade needs quality time apart from his gang) which grows into independent value – turning into the anthology piece of the movie. It is a masterstroke of storytelling intelligence under the Code. Felicia Farr conveys subtly a woman who is fulfilled and broken-hearted at once. And we understand why Ben later says he envies Dan.

Dan's ego hurts from a lingering feeling of Alice's contempt. Dan's younger son loses his respect for his father who does not stand up to villains during the hold-up. His older son understands that it would be a needless sacrifice. All this contributes to Dan's decision to risk everything in the finale.

Charlie Prince, Ben's second-in-charge, is played with impressive cold focus by Richard Jaeckel. There is a sense of solidarity and loyalty among the robber band, and Charlie is a capable leader when Ben is under arrest. 

The ending of the movie has been widely criticized, and I agree that it is the weakest part. 3:10 to Yuma proceeds like a tragedy – until there is a happy ending.

That Ben finally follows Dan to the 3:10 train to Yuma although his band could save him, is, however, psychologically believable. Three turning-points make it so. 

The first is the dinner at the Evans farm. Ben is invited and treated with respect. For him, this ordinary event is extraordinary (as are the dinners with the desert nomads Shane and Ethan Edwards). 

The second, quoted by Ben himself, is Dan saving Ben's life in the hotel room from the murder attempt of the drunken Bob, brother of Bill Moons, the stagecoach driver killed by Ben in the beginning.

The third is the hanging of the town drunk Alex Potter (Henry Jones) from the hotel chandelier. Next to Dan, Alex was the last man to remain with the posse fighting the outlaws. The hanging is meant to demoralize Dan, but it has the opposite effect. A fleeting impression reveals that it disgusts even Ben and distances him from his gang. It may be a factor in his decision to kill Charlie when he is about to shoot Dan at the station. The vast implication is that there will be no gang anymore. Not for him anyhow.

As the train leaves the station, rain starts to fall – and the movie turns into a fairytale. Still, the symmetry is impressive: the stagecoach in the dusty desert in the beginning, the train rolling through the rainswept desert in the end. The theme song is haunting. It has deservedly become an evergreen, but it is played one time too many.

The black and white cinematography in 1,85:1 by Charles Lawton is magnificent with deep focus, majestic crane shots, expressive close-ups and low angles, and dynamic forward tracking shots or zooms. The minimalism of the subject is conveyed by a grandeur of the imagery.

The excellent restoration does justice to the fine definition and the art of light and shadow.

...

The remake 3:10 to Yuma (2007) by James Mangold with Russell Crowe (Ben Wade) and Christian Bale (Dan Evans) is also worth seeing. All performances are great. The story has been prolonged by a half an hour with confrontations with Indians and at a railway construction site and unnecessary scenes of violence. I prefer the more compact energy of the original. Even from it I would have pruned slow passages and Ben's monologues.