Christian America in the 19th century needed to be more Christian—an implication, this, in John Ford‘s Stagecoach (1939). A prostitute (Claire Trevor) and a drunken doctor, Boone (Thomas Mitchell), are legally kicked out of a nicely developing town by its prim ladies. They take their places in the stagecoach headed for Geronimo’s land! It’s a good thing John Wayne‘s Ringo, also on the stagecoach, is a crack shot.

In an earlier review, I opined that this movie is a fairy tale—a palatable Old West fairy tale. And although it says little, really, about society, it does focus on personal change and the proving of oneself through a crucible.

Ford’s direction is wonderfully workmanlike. The bloody fate of Luke Plummer, a murderer, is excellently done. Except for the almost mechanical Wayne, among the principal actors the work ranges from decent (Louise Platt) to superlative (Mitchell).

With undeniable charisma Paulette Goddard plays Toni, a nice, smiling, extroverted schemer who’s attracted to Brad (Ray Milland), another woman’s beau. The Crystal Ball (1943) has her trying to lure him via filling in for a fake fortune teller (Gladys George). For Toni it’s all in a day’s work, and Brad does like her. . . Elliott Nugent‘s movie is comedic froth but it really ought to be funnier. Its cakes and ale should be a bit richer. Still, it is interesting and it has verve and Goddard. As a rom-com actor, Milland is not better than Cary Grant, just different. More authoritative—and as handsome as Grant—he is a manly charmer. Grant, I concede, is more aristocratic, though.

I’m breaking away from the reviewing for a moment to remind my fellow conservatives that it’s a good idea to write your Congress person. And I mean write a letter, a respectful one addressed to The Honorable So-and-So. Forget email—and phone calls. They don’t make an impression. Too, the letter ought to be short.

I’ve usually ignored the series Black Mirror on Netflix, but was gratified by the Season 6 episode “Beyond the Sea”—not great but still respectable sci-fi. The Space Age comprised of 1969 (etc.) just might—multiple years from now—usher in the extraordinary technology in this little film, which is set in ’69, the year of the first moon landing. But all the scientific sophistication in the world will not make attempted wife-stealing and Manson-like murder disappear.

Carefully written by Charlie Brooker, ably directed by John Crowley, the episode is somehow convincing and forcefully dark. Such actors as Aaron Paul and Kate Mara genuinely deepen the drama.

Mistress Mickle is the name given to the villainess of a children’s TV show, acted by Jenny Early, the primary character in Elizabeth McCracken‘s short story, “Mistress Mickle All at Sea.” The acting job seems a good gig, but fashion designer Kate Spade had a good gig too and she committed suicide in 2018.

While sailing from Rotterdam back to her home in England, Mistress Mickle thinks of killing herself. She has only former lovers and no husband and no children, albeit life has offered her sex and privacy. There has been some deprivation in her privacy. A more or less pleasant ending occurs in this splendid success of a story, which is also about people’s separation from belief and God. In Rotterdam, for example, Mistress Mickle visits her stepbrother—a miserable f**kup. “It was as though fucking up were his religion,” McCracken writes, “and he was always looking for a more authentic experience of it.” How’s that for a separation from God?