Nine disparate travelers are thrust together on a stagecoach destined for Apache territory...and movie immortality. As the Ringo Kid, director John Ford cast a lanky veteran of 70 B-movies, serials and shorts named John Wayne. Each rifle shot and close-up rang out the news: a new star is born. Seventeen American folk songs formed the basis of an Oscar-winning score. This grown-up adventure ushered in a 30-year era of great Westerns.