Double Feature: 3:10 to Yuma x 2

In our Great Remakes series, see 1957's 3:10 to Yuma at 7:15pm, followed by 2007's version at 9pm.

Details about the films:

3:10 To Yuma (1957) at 7:15pm
In the 1950s, novelist Elmore Leonard was known for western stories rather than for the crime fiction and suspense thrillers he’d later become famous for. But no matter the genre this prolific writer worked in, his ability to convey character through dialogue set him apart from other pulp fiction authors. This is true even in a short story about a stoic, impoverished rancher who agrees to take the risky job of escorting a notorious outlaw to justice. For the film adaptation, director Delmer Daves and screenwriter Halsted Welles expand upon Leonard’s short story, which is mostly set in a hotel room in the town of Contention where the two characters size each other up while waiting for the 3:10 pm train, which will take the prisoner to Yuma Territorial Prison, if he doesn’t escape first. Still, this original film version is far more contained than the James Mangold version made 50 years later. Van Heflin stars as the desperate rancher, Dan Evans, and Glenn Ford plays the villainous but charismatic stagecoach robber Ben Wade.

3:10 To Yuma (2007) at 9pm
James Mangold’s film version of Elmore Leonard’s 1953 short story certainly counts as a true remake rather than a purely original adaptation of a literary work. Mangold’s all-time favorite movie was the original Delmer Daves 3:10 To Yuma, and he longed to try his own hand at the story. While this widescreen western is far more of an action movie than the contained and controlled original picture, Mangold uses much of Halsted Welles’s 1957 screenplay (enough for Welles to get a writing credit) and pays tribute to the original by using the character names from Welles’s script rather than the ones in Leonard’s story. Russell Crowe takes on the part of the sinister but charismatic stagecoach robber Ben Wade, with Christian Bale in the role of the poor rancher who, desperate to get out of debt and provide for his family, agrees to lead a posse to take Wade to the town of Contention and put him on the 3:10 afternoon train to Yuma Territorial Prison.

You may also like the following events from Somerville Theatre:

• This Friday, 18th July, 04:00 pm, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse - 4K Restoration in Somerville
• This Saturday, 19th July, 07:30 pm, Apocalypse Now: Roadshow Version in Somerville
• Next Wednesday, 23rd July, 11:30 pm, Die! Die! My Darling! 35mm archival print in Somerville, MA

Also check out other Entertainment events in Somerville, Arts events in Somerville, Literary Art events in Somerville.