They came together at a propitious moment in Ford's career. He was 45. He had directed his first silent films (ten of them!) in 1917. He had tasted great success, and won an Academy Award for directing "The Informer" in 1936. But now came his years of triumph. No director of the sound era made more great films more quickly than Ford did when he followed "Stagecoach" with "Young Mr. Lincoln" and "Drums Along the Mohawk," all three in 1939, and then made "The Grapes of Wrath" and "The Long Voyage Home" in 1940 and "Tobacco Road" and "How Green Was My Valley" in 1941, collecting in that period three nominations and two Oscars for directing.
Ford had his eye on John Wayne from the days when he was called Marion Morrison, nicknamed Duke, and was a football player from USC, working summers at 20th Century-Fox. In the decade before "Stagecoach" Wayne worked in some 40 Westerns, from an extra to a lead, without distinguishing himself. Ford thought he had the makings of a star, and decided Wayne was right for the key role of the Ringo Kid in "Stagecoach." The studio was adamantly opposed to the casting; it demanded a name actor. "Pappy" Ford imperiously insisted. And Wayne made an impression that would change his life and one day win him a place on a U. S. postage stamp.
فى العقد السابق ل "عربة الجياد" عمل واين فى 40 فيلما للغرب الأمريكى من أدوار مساعدة إلى بطولةدون أن يكون له تميز. وتوسم فورد فيه مميزات النجوم، وقرر فورد أن واين هو المناسب للدور الرئيسى "رينجو كيد" فى "عربة الجياد".كان استوديو الإنتاج معترضا بعناد على طاقم التمثيل مطالبا بنجم كبير ولكن "بابى" فورد أصر بغطرسة . وترك واين انطباعا كان كفيلا بتغيير حياته ومنحه فى يوم من الأيام مكانا على أحد طوابع البريد الأمريكى.
