If you’re looking for a less traditional Christmas movie this year because you’ve already watched “Elf” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” a thousand times each, you might want to try an acclaimed but oft-forgotten Western directed by American icon John Ford and starring Western icon John Wayne.
Written by Laurence Stallings and Frank S. Nugent, “3 Godfathers” stars Wayne as Robert “Bob” Marmaduke Hightower, a rustler (or rampant cattle thief) who traverses the wild West with Pedro Encarnación Arango y Roca Fuerte, or just “Pete” (Pedro Armendáriz), and their cohort William Kearney, also known as the “Abilene Kid” (Harry Carey Jr.). After heading into the small town of Welcome, Arizona, the three bandits run afoul of its sheriff, “Buck” Perley Sweet (Ward Bond), and go on the run as a result; during their journey, they stumble upon a woman who happens to be the sheriff’s own niece (played by Mildred Natwick). The woman is in the midst of giving birth to a baby boy, and Bob, Pete, and Kid all help her, even using nearby cacti as an impromptu water source to help her. Even though she survives long enough to name her baby after the three cowboys, dubbing the baby “Robert William Pedro Hightower,” she dies and begs the men to take care of the infant as — you guessed it — his three godfathers.