The Warner Archive Collection has released John Ford's 3 GODFATHERS (1948) on Blu-ray, and the picture and sound quality is spectacular. What also makes this release notable is that the Archive has included on the disc a 1936 version of the story, titled THREE GODFATHERS. Both films are based on a novel by Peter B. Kyne, and the plot has been filmed or borrowed for several other adaptations over the years. (John Ford had even made a silent version with Harry Carey.) All the versions deal with three desperadoes on the run from the law in the Old West coming across an abandoned dying woman and her baby.
The 1936 THREE GODFATHERS was produced by MGM and directed by Richard Boleslawski. It's a very different film from John Ford's 1948 version. The 1936 version is in black & white, and it lacks the sentimentality of the Ford film. The 1936 version has more of an edge to it. In Ford's film, the three fugitives/godfathers (John Wayne, Pedro Armendariz, and Harry Carey Jr.) are lovable rogues rather than hardened criminals. In the 1936 version, the trio of bandits (Chester Morris, Lewis Stone, and Walter Brennan) are not particularly appealing, especially at first, and gang leader Bob (Morris) is most assuredly a man who is willing to break any law to get what he wants.
The 1948 Ford version has the three bandits rob a bank and go on the run very soon after the story starts. The 1936 version spends more time at the beginning setting up the town of New Jerusalem and its eccentric citizens. It also establishes Bob as a dastardly fellow--when the bank robbery does happen in the '36 version, he shoots an unarmed man, a man who is engaged to a former flame of Bob's.
In the 1936 version, after the trio ride off into the desert and come upon the dying woman and her baby, there's a debate between Bob and his two partners on what to do with the infant. Doc (Lewis Stone) and Gus (Walter Brennan) are all for taking care of the child and getting him to safety, while Bob, worried about the money from the bank robbery and the fact that their horses have ran away and their water is almost gone, thinks they should just leave it. In the Ford version there's no question as to what to do--the three bandits are bound and determined to save the baby.
The ending of the 1936 version is darker as well--Bob finally redeems himself, but only after paying the ultimate price. In the Ford sound version, community and fellowship wins out over all.