The 1936 film "Three Godfathers" is set in the Western desert in the 1880's. Three outlaws rob a bank and are pursued by a posse into the desert. They lose their horses and then find a wagon with a dying woman and her baby boy. The three men "adopt" the baby and try to take it to the town they just robbed. The money from the bank is $5,000 in two $2,500 bags of $20 gold coins. The coins are shown and appear to be standard prop coins. Some coins are also shown on a gambling table which appear to be silver dollar prop coins.

Three men plan to ride into the Western town of New Jerusalem to rob the bank. The townspeople are getting ready for the Christmas holiday.

They are Bob Sangster, James Underwood or "Doc" and Sam Bartow or "Gus." Doc and Gus are past middle-age men and Bob is younger. Doc is somewhat of a scholar and carries books by Shakespeare and Schopenhauer. Gus is an illiterate old cowboy. Bob is a hardened criminal who is from New Jerusalem and was ordered to leave the town two years ago. The three men ride into town separately and Gus visits a saloon. Some gamblers are playing cards.

The coins appear to be silver dollar prop coins. Bob looks up his old girlfriend Molly.

She tells Bob that she is about to marry the town banker. He gives her a women's watch claiming that it belonged to his mother, but she throws it back at him asking what woman he stole it from. Bob heads for the saloon to find Blackie, a woman of the town.

Bob makes a date with Blackie for later that evening. The next morning the three men head out to the bank.

The bank manager is wearing a Santa Claus costume for a Christmas party. It saves his life when Bob shoots him. The men ride off into the desert followed by a sheriff's posse.

The men find a covered wagon with a dying woman and a very healthy baby boy. They bury the woman and take the kid with them. During the night, their horses wander off and are poisoned by bad water. The men must now walk across the desert.

The older men want to carry the baby but Bob objects claiming that the kid will slow them down. Doc has an infected wound from the robbery and kills himself. Gus goes a little further and then walks into the desert to die. Bob, now alone, finds a note and the money left with the baby.

At first Bob plans to leave the baby but stops to pick up the coins which the baby is playing with. He fires a shot at the kid but actually shoots a nearby rattlesnake.

Bob has a change of heart and decides to carry the baby back to New Jerusalem, where he knows that he will probably be hanged (executed) for his crimes.

Bob is travelling slowly on foot and begins to leave things on the ground, including the money.

Bob finally arrives at the town, exhausted, and staggers into the church.

Bob hand the baby to Molly and collapses dead at the foot of Blackie.

The baby holding the watch and a man next to Molly asks her whose watch it is.

Molly replies "It was his mother's watch."

Chester Morris as Bob Sangster
Lewis Stone as James Underwood "Doc"
Walter Brennan as Sam Bartow "Gus"
Irene Hervey as Molly
Dorothy Tree as Blackie Winters
Director: Richard Boleslawski
Writers: Edward E. Paramore Jr., Manuel Seff, Peter B. Kyne (novel)