John Ford

  • John Ford – Rio Grande (1950)

    1941-1950John FordRomanceUSAWestern

    Plot synopsis:
    A cavalry officer posted on the Rio Grande must deal with murderous raiding Apaches, his son who’s a risk-taking recruit and his wife from whom he has been separated for many years.

    Rio Grande is a 1950 film and the third installment of John Ford’s “cavalry trilogy”, following Fort Apache (1948) and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949). John Wayne stars in all three films, as Captain Kirby Yorke (York) in Fort Apache, then as Capt. of Cavalry Nathan Cutting Brittles in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and finally as a promoted Lieutenant Colonel Kirby Yorke (York) in Rio Grande.Read More »

  • John Ford – My Darling Clementine (1946)

    1941-1950DramaJohn FordUSAWestern

    Quote:
    Wyatt Earp and his brothers Morgan and Virgil ride into Tombstone and leave brother James in charge of their cattle herd. On their return they find their cattle stolen and James dead. Wyatt takes on the job of town marshal, making his brothers deputies, and vows to stay in Tombstone until James’ killers are found. He soon runs into the brooding, coughing, hard-drinking Doc Holliday as well as the sullen and vicious Clanton clan. Wyatt discovers the owner of a trinket stolen from James’ dead body and the stage is set for the Earps’ long-awaited revenge.Read More »

  • John Ford – How Green Was My Valley [+commentary] (1941)

    Drama1941-1950ClassicsJohn FordUSA

    Quote:
    Life is hard in a Welsh mining town and no less so for the Morgan family. Seen through the eyes of the family’s youngest, Huw, we learn of the family’s trials and tribulations. Family patriarch Gwilym and his older sons work in the mines, dangerous and unhealthy as it is. Gwilym has greater hopes for his youngest son, but Huw has his own ideas on how to honor his father. Daughter Angharad is the most beautiful girl in the valley and is very much in love with Mr. Gruffydd, who isn’t sure he can provide her the life she deserves. Times are hard and good men find themselves out of work and exploited by unseen mine owners.Read More »

  • John Ford – The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

    USA1961-1970ClassicsJohn FordWestern

    Quote:
    There are arguably no bigger cinematic icons of America than John Wayne – the right wing side of America steeped in violence and guns, and James Stewart – the left wing side of America rooted in humanity, understanding and intelligence. And there is arguably no finer chronicler of America’s mythology and past than John Ford. Put them together and you get one of the finest westerns ever made.Read More »

  • John Ford – Gideon’s Day AKA Gideon of Scotland Yard (1958)

    Drama1951-1960CrimeJohn FordUnited Kingdom

    Synopsis:
    Bribery, robbery and an escaped homicidal patient. Just one day in the life of Chief Inspector Gideon of Scotland Yard.Read More »

  • John Ford – The Long Gray Line (1955)

    1951-1960ClassicsDramaJohn FordUSA

    Plot Summary
    Martin “Marty” Maher, an immigrant from Ireland, arrives at West Point where he is assigned to work in the kitchen. He soon proves to be ill-suited to such work and quits only to enlist in the army. The head of the West Point athletics department, Captain Koehler (known as the Master of the Sword), takes Marty on as an assistant. Marty proves to be no great specimen of a sports expert, but he has a winning way about him in dealing with the cadets, whether it’s boxing, swimming or football.Read More »

  • John Ford – The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

    1931-1940ClassicsDramaJohn FordUSA

    Synopsis:
    The Joad clan, introduced to the world in John Steinbeck’s iconic novel, is looking for a better life in California. After their drought-ridden farm is seized by the bank, the family — led by just-paroled son Tom — loads up a truck and heads West. On the road, beset by hardships, the Joads meet dozens of other families making the same trek and holding onto the same dream. Once in California, however, the Joads soon realize that the promised land isn’t quite what they hoped.Read More »

  • John Ford – Two Rode Together (1961)

    1961-1970DramaJohn FordUSAWestern

    Recycling elements of My Darling Clementine and The Searchers in a bitter, latter-day light, this late Western by John Ford initiates the last, dark phase of the master’s vision of the corrupting influences of the progress of civilization in the wilderness. James Stewart is introduced to the Ford stock company as a thoroughly venal town marshal, Guthrie McCabe, who’s pressed into service by the cavalry to oversee the ransoming of several whites long held captive by the Indians. McCabe is concerned with nothing but making a buck on the enterprise and coming back with his scalp intact, yet against his better judgment he becomes an arbiter of social and personal justice, and a de facto one-man protest against bigotry and hypocrisy. The cinematography is bleaker than anything seen in Ford’s more heroic Westerns, and the stylistic high point is a hilarious one-take conversation between Stewart and cavalryman Richard Widmark at the river’s edge. –Richard T. JamesonRead More »

  • John Ford – The Long Voyage Home (1940)

    1931-1940ClassicsDramaJohn FordUSA

    Shannon Kelley writes:
    The powers and fascinations of director John Ford and playwright Eugene O’Neill are happily met in this 1940 feature dramatizing the lives of men who serve as crew members aboard commercial freighters. Like O’Neill, Ford nursed a lifelong obsession with sailing and the sea, and had spent his early years in Portland, Maine, amid the maritime culture that this picture describes. Adapted and updated by screenwriter Dudley Nichols (Ford’s frequent collaborator) from four of O’Neill’s early plays set aboard the fictional “SS Glencairn,” the film recounts the experiences of the ship’s crew while transporting ammunition from the West Indies to England during World War II. Read More »

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