John Ford with photographer George Schneiderman on the set of The Iron Horse, 1924
(via heartofblarkness)
#8: Mogambo
This movie is awesome. I thought it had Victor McLaglen and it doesn’t, and the ending’s something of a let down, but otherwise I think it’s actually better than Red Dust. The sexual tension is a lot less strong than Red Dust but I think this is a stronger movie anyway. The editing in one of the scenes with the gorillas makes this one of Ford’s most important movies editing-wise. Well directed too. Good movie. Watch it. Clark Gable and Ava Gardner are fantastic, and Grace Kelly is a darn sight better than Mary Astor in Red Dust.
#7: Mister Roberts
John Ford’s widest movie, at 2.55:1 (How The West Was Was Won was 2.85:1 or something but he only shot a segment of that). The version I saw was an academy ratio transfer so I can’t really comment well on the direction, but it’s still a really great movie, more for the acting than anything else.
Thanks to gall bladder surgery and punching Hank Fonda in the face, an unknown but large proportion of this movie was directed by Mervyn LeRoy.
#5 & #6: December 7th & Battle of Midway
Being contemporaneous war documentaries these are very short on information and have a hell of a lot to say about opinions. Shamelessly anti-Japanese, December 7th however, does have a very interesting, very informative and genuinely positive segment about Hawaii’s massive Japanese population (Did you know that there were 157,000 (or 137,000. I don’t remember which) Japanese living in Hawaii in 1941, 37%, and the majority, of the population). Battle of Midway is more adequate as propaganda, and very interesting as a document of war. Both are interesting studies in film direction, editing and montage. Watch them.
#4: How Green Was My Valley
#3: They Were Expendable
John Ford’s first feature since 1941’s How Green Was My Valley, and he still had it. He still more than had it. His direction of this movie is great. It’s got a real quiet intensity about it. But what really struck me about this movie was how amazingly handsome John Wayne is in this movie. I have never been a stickler for John Wayne’s attractiveness before but sweet goshamoses even if he hadn’t put in a really excellent performance in this movie (under extra pressure from Ford because he didn’t serve in WWII) I don’t think I would’ve noticed. My only complaint about this movie is the amount of clothes he was wearing.
Silent Ford movies I am led to believe are surviving:
- Upstream
- 3 Bad Men
- Hangman’s House
- The Iron Horse
- Just Pals
- Bucking Broadway
- Straight Shooting
- Hell Bent
- The Shamrock Handicap
For 8 other films there is no information as to their status, 7 are partially surviving, the rest are said to be lost. IMDb is not trustworthy in this matter due to certain schmucks trying to raise their status as movie watchers by writing phony reviews, rating Ford movies they can’t possibly have seen and submitting disreputable “facts”.
#2: 3 Godfathers
This is the John Ford western for people who don’t like westerns. It’s so awesome. John Wayne is the best. Ward Bond is in this movie.
#1: Grapes of Wrath
I love the novel more than life itself, which is part of the reason the movie did not appeal to me the first time I saw it as I’d just finished the novel and I felt like you couldn’t do that novel justice in 2 hours or 5 hours or 10 hours but maybe 15. But when I saw this movie two days ago I feel like it did the novel justice. It did the novel more than justice. Between Ford, Hank Fonda, Ward Bond for 5 minutes and high contrast black & white, well, what’s not to like. The book still blows it out of the water, but the book blows everything out of the water. I couldn’t enjoy movies properly for two weeks after I finished that book.
