John Ford Sound Films, Part 4: 1956-1950
My Darling Clementine through Rio Grande

The following is a list of John Ford sound films.  These film pages are taken from Wikipedia entries (with some minor editing).  I will be adding bibliographic material and John Ford film stills from my personal collection to add to these pages.  Also, I will be adding bibliographic material and references from noted writers.

Return to John Ford Table of Contents

They Were Expendable (1945)

Directed by

John Ford

Produced by

John Ford

Screenplay by

Frank Wead
Jan Lustig [de] (uncredited)

Based on

They Were Expendable, 1942 book, by William Lindsay White

Starring

Robert Montgomery
John Wayne
Donna Reed

Music by

Herbert Stothart

Cinematography

Joseph H. August

Edited by

Douglass Biggs
Frank E. Hull

Production company

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Distributed by

Loew's Inc.

Release date

December 19, 1945 [1]

Running time

135 minutes

Country

United States

Language

English

Box office

$3,250,000 (US rentals)[2]

They Were Expendable is a 1945 American war film directed by John Ford, starring Robert Montgomery and John Wayne, and featuring Donna Reed. The film is based on the 1942 book by William Lindsay White, relating the story of the exploits of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three, a PT boat unit defending the Philippines against Japanese invasion during the Battle of the Philippines (1941–42) in World War II.

While a work of fiction, the book was based on actual events and people.[1] The characters John Brickley (Montgomery) and Rusty Ryan (Wayne) are fictionalizations of the actual subjects, John D. Bulkeley (Medal of Honor recipient) and Robert Kelly, respectively.[3] Both the film and the book, which was a best-seller and excerpted in Reader's Digest and Life,[4] depict events that did not occur, but were believed to be real during the war; nonetheless, the film is noted for its verisimilitude in its depiction of naval combat.

Plot

In December 1941, Lt. John "Brick" Brickley (Robert Montgomery) commands a squadron of U.S. Navy PT boats, based at Cavite in the Philippines, in a demonstration of its capabilities, but the admiral in charge is unimpressed. Lt. J.G. "Rusty" Ryan (John Wayne), Brick's executive officer and friend, becomes disgusted and is writing his request for a transfer when news arrives of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Brick, Ryan and the rest of the squadron are frustrated for a time, as they are assigned non-combat duties, mostly messenger runs. Eventually, their superior has no choice but to order them to attack a large Japanese cruiser. But Brick orders Rusty to the hospital before they sortie when it is discovered that he has blood poisoning. There, Rusty begins a romance with Army nurse Sandy Davyss (Donna Reed). Another patient, "Ohio" (Louis Jean Heydt) is also attracted to Sandy. Brick's boats sink the cruiser, after which the squadron is unleashed, achieving increasing success, though at the cost of both boats and men. But it is only a matter of time before the Philippines fall. Sandy attends a dinner in her honor at the PT Base which makes it clear she is interested in Rusty.

With the mounting Japanese onslaught against the doomed American defenders at Bataan and on Corregidor, the squadron is assigned to evacuate General Douglas MacArthur, his family, and others to Mindanao, where an airplane will take them to Australia. Rusty manages to make a last phone call to Sandy, now on Bataan, to explain he will not be able to see her but before they can say goodbye, the connection is cut off. The boats successfully take MacArthur to his destination where he and his family are flown to Australia. This done, they resume their attacks against the Japanese, who gradually whittle down the squadron. Crews without boats are sent to fight as infantry. The final two boats pull into a small ship yard for repairs which is run by "Dad" (Russell Simpson). The Japanese troops are approaching but Dad says they will have to fight to get him. He is last seen sitting on the steps to his house with a rifle, pistol, and jug, waiting for the Japanese troops. The last two PT boats make another attack, after which Rusty's boat is sunk. Finally, the last boat is turned over to the Army for messenger duty. Brick, Ryan and two ensigns are ordered to be airlifted out on the last airplane because the PT boats have proved their worth, and the officers are needed stateside as trainers. While waiting for the plane, Rusty meets Ohio. Neither knows what happened to Sandy who was trapped on Bataan. They speculate that she might have escaped to the hills but are not optimistic. The surviving enlisted men, led by Chief Mulcahey, are left behind to continue the fight with the remnants of the U.S. Army and Filipino guerrillas.

Cast

·       Robert Montgomery as Lieutenant John Brickley (as Robert Montgomery Comdr. U.S.N.R.)

·       John Wayne as Lieutenant (junior grade) "Rusty" Ryan

·       Donna Reed as 2nd Lieutenant Sandy Davyss

·       Jack Holt as General Martin

·       Ward Bond as BMC "Boats" Mulcahey

·       Marshall Thompson as Ensign "Snake" Gardner

·       Paul Langton as Ensign "Andy" Andrews

·       Leon Ames as Major James Morton

·       Arthur Walsh as Seaman Jones

·       Donald Curtis as Lieutenant (J.G.) "Shorty" Long/Radio Announcer

·       Cameron Mitchell as Ensign George Cross

·       Jeff York as Ensign Tony Aiken

·       Murray Alper as TM1c "Slug" Mahan

·       Harry Tenbrook as SC2c "Squarehead" Larsen

·       Jack Pennick as "Doc"

·       Alex Havier as ST3c "Benny" Lecoco

·       Charles Trowbridge as Admiral Blackwell

·       Robert Barrat as The General

·       Bruce Kellogg as Elder Tompkins MoMM2c

·       Tim Murdock as Ensign Brant

·       Louis Jean Heydt as "Ohio"

·       Russell Simpson as "Dad" Knowland

·       Vernon Steele as Army Doctor

·       Bad Luck as ship's cat.[5]

Production

Following the acquisition of the film rights to William L. White's They Were Expendable MGM asked Ford to direct a film based on the book; Ford repeatedly refused due to his serving in the Navy Field Photographic Unit. During this time Ford met Lieutenant John D. Bulkeley during the preparation of the Normandy Invasion[6] and later sighted Bulkeley's former executive officer Robert Montgomery on D-Day.[7]

Ford, a notoriously hard taskmaster, was especially hard on Wayne, who did not serve in the armed forces. During production, Ford fell from scaffolding and broke his leg. He turned to Montgomery, who had actually commanded a PT boat, to temporarily take over for him as director. Montgomery did so well that within a few years he began directing films.

The film, which received extensive support from the Navy Department, was shot in Key Biscayne, Florida and the Florida Keys. This region closely approximated the South West Pacific Theater. Actual U.S. Navy 80-foot Elco PT boats were used throughout filming, albeit re-marked with false hull numbers in use in late 1941 and early 1942. Additional U.S. naval aircraft from nearby naval air stations in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Key West were temporarily remarked and used to simulate Japanese aircraft in the film.

Ford's onscreen directing credit reads, "Directed by John Ford, Captain U.S.N.R."; Frank Wead's onscreen credit reads: "Screenplay by Frank Wead Comdr. U.S.N., Ret"; Montgomery's onscreen credit reads: "Robert Montgomery Comdr. U.S.N.R."[8]

Awards and honors

Douglas Shearer was nominated for the Oscar for Best Sound Recording, while A. Arnold Gillespie, Donald Jahraus, R. A. MacDonald and Michael Steinore were nominated for Best Effects.[9] It was also named in the "10 Best Films of 1945" list by The New York Times.[10]

References

1.        White, W. L. (October 26, 1942). "They Were Expendable". Life. p. 114. Retrieved November

2.        McBride, Joseph Searching for John Ford; Univ. Press of Mississippi, 11 Feb. 2011

My Darling Clementine (1946)

Directed by

John Ford

Produced by

Samuel G. Engel

Written by

Samuel G. Engel
Winston Miller
Story:
Sam Hellman
Uncredited:
Stuart Anthony
William M. Conselman

Based on

Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal, 1931 novel, by Stuart N. Lake

Starring

Henry Fonda
Victor Mature
Linda Darnell
Walter Brennan

Music by

Cyril J. Mockridge (uncredited)

Cinematography

Joseph MacDonald

Edited by

Dorothy Spencer

Production company

20th Century Fox

Distributed by

20th Century Fox

Release date

December 3, 1946

Running time

97 minutes

Country

United States

Language

English

Budget

$2 million[1]

Box office

$2,750,000 (US rentals)[2][3]

My Darling Clementine is a 1946 American Western film directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp during the period leading up to the gunfight at the OK Corral. The ensemble cast also features Victor Mature (as Doc Holliday), Linda Darnell, Walter Brennan, Tim Holt, Cathy Downs and Ward Bond.

The title of the movie is borrowed from the theme song "Oh My Darling, Clementine", sung in parts over the opening and closing credits. The screenplay is based on the fictionalized biography Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal by Stuart Lake, as were two earlier movies, both named Frontier Marshal (released in 1934 and 1939, respectively).

My Darling Clementine is regarded by many film critics as one of the best Westerns ever made. In 1991, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry; it was among the first 75 films entered into the registry.[4]

Plot

In 1882 (a year after the actual gunfight at the O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881), Wyatt, Morgan, Virgil, and James Earp are driving cattle to California when they encounter Old Man Clanton and his sons. He offers to buy their herd, but they curtly refuse to sell. When the Earps learn about the nearby boom town of Tombstone, the older brothers ride in, leaving the youngest, James, as watchman. The threesome soon learns that Tombstone is a lawless town without a marshal. Wyatt proves the only man in the town willing to face a drunken Indian shooting at the townspeople. When the brothers return to their camp, they find their cattle rustled and James murdered.

Wyatt returns to Tombstone. Seeking to avenge James's murder, he takes the open position of town marshal and encounters the hot-tempered Doc Holliday and scurrilous Clanton gang several times. During this time, Clementine Carter, Doc's former love interest from his hometown of Boston, arrives after a long search for her beau. She is given a room at the same hotel where both Wyatt and Doc Holliday reside.

Chihuahua, a hot-tempered Latina love interest of Doc's, sings in the local saloon. She runs afoul of Wyatt trying to tip a professional gambler off to his poker hand, resulting in Wyatt dunking her in a horse trough. Doc, who is suffering badly from tuberculosis and fled from Clementine previously, is unhappy with her arrival; he tells her to return to Boston or he will leave Tombstone. Clementine stays, so Doc leaves for Tucson. Wyatt, who has been taken by Clementine since her arrival, begins to awkwardly court her. Angry over Doc's hasty flight Chihuahua starts an argument with Clementine. Wyatt walks in on their spat and breaks it up. He notices Chihuahua is wearing a silver cross that had been taken from his brother James the night he'd been killed. She claims Doc gave it to her.

Wyatt chases down Doc, with whom he has had a testy relationship. Doc forces a shoot-out, ending with Wyatt shooting a pistol out of Doc's hand. The two return to Tombstone, where after being questioned, Chihuahua reveals the silver cross was actually given to her by Billy Clanton. During the interrogation Billy shoots Chihuahua through a window and takes off on horseback, but is wounded by Wyatt. Wyatt directs his brother Virgil to pursue him. The chase leads to the Clanton homestead, where Billy dies of his wounds. Old Man Clanton then shoots Virgil in the back in cold blood.

In town, a reluctant Doc is persuaded to operate on Chihuahua. Hope swells for her successful recovery. The Clantons then arrive, toss Virgil's body on the street and announce they will be waiting for the rest of the Earps at the O.K. Corral.

Chihuahua dies and Doc decides to join the Earps, walking alongside Wyatt and Morgan to the corral at sunup. A gunfight ensues in which most of the Clantons are killed, as is Doc.

Wyatt and Morgan resign as law enforcers. Morgan heads West in a horse and buggy. Wyatt bids Clementine farewell at the schoolhouse, wistfully promising that if he ever returns he will look her up. Mounting his horse, muses aloud, "Ma'am, I sure like that name...Clementine," and rides off to join his brother.

Cast

·       Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp

·       Linda Darnell as Chihuahua

·       Victor Mature as Dr. John Henry "Doc" Holliday

·       Cathy Downs as Clementine Carter, Doc's ex-love-interest from Boston

·       Walter Brennan as Newman Haynes Clanton, cattleman

·       Tim Holt as Virgil Earp

·       Ward Bond as Morgan Earp

·       Don Garner as James Earp

·       Grant Withers as Ike Clanton

·       John Ireland as Billy Clanton

·       Alan Mowbray as Granville Thorndyke, stage actor

·       Roy Roberts as Mayor

·       Jane Darwell as Kate Nelson

·       J. Farrell MacDonald as Mac the barman

·       Russell Simpson as John Simpson

·       Charles Stevens as Indian Charlie (uncredited)

Production

Development

In 1931, Stuart Lake published the first biography two years after Earp's death.[5] Lake retold the story in the 1946 book My Darling Clementine,[5] for which Ford acquired the film rights. The two books have since been determined to be largely fictionalized stories about the Earp brothers and the gunfight at the O.K. Corral and their conflict with the outlaw Cowboys: Billy Clanton, Tom McLaury and his brother Frank McLaury. The gunfight was relatively unknown to the American public until Lake published the two books and after the movie was made.[5]

Director John Ford said that when he was a prop boy in the early days of silent pictures, Earp would visit pals he knew from his Tombstone days on the sets. "I used to give him a chair and a cup of coffee, and he told me about the fight at the O.K. Corral. So in My Darling Clementine, we did it exactly the way it had been."[6][7] Ford did not want to make the movie, but his contract required him to make one more movie for 20th Century Fox.[8]

In their later years, Wyatt and Josephine Earp worked hard to eliminate any mention of Josephine's previous relationship with Johnny Behan or Wyatt's previous common law marriage to Matty Blaylock. They successfully kept Josephine's name out of Lake's biography of Wyatt and after he died, Josephine threatened to sue the movie producers to keep it that way.[9] Lake corresponded with Josephine, and he claimed she attempted to influence what he wrote and hamper him in every way possible, including consulting lawyers. Josephine insisted she was striving to protect Wyatt Earp's legacy.[10]

After the movie Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (in which John Ireland portrayed another real-life figure of the time, Johnny Ringo) was released in 1957, the shootout came to be known by that name.

Writing

The final script of the movie varies considerably from historical fact to create additional dramatic conflict and character. Clementine Carter is not a historical person, and in this script appears to be an amalgam of Big Nose Kate and Josephine Earp. Unlike the movie characters, the Earps were never cowboys, drovers, or cattle owners. Important plot devices in the film and personal details about the main characters were all liberally adapted for the movie.[11]

Old Man Clanton actually died prior to the gunfight and probably never met any of the Earps. Doc was a dentist, not a surgeon, and survived the shootout. James Earp, who was portrayed as the youngest brother and the first to die in the story, actually was the eldest brother and lived until 1926. The key women in Wyatt's and Doc's lives—Wyatt's common law wife Josephine and Doc's common-law wife Big Nose Kate—were not present in Lake's original story and were kept out of the movie as well. The film gives the date of the gunfight as 1882 when it actually occurred in 1881.[4]

Upon leaving Tombstone, the itinerant actor, Granville Thorndyke (Alan Mowbray), bids farewell to the old soldier, "Dad" (Francis Ford (actor), John Ford's elder brother), with lines from Joseph Addison's poem, "The Campaign": "Great Souls by Instinct to each other turn,/Demand Alliance ("allegiance" in the film), and in Friendship burn..."

Filming

Much of the film was shot in Monument Valley, a scenic desert region straddling the Arizona-Utah border used in other John Ford movies. It is 500 miles (800 km) away from the town of Tombstone in southern Arizona.[12] After seeing a preview screening of the film, 20th Century Fox studio boss Darryl F. Zanuck felt Ford's original cut was too long and had some weak spots, so he had Lloyd Bacon shoot new footage and heavily edit the film.[4] Zanuck had Bacon cut 30 minutes from the film.[8]

While Ford's original cut of the film has not survived, a "pre-release" cut—dating from a few months after the preview screening—was discovered in the UCLA film archives; this version preserves some additional footage as well as alternative scoring and editing. UCLA film preservationist Robert Gitt edited a version of the film that incorporates some of the earlier version.[13] Perhaps the most significant change is the film's ending; in Ford's original version, Earp awkwardly shakes hands with Clementine Carter. In the version released in 1946, Earp kisses her on the cheek.[14]

Critical Reception

The film is generally regarded as one of the best Westerns made by John Ford[15][16] and one of his best films overall.[17]

At the time of its release, Bosley Crowther lauded the film and wrote, "The eminent director, John Ford, is a man who has a way with a Western like nobody in the picture trade. Seven years ago his classic Stagecoach snuggled very close to fine art in this genre. And now, by George, he's almost matched it with My Darling Clementine ... But even with standard Western fiction—and that's what the script has enjoined—Mr. Ford can evoke fine sensations and curiously-captivating moods. From the moment that Wyatt and his brothers are discovered on the wide and dusty range, trailing a herd of cattle to a far-off promised land, a tone of pictorial authority is struck—and it is held. Every scene, every shot is the product of a keen and sensitive eye—an eye which has deep comprehension of the beauty of rugged people and a rugged world."[18]

Director Sam Peckinpah considered My Darling Clementine his favorite Western,[19] and paid homage to it in several of his Westerns, including Major Dundee (1965) and The Wild Bunch (1969).

The Variety reviewer wrote, "Trademark of John Ford's direction is clearly stamped on the film with its shadowy lights, softly contrasted moods and measured pace, but a tendency is discernible towards stylization for the sake of stylization. At several points, the pic comes to a dead stop to let Ford go gunning for some arty effect".[20]

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% approval rating with an average score of 8.79/10, based on 30 reviews.[21]

Fifty years after its release, Roger Ebert reviewed the film and included it in his list of The Great Movies.[15]

In 2004, Matt Bailey summarized its significance: "If there is one film that deserves every word of praise ever uttered or written about it, it is John Ford's My Darling Clementine. Perhaps the greatest film in a career full of great films, arguably the finest achievement in a rich and magnificent genre, and undoubtedly the best version of one of America's most enduring myths, the film is an undeniable and genuine classic."[22] In the British Film Institute's 2012 Sight & Sound polls, seven critics and five directors named it one of their 10 favorite films.[23]

It was also President Harry Truman's favorite film.[24]

References

1.         "60 Top Grossers of 1946", Variety 8 January 1947 p8

2.       Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century-Fox: A Corporate and Financial History Rowman & Littlefield, 2002 p 221

3.       Nixon, Rob. "The Big Idea Behind My Darling Clementine".  17, 2013.

4.       Goodman, Michael (July 30, 2005). Wyatt Earp. The Creative Company. p. 95. 

5.       Hutton, Paul Andrew (May 7, 2012). "Wyatt Earp's First Film". True West.

6.       Gallagher, Tag (1986). John Ford: the Man and His Films. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 234. 

7.       Faragher, John Mack (1996). "The Tale of Wyatt Earp: Seven Films". In Carnes, Mark C. (ed.). Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies. New York: Henry Holt. pp. 154–161.

8.       Rosa, Joseph G. (1979). The Gunfighter: Man or Myth?. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 156. 

9.       Earp, Josephine (November 19, 1935). "Earp's widow admits her financial destitution to his biographer". Letter to Stuart Lake. Retrieved November 10, 2011 – via Shapell Manuscript Collection.

10.    "Never Let the Truth Get In the Way of a Good Story". Signal Intrusions.

11.     [1]

12.    Turan, Kenneth (April 5, 1995). "Unearthing Hollywood Treasures – Movies: The annual extravaganza from UCLA's Film and Television Archive offers a cornucopia of treats". Los Angeles Times.

13.     Arnold, Jeremy; Steiner, Richard. "My Darling Clementine(1946) – Home Video Reviews". Turner Classic Movies.

14.    Ebert, Roger. "My Darling Clementine".

15.     Maltin, Leonard. "Leonard Maltin Ratings & Review". 

16.    Eggert, Brian (October 7, 2008). "My Darling Clementine (1946)". Deep Focus Review.

17.     Crowther, Bosley (December 4, 1946). "Darling Clementine With Henry Fonda as Marshal of Tombstone, a Stirring Film of West". The Screen. New York Times.

18.    Erickson, Steve (December 25, 2012). "The Essential Movie Library #10: My Darling Clementine (1946)". Los Angeles Magazine. Retrieved November 21, 2013.

19.    Schoenfeld, Herm (October 9, 1946). "My Darling Clementine". Pictures. Variety. p. 14.

The Fugitive (1947)

Directed by

John Ford

Produced by

Merian C. Cooper
Emilio Fernández
John Ford

Written by

Dudley Nichols

Based on

The Power and the Glory, 1940 novel, by Graham Greene

Starring

Henry Fonda
Dolores del Río
Pedro Armendáriz

Music by

Richard Hageman

Cinematography

Gabriel Figueroa

Edited by

Jack Murray

Production company

Argosy Pictures

Distributed by

RKO Radio Pictures

Release date

November 3, 1947

Running time

104 minutes

Countries

United States
Mexico

Language

English

Budget

$1.5 million[1]

The Fugitive is a 1947 American drama film starring Henry Fonda and directed by John Ford, based on the 1940 novel The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene. The film was shot on location in Mexico.

Plot

A nameless and conflicted Catholic priest is a fugitive in an unnamed Latin American state where religion is outlawed. Another fugitive, a murderous bandit dubbed "El Gringo", comes to town. He and a beautiful Indian woman conspire to help the priest escape. Taken to safety, the priest is then convinced by a police informant to return to the town on the pretense that "El Gringo" is dying and wishes to receive the last rites. The priest is captured and sentenced to death, but forgives the informant for betraying him. The priest's execution by firing squad brings an outpouring of public grief and shows the authorities that it is impossible to stamp out religion as long as it exists in people's hearts and minds.

Cast

·       Henry Fonda as fugitive priest

·       Dolores del Río as Maria Dolores

·       Pedro Armendáriz as Police lieutenant

·       J. Carrol Naish as police informer

·       Leo Carrillo as chief of police

·       Ward Bond as James "El Gringo" Calvary

·       Robert Armstrong as police sergeant

·       Rodolfo Acosta as policeman (uncredited)

Production

The Fugitive was filmed on location in Taxco de Alarcón, Cholula, Cuernavaca, and the Churubusco Studios in Mexico City. It was the first collaboration between RKO and Ford-Cooper's company Argosy Pictures, the deal was for Argosy to produce three pictures that RKO should distribute, and they would share the costs, and benefits fifty-fifty, but retaining creative control.

With the exception of two assistant directors and an editor, the entire crew was Mexican, about it Ford said it ran ""neck and neck with the best...in Hollywood." [2]

John Ford was helped by Mexican director Emilio Fernández who served as an associate producer of the film. He introduced Ford to Dolores del Río, Pedro Armendáriz and cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa (all people Fernández previously worked with). About Figueroa's work Ford said: "It had a lot of damn good photography – with those black and white shadows, [...] We had a good cameraman, Gabriel Figueroa, and we'd wait for the light – instead of the way it is nowadays, where regardless of the light, you shoot."[3]

Reception

Tag Gallagher has written an extended discussion of the film in his book, John Ford: The Man and His Films (1986). He summarizes The Fugitive and its place in Ford's career as follows: "once in Mexico, Ford jettisoned most of the script and, giving leave to his fancy, made a highly abstract art film. The Fugitive lost considerable money, caused a rift between [writer Dudley] Nichols and Ford, and has posed problems even for Ford's most devoted followers. Only the director himself consistently defended it. 'I just enjoy looking at it.' 'To me, it was perfect.' And in terms of composition, lighting and editing, The Fugitive may be among the most enjoyable pictures."[4]

Bret Wood has written, "Ford is best remembered today for his boisterous adventure films, such as The Quiet Man (1952), The Searchers (1956) or She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949); and for his crusty, unpretentious demeanor, often denying the existence of thematic subtext in his work and refusing to discuss his artistic intentions as a director. But The Fugitive belongs to an earlier, lesser known faction of his work, self-consciously 'arty' films that demonstrated his interests in German expressionism, English literature and religious ideology. Films such as The Informer (1935), The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936) or The Long Voyage Home (1940), remind us that beneath Ford's growling machismo were a sophisticated mind and a brilliant visual sense, even though Ford was later to deny both gifts ('I make Westerns' is how he typically summarized his career). The Fugitive is perhaps Ford's last great 'art film', a high-minded show of faith, a lovingly crafted paean to his own Catholicism."[5]

Accolades

The film gained the prize of the International Catholic Organization for Cinema (OCIC) at the Venice Film Festival in 1948. According to this jury, this was a film "most capable of contributing to the revival of moral and spiritual values of humanity". OCIC critic Johanes added to this that The Fugitive "excelled in plastic perfection. On the other hand, it’s very excess of pictorial splendour was a fault of the John Ford-Figueroa production; The drama of the priest as related by Graham Greene lost in profundity what it gained in external splendour".[6] "We all know the definition of this award "for the production that has made the greatest contribution to the moral and spiritual betterment of humanity". it differs from the other awards, when are normally given for artistic merit. Art for Art's sake is not the object, but rather art for the sake of man, the whole of man, heart and soul. Pious dullness is not the aim (...).[6]

References

1.        Gallagher, Tag (1986). John Ford: The Man and His Films. University of California Press. p. 234.

Fort Apache (1948)

Directed by

John Ford

Produced by

Merian C. Cooper
John Ford

Written by

Frank S. Nugent

Based on

"Massacre", 1947 story The Saturday Evening Post, by James Warner Bellah

Starring

John Wayne

Henry Fonda

Music by

Richard Hageman

Cinematography

Archie Stout, ASC

Edited by

J ack Murray

Production company

Argosy Pictures

Distributed by

RKO Radio Pictures

Release date

March 27, 1948

Running time

125 minutes

Country

United States

Language

English

Budget

$2.1 million[

Box office

$3 million (US rentals)

Fort Apache is a 1948 American Western film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and Henry Fonda. The film was the first of the director's "cavalry trilogy" and was followed by She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) and Rio Grande (1950), both also starring Wayne. The screenplay was inspired by James Warner Bellah's short story "Massacre" (1947). The historical sources for "Massacre" have been attributed both to George Armstrong Custer and the Battle of Little Bighorn and to the Fetterman Fight.

The film was one of the first to present an authentic and sympathetic view of Native Americans. In his review of the DVD release of Fort Apache in 2012, New York Times movie critic Dave Kehr called it "one of the great achievements of classical American cinema, a film of immense complexity that never fails to reveal new shadings with each viewing ... among the first pro-Indian Westerns" that portrays the Native Americans with "sympathy and respect".

The film was awarded the Best Director and Best Cinematography awards by the Locarno International Film Festival of Locarno, Switzerland. Screenwriter Frank S. Nugent was nominated for best screenplay by the Writers Guild of America.

Plot

After the American Civil War, highly respected veteran Captain Kirby York (Wayne) is expected to replace the outgoing commander at Fort Apache, an isolated U.S. cavalry post. York had commanded his own regiment during the Civil War and was well-qualified to assume permanent command. To the surprise and disappointment of the company, command of the regiment was given to Lieutenant Colonel Owen Thursday (Fonda). Thursday, a West Point graduate, was a general during the Civil War. Despite his Civil War combat record, Lieutenant Colonel Thursday is an arrogant and egocentric officer who lacks experience dealing with Native Americans, and in particular local tribes with their unique cultures and traditions.

Accompanying widower Thursday is his daughter, Philadelphia (Shirley Temple). She becomes attracted to Second Lieutenant Michael Shannon O'Rourke (John Agar), the son of Sergeant Major Michael O'Rourke (Ward Bond). The elder O'Rourke was a recipient of the Medal of Honor as a major with the Irish Brigade during the Civil War, entitling his son to enter West Point and become an officer. However, the class-conscious Thursday forbids his daughter to see someone whom he does not consider a gentleman.

When unrest arises among the Apache, led by Cochise (Miguel Inclan), Thursday ignores York's advice to treat the tribes with honor and to remedy problems on the reservation caused by corrupt Indian agent Silas Meacham (Grant Withers). Thursday's inability to deal with Meacham effectively, due to his rigid interpretation of Army regulations stating that Meacham is an agent of the United States government, so entitled to Army protection (despite his own personal contempt for the man), coupled with Thursday's prejudicial and arrogant ignorance regarding the Apache, drives the Indians to rebel. Eager for glory and recognition, Thursday orders his regiment into battle on Cochise's terms, a direct charge into the hills, despite York's urgent warnings that such a move would be suicidal. Thursday relieves York and orders him to stay back, replacing him with Captain Sam Collingwood (George O'Brien).

Following Thursday's orders, York spares the younger O'Rourke from battle. Thursday's command is nearly wiped out, but a few soldiers manage to escape back to the ridge where Captain York is positioned. Thursday himself survives, but then returns to die with the last of his trapped men. Cochise spares York and the rest of the detachment because he knows York to be an honorable man.

Subsequently, now Lieutenant Colonel Kirby York commands the regiment. Meeting with correspondents, he introduces Lt. O'Rourke, now married to Philadelphia Thursday. A reporter asks Colonel York if he has seen the famous painting depicting "Thursday's Charge". York, about to command a new and arduous campaign to bring in the Apaches, while believing that Thursday was a poor tactician who led a foolhardy and suicidal charge, says it is completely accurate and then reminds the reporters that the soldiers will never be forgotten as long as the regiment lives.

Cast

·       John Wayne as Capt. Kirby York

·       Henry Fonda as Lt. Col. Owen Thursday

·       Ward Bond as Sgt. Major Michael O'Rourke

·       Shirley Temple as Miss Philadelphia Thursday

·       John Agar as Lt. Michael Shannon "Mickey" O'Rourke

·       Dick Foran as Sgt. Quincannon

·       Pedro Armendáriz as Sgt. Beaufort

·       Miguel Inclan as Cochise

·       Victor McLaglen as Sgt. Festus Mulcahy

·       Guy Kibbee as Capt. Wilkens, regimental surgeon

·       Anna Lee as Emily Collingwood

·       George O'Brien as Capt. Sam Collingwood

·       Jack Pennick as Sgt. Daniel Schattuck

·       Irene Rich as Mary O'Rourke

·       Grant Withers as Silas Meacham

·       Movita as Guadalupe, Col. Thursday's cook

·       Ray Hyke as Lt. Gates, regimental adjutant

·       Mary Gordon as Ma (Barmaid)

·       Philip Kieffer as Cavalryman (credited as Keiffer)

·       Mae Marsh as Mrs. Gates

·       Hank Worden as Southern Recruit

·       Danny Borzage as recruit/accordionist (uncredited)

·       Cliff Clark as Stage Driver (uncredited)

·       Francis Ford as Fen (Stage Guard) (uncredited)

·       Frank Ferguson as Newspaperman (uncredited)

·       Frank McGrath as Cpl. Derice (uncredited)

·       Harry Tenbrook as Tom O'Feeney (uncredited)

·       Archie R. Twitchell as Reporter (uncredited)

·       Fred Graham as Cavalryman (uncredited)

·       Mickey Simpson as NCO at dance (uncredited)

·       Jane Crowley as Officer's Wife (uncredited)

·       William Forrest as Reporter (uncredited)

Production

Screenplay

The Irish theme to the background of some of the troopers may be a nod to the service on both sides during the Civil War, as does the recruit who had allegedly served under Nathan Bedford Forrest. The role of Sergeant Major Michael O'Rourke (and his son) may be a thinly disguised tribute to 'Paddy' Patrick O'Rorke killed leading the 140th New York Volunteer Regiment in a desperate charge to shore up the right flank of Strong Vincent's Brigade on Little Round Top at the Battle of Gettysburg, July 2, 1863.

Filming

Some exteriors for the film's location shooting were shot in Monument Valley, Arizona. The exteriors involving the fort itself and the renegade Indian agent's trading post were filmed at the Corriganville Movie Ranch, a former Simi Hills movie ranch that is now a regional park in the Simi Valley of Southern California.

Reception

The film recorded a profit of $445,000. In 2013 dollars, this amounts to U.S. $4,365,450.

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in its 2008 AFI's 10 Top 10: Nominated Western film

Other rankings

Fort Apache is commonly ranked among the most significant films of the "cowboy/western" genre, including these rankings:

·       "Top-Grossing Westerns from 1930-1972 and Plot Classification" per Wright, W. (1975) in Six guns and society: A structural study of the Western (pp. 30–32). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

·       #43 in the "Top 100 Westerns": Western Writers of America

·       #28 of 92 in "Chronological Listing of Major and Representative Western Films" (Cawelti, 1999)

·       #28 in "Chronological Listing of 100 Major and Representative Western Films" (Hausladen, 2003)

·       #19 in "Top 100 Western Films (1914-2001)" (Hoffmann, 2003)

·       #11 in "AFI’s 50 Western Nominees" (American Film Institute)

·       #25 in "100 Greatest Western Movies of All-time" – (American Cowboy Magazine, 2008)

Additionally, the principal actors were ranked (for this and their other films):

·       #6 (Henry Fonda) and #13 (John Wayne) in the "AFI’s 50 Greatest American Screen Legends", American Film Institute

References

1.        "Fort Apache: Detail View". American Film Institute. Retrieved May 10, 2014.

2.       "Top Grossers of 1948", Variety 5 January 1949 p 46

3.       Variety film review; March 10, 1948, page 10.

4.       Harrison's Reports film review; xxx.

5.       Howze, William (2011). "Sources for Ford's "Cavalry trilogy:" The Saturday Evening Post and James Warner Bellah". Section of Howze's doctoral dissertation.

6.        

7.       Richard Jewell & Vernon Harbin, The RKO Story. New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House, 1982. p228

8.       "AFI's 10 Top 10 Nominees" (PDF). Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved August 19, 2016.

Further reading

·       Crowther, Bosley (June 25, 1948). "Fort Apache, RKO Western, With Fonda, Wayne and Temple, Bill at Capitol". The New York Times. In his contemporary review, Crowther writes "apparent in this picture, for those who care to look, is a new and maturing viewpoint upon one aspect of the American Indian wars. For here it is not the "heathen Indian" who is the "heavy" of the piece but a hard-bitten Army colonel, blind through ignorance and a passion for revenge. And ranged alongside this willful white man is a venal government agent who exploits the innocence of the Indians while supposedly acting as their friend."

·       Levy, Emanuel. "Fort Apache (1948)". Recent, highly favorable review of "John Ford's superb black-and white elegiac Western".

·       Schwartz, Dennis (August 15, 2001). "Fort Apache". Ozus' World. Schwartz summarizes the film as "a reworking of the Custer myth, in a film that over sentimentalizes Army life and chivalry."

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)

Directed by

John Ford

Produced by

Argosy Pictures

Screenplay by

Frank Nugent and Laurence Stallings

Based on

The Big Hunt, 1947 story in The Saturday Evening Post
War Party, 1948 in The Saturday Evening Post, by James Warner Bellah

Starring

John Wayne
Joanne Dru
John Agar
   Ben Johnson
Harry Carey, Jr.

Narrated by

Irving Pichel

Music by

Richard Hageman

Cinematography

Winton Hoch

Edited by

Jack Murray

Color process

Technicolor

Production company

Argosy Pictures

Distributed by

RKO Radio Pictures

Release date

July 26, 1949 (Premiere-Kansas City, KS), October 22, 1949 (US)

Running time

103 minutes

Country

United States

Language

English

Budget

$1.6 million

Box office

$2.7 million (rentals)

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is a 1949 Technicolor Western film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne. It is the second film in Ford's "Cavalry Trilogy," along with Fort Apache (1948) and Rio Grande (1950). With a budget of $1.6 million, the film was one of the most expensive Westerns made up to that time. It was a major hit for RKO. The film's title takes its name from "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon", a popular US military song that is used to keep marching cadence.

The film was shot on location in Monument Valley utilizing large areas of the Navajo reservation along the Arizona-Utah state border. Ford and cinematographer Winton Hoch based much of the film's imagery on the paintings and sculptures of Frederic Remington. The film won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Color in 1950. It was also nominated as 1950's Best Written American Western (which the Writers Guild of America awarded to Yellow Sky).

Plot

Dru as Olivia and Wayne as Captain Brittles

On the verge of his retirement at Fort Starke in 1876, a one-troop cavalry post, aging 43-year cavalry veteran US Cavalry Captain Nathan Cutting Brittles is given one last mission: to take his troop and deal with a breakout from the reservation by the Cheyenne and Arapaho following the defeat of George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

Brittles' task is complicated by being forced at the same time to deliver his commanding officer's wife and niece, Abby Allshard and Olivia Dandridge, to an eastbound stage and by the need to avoid a new Indian war. His troop officers, 1st Lt. Flint Cohill and 2nd Lt. Ross Pennell, meanwhile vie for the affections of Olivia while uneasily anticipating the retirement of their captain and mentor.

Assisting him with his mission is Capt. Brittles' chief scout, Sgt. Tyree, a one-time Confederate captain of cavalry; his first sergeant, Quincannon; and Maj. Allshard, Brittles' long-time friend and commanding officer.

After apparently failing in both missions, Brittles returns with the troop to Fort Starke to retire. His lieutenants continue the mission in the field, joined by Brittles after "quitting the post and the Army". Unwilling to see more lives needlessly taken, Brittles takes it upon himself to try to make peace with his old friend Chief Pony That Walks. When that too fails, he devises a risky stratagem to avoid a bloody war by stampeding the Indians' horses out of their camp, forcing the renegades to return to their reservation.

The film ends with Brittles being recalled to duty as Chief of Scouts with the rank of Lt. Colonel (a U.S. War Department order endorsed, he is pleased to see, by Gens. Phil Sheridan and William Tecumseh Sherman, and by President Ulysses S. Grant). Olivia and Lt. Cohill become engaged. The film ends with the troop of cavalry trotting down the road on patrol.

Cast

·       John Wayne as Captain Nathan Brittles

·       Joanne Dru as Olivia Dandridge

·       John Agar as Lieutenant Flint Cohill

·       Ben Johnson as Sergeant Tyree

·       Harry Carey Jr. as Lieutenant Ross Pennell

·       Victor McLaglen as Sergeant Quincannon

·       Mildred Natwick as Mrs. Abbey Allshard

·       George O'Brien as Major Mack Allshard

·       Arthur Shields as Dr. O'Laughlin

·       Michael Dugan as Sergeant Hochbauer

·       Chief John Big Tree as Pony-That-Walks

·       Fred Graham as Sergeant Hench

·       George Sky Eagle as Chief Sky Eagle

·       Tom Tyler as Corporal Quayne

·       Noble Johnson as Red Shirt

Director John Ford's older brother Francis appears in only one scene as Connolly, the barman. Ford kept Francis on wages "for eight weeks even through Francis could have completed his scenes in less than a week." Other uncredited cast members include: Irving Pichel as narrator (voice), Harry Woods as Karl Rynders, the sutler; Cliff Lyons as Trooper Cliff; Mickey Simpson as Wagner, the blacksmith; Fred Libby as Corporal Kumrein; and Rudy Bowman as Private Smith. Among Rynders' associates is veteran character actor Paul Fix (Harry Carey, Jr.'s father-in-law) in a small uncredited role.

Production

Casting

Director Ford initially was uncertain whom to cast in the lead role. However, he knew that he did not want John Wayne for the part—considering, among other factors, that Wayne would be playing a character over twenty years older than he was at the time. Reportedly, Wayne's 1948 performance in Red River changed Ford's mind, causing him to exclaim, "I didn’t know the big son of a bitch could act!" Ford realized Wayne had grown considerably as an actor, and was now capable of playing the character he envisaged for this film. When shooting was completed, Ford presented Wayne with a cake with the message, "You're an actor now." The role also became one of Wayne's favorite performances. Wayne, himself, felt that his Academy Award nomination for Best Actor of 1949 should have been for She Wore a Yellow Ribbon instead of Sands of Iwo Jima.

Filming

The cast and crew lived in relatively primitive conditions in Monument Valley. Most slept in dirt-floor cabins that only had communal cold-water drum showers. The film was completed ahead of schedule and under budget.

Although the film's cinematographer, Winton Hoch, won an Academy Award for his work, filming was not a smooth creative process because of conflicts with Ford. Ironically one of the most iconic scenes from the film was created during a dispute. As a line of cavalry rode through the desert, a real thunderstorm grew on the horizon. Hoch began to pack up the cameras as the weather worsened only for Ford to order him to keep shooting. Hoch argued that there was not enough natural light for the scene and, more importantly, the cameras could become potential lightning rods if the storm swept over them. Ford ignored Hoch's complaints; completing the scene as the thunderstorm rolled in, soaking the cast and crew. Hoch later had filed a letter of complaint against Ford with the American Society of Cinematographers over the filming of this scene.[3]

The story of Hoch's refusal to shoot in this thunderstorm has often been repeated, but actor Harry Carey, Jr., who was on the set, contests it. He says Ford had finished shooting for the day, but when the picturesque storm brewed he asked Hoch if they could shoot in the declining light. Hoch answered, "It's awfully dark, Jack. I'll shoot it. I just can't promise anything." Ford then instructed, "Winnie, open her up [the camera lens] and let's go for it. If it doesn't turn out, I'll take the rap." Winnie complied, saying, "Fair enough, Jack."

This was the second John Ford movie filmed in Technicolor. The first was Drums Along the Mohawk (1939).

Publicity

A theater poster featured the male lead wearing a yellow neckerchief with his uniform and a yellow banner (with proportions and shape evocative of a stylish ribbon) behind him, that also looped some 270 degrees around the female lead's shoulders.

1958 television pilot

A 1958 unsuccessful television pilot written by James Warner Bellah titled Command starred Everett Sloane as Captain Brittles and Ben Cooper as Lt Cohill.

References

1.        "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)" – via www.imdb.com.

2.       "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute..

3.       "Top Grossers of 1949". Variety. January 4, 1950. p. 59.

When Willie Comes Marching Home (1950)

Directed by

John Ford

Produced by

Fred Kohlmar

Screenplay by

Richard Sale
Mary Loos

Story by

Sy Gomberg

Starring

Dan Dailey
Corinne Calvet
Colleen Townsend
William Demarest

Music by

Alfred Newman

Cinematography

Leo Tover

Edited by

James B. Clark

Production company

20th Century Fox

Distributed by

20th Century Fox

Release date

February 17, 1950

Running time

82 minutes

Country

United States

Language

English

Box office

$1,750,000[1][2]

When Willie Comes Marching Home is a 1950 World War II comedy film directed by John Ford and starring Dan Dailey and Corinne Calvet. It is based on the 1945 short story "When Leo Comes Marching Home" by Sy Gomberg. The film won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival.[3]

Sy Gomberg also received an Oscar nomination for Best Motion Picture Story at the 23rd Academy Awards in 1951 but was edged out for the award by Edna Anhalt and Edward Anhalt for Panic in the Streets.

Plot

William "Bill" Kluggs (Dan Dailey) is the first in his hometown of Punxsutawney, West Virginia, to enlist in the Army Air Forces after the attack on Pearl Harbor, making his father Herman (William Demarest), mother Gertrude (Evelyn Varden) and girlfriend Marge Fettles (Colleen Townsend) proud. The whole town sees him off. Willie tries to become a pilot but washes out, although he proves to be so proficient at aerial gunnery that, rather than being sent to Europe to fight, he is made an instructor and assigned to a base near his hometown. After two years in the same place, he is branded a coward by the townsfolk, even though he continually requests a transfer into combat.

He finally gets his chance when a gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber gets sick and Bill is allowed to take his place. The plane takes off for England, but owing to fog, is unable to land and runs low on fuel. The crew is ordered to bail out, but Bill is asleep and does not parachute out of the plane until it is over German-occupied France.

He is captured immediately by the local French Resistance unit, led by the beautiful Yvonne (Corinne Calvet). While there, he sees a secret German rocket launch, which is filmed by the French. He and the film are picked up by a British torpedo boat and taken to England. There, he passes the vital information and his eyewitness confirmation on to a series of important generals, first in London and then in Washington, D.C..

During the time he is in the bomber, France, England, and Washington, he is continuously wakened when he tries to sleep, and plied with liquor as a pick-me-up or to settle motion sickness. Bill finally collapses, exhausted. He is sent to a hospital to recuperate, under strict orders not to reveal what he has done, where a doctor mistakenly puts him into a psychopath ward. When the hospital attendants believe he is crazy and try to put him in a straitjacket, Willie escapes and heads home on a freight train.

Back home, because only four days have elapsed since he left Punxatawney, his parents and girlfriend don't believe his story either. Officers from the Pentagon arrive to return him to Washington to be decorated personally by the President of the United States.

Cast

·       Jimmy Lydon as Charles "Charlie" Fettles

·       Lloyd Corrigan as Major Adams

·       Evelyn Varden as Mrs. Gertrude Kluggs

Mae Marsh, formerly a successful silent-era actress appears in an unbilled role. Alan Hale Jr. and Vera Miles also appear in unbilled roles, early in their respective careers.

Hollywood precision pilot Paul Mantz performed the crash stunt in which a PT-13D Stearman shears off its wings crashing between two oak trees.[4]

References

1.        ^ "Top Grosses of 1950". Variety. January 3, 1951. p. 58.

2.       ^ Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century-Fox: A Corporate and Financial History Rowman & Littlefield, 2002 p 223

Wagon Master (1950)

Directed by

John Ford

Produced by

John Ford
Merian C. Cooper

Written by

Patrick Ford
Frank S. Nugent

Starring

Ben Johnson

Joanne Dru

Harry Carey Jr.

Ward Bond

Music by

Richard Hageman

Cinematography

Bert Glennon (director of photography)

Edited by

Jack Murray

Production company

Argosy Pictures

Distributed by

RKO-Radio Pictures Inc.

Release date

April 22, 1950 (US)[1]

Running time

86 min.

Country

United States

Languages

English
Navajo
Spanish

Wagon Master is a 1950 American Western film produced and directed by John Ford and starring Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr., Joanne Dru, and Ward Bond. The screenplay concerns a Mormon pioneer wagon train to the San Juan River in Utah.[2][3] The film inspired the US television series Wagon Train (1957–1965), which starred Ward Bond until his death in 1960.[4] The film was a personal favorite of Ford himself, who told Peter Bogdanovich in 1967 that "Along with The Fugitive and The Sun Shines Bright, Wagon Master came closest to being what I wanted to achieve."[5] While the critical and audience response to Wagon Master was lukewarm on its release, over the years several critics have come to view it as one of Ford's masterpieces.[6][7][8][9]

Plot

The film opens with a prelude showing a murderous robbery by the outlaw Clegg family (the patriarch Shiloh (Charles Kemper) and his four "boys"). The credits then follow the prelude, which was a stylistic innovation at its time.[8]

A Mormon wagon train led by the Elder Wiggs (Ward Bond) around 1880 has reached Crystal City, and needs a wagon master to lead it further to its destination—the San Juan River country in southeastern Utah Territory. Their wagon train is being expelled from Crystal City by the townspeople there, and at the last minute horse traders Travis Blue (Ben Johnson) and Sandy Owens (Harry Carey, Jr.) take the wagon master job.

After resuming its journey west, the train finds and adds the wagon of a medicine show troupe, who, en route to California, have become stranded without water. The onward passage of the wagon train is marked by the beginnings of romances between Travis and Denver (Joanne Dru), a female entertainer with the medicine troupe, and between Sandy and a Mormon's daughter, and also by a Mormon square dance celebrating a successful desert passage, and by a pow-wow dance with a band of Navajo. All goes well enough until the Cleggs, fleeing a posse from Crystal City, force themselves into the wagon train. The train surmounts an encounter with the posse, a washed out trail blocking the way west, and ultimately a violent confrontation with the homicidal Cleggs.

The film's conclusion leaves the wagon train and its wagon master on the verge of entry into the San Juan country.[10][11][12] There is a final montage, which Richard Jameson characterizes as follows: "Wagon Master has scant interest in the prosaic, being preeminently a musical and a poem. ... it's the final montage that lifts the movie into another realm entirely. There are shots we've seen before—landmarks, vistas, the communal dance—but also shots we haven't. ... It's a subtler, deeper variation on the closing, transfiguring memory images of How Green Was My Valley (1941)."[9]

Casting

Wagon Master did not use either John Wayne or Henry Fonda, the stars in many of Ford's films. The absence of any major stars of the day reduced the cost of making the film as well as its box office potential. As noted by Dennis Lim, the casting of Wagon Master was consistent with the film's focus on the emergence of a community instead of the heroic actions of individuals.[8] Many of the cast and crew of Wagon Master were members of the "Ford stock company", having also worked on previous films directed by Ford. The principal roles were played by:

·       Charles Kemper as Uncle Shiloh Clegg, the patriarch of the outlaw Clegg Family. Wagon Master was Kemper's first appearance in a film directed by Ford. Writer Dave Kehr notes that this was consistent with his role in Wagon Master as an outside, evil force.[13]

·       Ben Johnson as Travis Blue, an itinerant horse trader who becomes the wagon master for the Mormon wagon train. Johnson was a member of the Ford stock company; he was a noted horseman whose skill is featured when he gallops away from a band of Navajo.

·       Harry Carey Jr. as Sandy Owens, Travis' partner. Carey was the son of Harry Carey, a superstar of silent films who worked with Ford on many films in the 1910s and 1920s. Carey's memoir, Company of Heroes: My Life as an Actor in the John Ford Stock Company (1994), provides many details of the production of Wagon Master.[14] Carey and Peter Bogdanovich did a commentary soundtrack when Wagon Master was released to DVD in 2009.[15]

·       Ward Bond as the Mormon Elder Wiggs, the leader of the wagon train (and future star of the television series). Bond acted in many films directed by Ford; their relationship is described in the book Three Bad Men: John Ford, John Wayne, and Ward Bond (2013).[16]

·       Joanne Dru as Denver, an entertainer, and apparently a prostitute, attached to Dr. Hall's medicine show. Dru had previously starred in Ford's She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949).[17]

·       Alan Mowbray as Dr. A. Locksley Hall, the principal of the medicine show whose wagon joins the wagon train. "Locksley Hall" is an 1842 poem by Alfred Tennyson. Mowbray's role in Wagon Master is reminiscent of his role as Granville Thorndyke, a Shakespearean actor, in Ford's My Darling Clementine (1946).[18]

·       Jane Darwell as the Mormon Sister Ledyard. While often on camera, Darwell rarely speaks in the film; she is charged with blowing a crude hunting horn.[19] Darwell appeared in seven of Ford's films from 1940 through 1958.[20]

·       Hank Worden as Luke Clegg. Appeared in 17 movies with John Wayne and 6 movies with Ward Bond.

·       Movita Castaneda as Young Navajo Indian, who accuses Reese Clegg (Fred Libby) of attacking her.

·       Ruth Clifford as Fleuretty Phyffe

·       Russell Simpson as Adam Perkins

·       Kathleen O'Malley as Prudence Perkins

·       Mickey Simpson as Jesse Clegg

·       Cliff Lyons as Marshal of Crystal City

Several of the minor roles in the film were also played by notable actors such as James Arness (the future star of the long-running television series Gunsmoke) as one of the Clegg boys, Francis Ford (John Ford's elder brother, and a very successful director and actor of the silent film era) as the mute drummer of the medicine show, and Jim Thorpe (the famed Native American athlete) as a member of the Navajo band in his last film role.

A Film Poem

Wagon Master has been called a "film poem" or its equivalent by several critics and scholars, which connotes that the film's storyline is less important than its visual portrait of the community of the wagon train.[22][23] Scott Eyman and Paul Duncan wrote in 2004 that Wagon Master "is a lyrical ballad, an affirmation of Ford's folk vision of America, where a dance or a graveside ceremony speaks more for the communally minded pioneers than all the dramatic battles in the world."[24] Jeremy Arnold wrote,

There's not much action forthcoming (especially for a Western), and there is barely a story. And yet Wagon Master is one of the most poetic narrative films ever made. What little plot exists is secondary to the movie's real concern: celebrating a way of life, that of Mormon pioneers, and placing it in the context of nature.[12]

Lindsay Anderson wrote in 1954 that, "Ford often abandons his narrative completely, to dwell on the wide and airy vistas, on riders and wagons overcoming the most formidable natural obstacles, on bowed and weary figures stumbling persistently through the dust."[25] And Richard Jameson, in 2003:

Wagon Master has scant interest in the prosaic, being preeminently a musical and a poem. The musical aspect is immediately apparent, and lengthy stretches of the movie are narrated in song rather than dramatized. The poem is something else again. More, certainly, than a matter of appreciating that almost everything in the film is surpassingly beautiful to watch and uncannily evocative. Some of those behind-the-credits images of the Mormon train crossing river and plain actually anticipate crossings the community has yet to make; we see them again later. But it's the final montage that lifts the movie into another realm entirely.[9]

Pacifism and Arms

Filmed about four years after the end of World War II (1939–1945), Wagon Master's treatment of violence was unusual, especially for a Western. In the film, the Mormons are pacifists and unarmed; this was Ford's story choice, as 19th century Mormons often took up arms.[26][27] The Mormon wagon train of the film is thus vulnerable to armed threats, which include its encounters with the band of Navajo, who prove to be peaceable, and with the Clegg family, who are certainly not. Travis and Sandy are armed, but Sandy has apparently never fired a weapon at a person, and Travis claims that he's only shot "snakes". They are nonetheless able to defeat the Cleggs in a brief gunbattle precipitated by the Cleggs' murder of one of the unarmed Mormon men. Glenn Erickson writes, "Travis says he only draws on snakes, not people, and when he's forced to fight he throws his gun away afterward. That's also a feeling I felt from the men in my family, all ex-soldiers. The war was over and done with; as far as they were concerned victory and peace would last forever."[28] 

In his 1984 book about Ford, Lindsay Anderson discussed the "pacific (not pacifist) theme" of Wagon Master and also of Ford's cavalry trilogy of films (Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), and Rio Grande (1950)) that were made at about the same time.[30] Tag Gallagher wrote in 1986 that "... the Mormons are lambs, not willing to protect themselves. Without Travis they would have maintained their pacifism, Wiggs would have died, the grain would have been lost and the colony destroyed. Yet—and this compromise of ideology for practicality fascinates Ford—the Mormons will accept protection from a shepherd, thus (a trifle hypocritically?) maintaining their innocence."[31] As noted, however, actual Mormon wagon trains were armed and would defend themselves if necessary.

Production

Wagon Master was produced by Argosy Pictures, which was the independent production company formed by Ford and Merian C. Cooper mostly to give Ford a control over his films that was impossible for films produced by the major film studios. Ford and Cooper were credited as co-executive producers, with Lowell J. Farrell as associate producer.[10][11][12] Between 1946 and 1953, Ford and Cooper produced eight films through Argosy Pictures, of which Wagon Master was the fifth.

The story idea for Wagon Master emerged while Ford was directing She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) on location in southern Utah. Patrick Ford, a screenwriter and Ford's son, learned the history of the Mormon Hole in the Rock expedition (1879–1880) from some local Mormon horsemen. Ford developed a story loosely based on the historical expedition. It was unusual for Ford to base his films on the stories he wrote, and it had been nearly 20 years since he'd last done so (Men Without Women (1930)).[7] Ford commissioned Patrick Ford and Frank S. Nugent to write the screenplay.[34] As was typical for Ford, he changed the screenplay significantly while directing the film; he was quoted as telling Patrick Ford and Nugent that, "I liked your script, boys. In fact, I actually shot a few pages of it."[35]

Ford had been shooting the film She Wore a Yellow Ribbon the year before (1948) in Monument Valley, near the town of Mexican Hat, Utah, close to the locations where he had also filmed Stagecoach (1939), My Darling Clementine (1946), and Fort Apache (1948). He wanted a different look for his next film and drove to Moab, Utah. Filmed in black and white on location, mainly north-east of the town of Moab, Utah in Professor Valley (with additional shooting at Spanish Valley south-west of Moab, and a few stage shots were done at Monument Valley).[10][11][12]

Ford selected Bert Glennon as the director of photography. He'd worked with Glennon on five films between 1935 and 1939, including Stagecoach, for which both Ford and Glennon were nominated for Academy Awards.[39] Ford chose to film Wagon Master in black and white; in 2009, Glenn Kenny wrote that the film "... reveals Bert Glennon's cinematography for the miracle that it was/is. Watching the disc this evening I wondered if it was not, in fact, frame-by-frame one of the most gorgeous motion pictures ever shot."[32]

Location filming was done in less than a month. Wagon Master was edited by Jack Murray, who had edited six of Ford's previous films, including all of the Argosy Pictures productions.

Music

The film's score was composed by Richard Hageman, a noted conductor and composer of art songs and other musical works. Commencing with Stagecoach (1939), Hageman wrote music for seven films directed by John Ford; Wagon Master was the last. Kathryn Kalinak has written that Ford "got great work out of the people he worked with, and often those he was hardest on produced the best work of their careers. One of those was Richard Hageman, the Philadelphia Orchestra notwithstanding."[19]

Songs are important in Wagon Master. Critic Dennis Lim has written, "Practically a musical, Wagon Master is filled with frequent song and dance interludes and accompanied by a steady stream of hymns and ballads, performed by the popular country group the Sons of the Pioneers."[8] Filmgoers learn of Travis Blue's and Sandy Owens' decision to accept the wagon master job when Travis and Sandy break into song. Stan Jones wrote four original songs that were performed by the Sons of the Pioneers for the film's soundtrack. At its conclusion, the film incorporates a "spirited" rendition of the Mormon hymn, "Come, Come, Ye Saints". John Ford had insisted that Harry Carey Jr. lead the company of the film, which included many Mormons, in singing the hymn; the version used for the film's soundtrack was apparently recorded by the Robert Mitchell Boys Choir.

Release

The film was apparently not widely reviewed upon its 1950 release.[42] Variety noted that "Wagon Master is a good outdoor action film, done in the best John Ford manner. That means careful character development and movement, spiced with high spots of action, good drama and leavening comedy moments."[43]

The picture was distributed by RKO Pictures. The film recorded a loss of $65,000 and was the last co-production between Argosy and RKO.[44]

Critical Response

Film critic Tag Gallagher wrote at length about Wagon Master in his 1986 book, John Ford: the man and his films. His summary is, "That Wagon Master (1950), one of Ford's major masterpieces, grossed about a third of any of the cavalry pictures surely came as no surprise. It was a personal project, with no stars, little story, deflated drama, almost nothing to attract box office or trendy critics. Its budget was $999,370, its highest paid actor got $20,000 (Ward Bond). Almost every frame bursts with humanity, nature and cinema, quite like Rossellini's Voyage in Italy. The story, resembling the Carey-Fords of the teens more than a 1950s western, was written by Ford himself, the only such instance after 1930."[7]

There have been a number of reviews of Wagon Master since its 2009 DVD release. Most contemporary critics appear to concur with Gallagher's view that Wagon Master is a major masterpiece.[6][8][9][12][32][45] Linda Rasmussen wrote, "This wonderful film emphasizes the virtues of solidarity, sacrifice and tolerance, and shows John Ford at his most masterful, in total control of the production from the casting to the bit players to the grandeur and scope of the visual compositions. The film, with its breathtaking scenery, brilliant performances by a cast of character actors, and an engaging sense of humor, is a superlative example of the American western."[10] While respectful of the film's accomplishments, other critics are more muted. In George N. Fenin and William K. Everson's 1973 overview, The Western: from silents to the seventies, they wrote that "Wagon Master is as close to a genuine Western film-poem as we have ever come, but attempts by Ford's admirers to enlarge it beyond that do both it and Ford a disservice."[22] David Fear wrote in 2009, "For a modest little movie, this still has all the solid storytelling and visual majesty of Ford's classic works; scholars like Joseph McBride and Peter Bogdanovich actually think it's his masterpiece."[46]

Mormonism and Wagon Master

Come, come, ye saints, no toil nor labor fear;
But with joy wend your way.
Though hard to you this journey may appear,
Grace shall be as your day.

—William Clayton, 1846

The film's story is inspired by the 1879–1880 Mormon Hole in the Rock expedition, and Ford has been quoted as saying of the Mormons that "These are the people I want." The film depicts the prejudice against Mormons; the marshall in Crystal City is expelling their wagon train, and he lumps them together with other outcasts: "Mormons, Cleggses, showfolk, horse traders." Following a discussion of somewhat earlier films (Brigham Young (1940) and Bad Bascomb (1946)) that also depict Mormons sympathetically, Randy Astle and Gideon Burton write, "It is less surprising, then, to find Mormons featuring prominently in one of the most humanistic films ever made, John Ford's Wagon Master (1950). Although its scale could not equal that of Brigham Young, it deserves to be remembered as one of the greatest of Mormon films."[34] The film ends with a chorus of perhaps the best-known Mormon hymn, "Come, Come, Ye Saints."

Home Media

A region 1 DVD was released by Warner Home Video in 2009.[15] Critic Glenn Kenny wrote of this release, "the main attraction is the film itself, buffed to a lustrous (but still grain-rich) sheen that reveals Bert Glennon's cinematography for the miracle that it was/is. Watching the disc this evening I wondered if it was not, in fact, frame-by-frame one of the most gorgeous motion pictures ever shot."[32] A region 2 DVD was released in Europe in 2002; it has a French language soundtrack as well as the English one.[47] There was a release to videotape (VHS) in 1990.[48] A colorized version was also released as a VHS tape.[49]

In 1998, the copyrights to both the original and colored versions of the film were donated to The Library of Congress, along with an original master reel copy of the film. The reel is stored in an individual secure vault at the Packard Campus in Culpeper, Virginia in order to preserve the film for future generations.[citation needed]

References

1.        ^ "Wagon Master: Detail View". American Film Institute. Retrieved May 18, 2014.

2.       ^ Franklin, Richard (July 2002). "John Ford". Senses of Cinema(21). I read Senses of Cinema's call for contributions on "Great Directors" with interest. Among the list of directors to be profiled were Cox (Paul) and Cronenberg (David), both of whom I've met. But among the list of those for whom you were looking for "expressions of interest" I noted Ford (John), who I am delighted to say I also met and who is quite simply the greatest director of all time. For the neophyte seeking acquaintance with Ford's art, Franklin recommends viewing ten of Ford's films in a specific sequence.

3.       ^ Dirks, Tim. "Greatest film directors of all time". filmsite.org. In addition to his own unranked list of the 50 greatest directors, Dirks reproduces several ranked listings of film directors; John Ford appears on all these lists.

4.       ^ Jackson, Ronald; Abbott, Doug (2008). 50 Years of the Television Western. AuthorHouse. p. 102. ISBN 9781434359254. OCLC 606043989.

5.       ^ Bogdanovich, Peter (1978). John Ford. University of California Press. p. 88. 

6.       ^ Jump up to: a b c Kehr, Dave (October 26, 1985). "Wagon Master". Chicago Reader. Ford treats one of his central themes—the birth of a community—through a sweeping visual metaphor of movement. Seldom has the western landscape seemed such a tangible emblem of hope and freedom. A masterpiece beyond question — but a masterpiece that never degenerates into pomposity or self-consciousness. It's American filmmaking at its finest and most eloquent.

7.       ^ Jump up to: a b c Gallagher, Tag (1986). John Ford: The Man and His Films. University of California Press. p. 261. . Gallagher has made his revised version of this book freely available for download; see "Tag Gallagher". Archived from the original on 2016-04-01. Page numbers in the e-book do not match the numbering of the 1986 printed version.

8.       ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Lim, Dennis (September 20, 2009). "Second Look: John Ford's 'Wagon Master'". The Los Angeles Times. Wagon Master is at once the plainest and the fullest expression of Ford's great theme: the emergence of a community. So committed is the film to the idea of a collective hero that there is no one central character, no leading man or marquee name. Instead of Wayne or Henry Fonda, "Wagon Master" is filled with lesser-known but familiar faces from the Ford stock company. And while some of the usual elements of the genre are accounted for, down to a climactic gunfight, there is not much of a plot.

9.       ^ Jump up to: a b c d Jameson, Richard T. (2009). "Wagon Master (1950)". Undercurrent. The International Federation of Film Critics. 5. Archived from the original on 2012-05-18. Might Wagon Masterbe John Ford's greatest film? With so many worthy candidates, we needn't insist. But it's the purest. No one else could or would have made it. There's not a second, not a frame, that answers to any convention, any imperative beyond the director's wish that it be as it is, look at what it looks at the way it does. An essay about Wagon Master from a noted film critic; Jameson edited Film Comment from 1990–2000.

10.    ^ Jump up to: a b c d Rasmussen, Linda. "Wagon Master". AllRovi. This wonderful film emphasizes the virtues of solidarity, sacrifice and tolerance, and shows John Ford at his most masterful, in total control of the production from the casting to the bit players to the grandeur and scope of the visual compositions. The film, with its breathtaking scenery, brilliant performances by a cast of character actors, and an engaging sense of humor, is a superlative example of the American western.

11.     ^ Jump up to: a b c Wagon Master at IMDb

12.    ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Arnold, Jeremy. "Wagon Master". Turner Classic Movies. And yet Wagon Master is one of the most poetic narrative films ever made. What little plot exists is secondary to the movie's real concern: celebrating a way of life, that of Mormon pioneers, and placing it in the context of nature. Director John Ford, one of the most visual of directors working near the peak of his career, called Wagon Master not only his favorite Western but described it as, 'along with The Fugitive (1947) and The Sun Shines Bright (1953), the closest to being what I had wanted to achieve.'

13.    ^ Kehr, Dave (September 25, 2009). "Back to Yellow Brick Road and That Long Dusty Trail". The New York Times. One of the rare outsiders in the cast is Charles Kemper, who plays the portly, sadistic outlaw (and head of a clan of inbred gunfighters) who commandeers the train; his sheer unfamiliarity inserts a radically disruptive new element in Ford's world, a kind of unmotivated, sociopathic evil that would increasingly appear in the noirish westerns of the '50s, and come to dominate the Spaghetti westerns of the '70s. Impossible, as always, to pin down—was he a radical or a reactionary, a restless innovator or a fierce protector of tradition?—Ford remains Ford, one of the great American artists of the 20th century in any field.

14.    ^  Carey, Harry (1994). Company of Heroes: My Life as an Actor in the John Ford Stock Company. Scarecrow Press. p. 90. 

15.     ^ Jump up to: a b c Wagon Master (DVD (region 1)). Warner Home Video. September 15, 2009.  Contains a commentary soundtrack by Harry Carey, Jr. and Peter Bogdanovich, who also incorporates some recordings from his interviews of John Ford in the 1960s. There is also a Spanish language soundtrack that was noted favorably; see Erickson, Glenn (September 11, 2009).. The B&W image is excellent throughout and the sound is very clear. An optional Spanish language audio track is a real curiosity, as it sounds like an original and is very well done.

16.    ^ Nollen, Scott Allen (2013). Three Bad Men: John Ford, John Wayne, Ward Bond. McFarland. 

17.     ^ Everson, William K. (1992). The Hollywood Western: 90 Years of Cowboys and Indians, Train Robbers, Sheriffs and Gunslingers, and Assorted Heroes and Desperados. Carol Publishing Group. p. 238.  Ben Johnson and Joanne Dru, a dull actress who came to life for Ford, were Ringo and Dallas from Stagecoach all over again. Johnson, one of Ford's best players, gave an especially appealing performance.

18.    ^ The allusion to Tennyson's poem was noted by Dennis Grunes, who was an erudite freelance film critic. See ("My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946)". March 28, 2007. Archived from the original on 2008-10-07. Alan Mowbray is terrific as Granville Thorndyke, the itinerant ham actor for whom Ford has such immense affection that he would bring him back, as A. Locksley Hall (Tennysonians, take note!), in Wagon Master(1950), Ford's favorite among his westerns, from his own original story. Ford is typically fond of his characters, but somehow his embrace of this one provides an especially joyous index of his generosity. It's with real panache that Thorndyke skips out of town without paying his bill.

19.    ^  Kalinak, Kathryn Marie (2007). How the West Was Sung: Music in the Westerns of John Ford. University of California Press. p. 121. ... the association of the traditionally masculine hunting horn with a female character, Sister Ledyard, another example of Ford's disruption of cultural stereotypes about gender and music.

20.   ^ "Jane Darwell And John Ford". Internet Movie Database.

21.    ^ Axmaker, Sean (September 21, 2009). 

22.    ^  Fenin, George N.; Everson, William K. (1973). The Western: from silents to the seventies. Grossman Publishers. p. 251. . Revised and expanded from The Western: from silents to Cinerama (1962).

23.    ^ McBride, Joseph (1975). John Ford. p. 28. Ford's admirers generally prefer the functional poetry of Wagon Master, The Searchers, and Seven Women to the overt expressionism of such films as The Informer, The Prisoner of Shark Island, and The Long Voyage Home. Yet the style of even a 'simple' Ford film such as Wagon Master, on further inspection, is revealed as a blend of forthrightly presented action and a highly sophisticated manipulation of foreground and background movements through a dazzling palette of shades.

24.    ^ Eyman, Scott; Duncan, Paul, eds. (2004). John Ford: The Complete Films. Taschen. p. 140. .

25.    ^ Anderson, Lindsay (April–June 1954). Sight and Sound.   Quoted in McBride, Joseph (2003). Searching For John Ford: A Life. Macmillan. p. 498. 

26.   ^ Fleek, Sherman L. (2006). History May be Searched in Vain: A Military History of the Mormon Battalion. Arthur H. Clark Company. .

27.    ^ Erickson, Glenn (September 11, 2009). "Review: Wagon Master". 

28.   ^ Anderson, Lindsay (1983). About John Ford. McGraw Hill. pp. 126–7. 

29.   ^ Gallagher, Tag (1986). John Ford: The Man and His Films. University of California Press. p. 267. . Gallagher has made his revised version of this book freely available for download; see "Tag Gallagher"..

30.   ^ Kenny, Glenn (September 10, 2009). ""Wagon Master" (John Ford, 1950)". Some Came Running. Kenny's blog entry includes several screenshots that illustrate his view that Wagon Master is "one of the most gorgeous motion pictures ever shot."

31.    ^ Gilman, Sean (September 3, 2012). "A Top 100 Films of All-Time List". The End of Cinema.

32.    ^  Astle, Randy; Burton, Gideon O. (2007). "A History of Mormon Cinema: Second Wave". BYU Studies. Brigham Young University. 46 (2): 50. While shooting Yellow Ribbon in southern Utah, Ford's son, Patrick, met some LDS horsemen, which led to the Wagon Master story being created around the Hole in the Rock expedition that some of the horsemen's ancestors had participated in. Though Patrick and his co-writer, Frank Nugent, had to research Mormonism intensively, Ford seem to understand the Mormons instinctively. 'These are the people I want', he said.For their article, Astle and Burton draw upon a lengthy, unpublished transcript of James d'Arc's April 25, 1979 interview with Patrick Ford.

33.    ^ McBride, Joseph (2011). Searching for John Ford. University Press of Mississippi. p. 497.  Reprinting of a 2001 book published by St. Martin's Press.

34.    ^ Movies Filmed in the Moab Area (In PDF document: [1])

35.    ^ Stanton, Bette L. (1994). Where God Put the West, Movie Making in the Desert. Moab, Utah: Four Corners Publications. p. 78. 

36.    ^ Murray, John A. (2000). Cinema Southwest: An Illustrated Guide to the Movies and Their Locations. Flagstaff, Arizona: Northland Publishing. pp. 76–93. 

37.    ^ Gallagher, John A. (1993). "Glennon, Bert". In Cook, Samantha (ed.). International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers. 4. Writers and Production Artists (2nd ed.). St James Press. . It was ten years before Glennon worked with Ford again, but the occasion and the project was a special one—Wagonmaster (sic). Ford told Peter Bogdanovich that Wagonmaster was one of the films that "came closest to being what I had wanted to achieve." A western masterwork written largely by Ford, the film is graced by Glennon's newsreel quality cinematography.

38.   ^ Corliss, Richard (April 25, 2011). "Wagon Master (1950 Movie) - 10 Memorable Depictions of Mormons in Popular Culture". Time. Wagon Master is as much a musical as a Western: the Sons of the Pioneers contribute four songs, and there's a spirited rendition of the Mormon hymn, 'Come, Come, Ye Saints.'

39.    ^ "Film and Video - the Robert Mitchell Boys Choir". The Boy Choir and Soloist Directory. Archived from the original on 2012-10-10. Retrieved 2013-10-05.

40.   ^ Anderson, Lindsay (1983). About John Ford. McGraw Hill. p. 79. . Unfortunately, this lyrical celebration of a hazardous trek west by a Mormon wagon train in the eighteen eighties was prevented by its lack of star players from achieving a wide commercial release; as a result it received almost no critical attention. Outside Britain, it seems never to have been shown in Europe at all. Anderson, a noted film director and critic, includes several essays on Ford's work as well as descriptions of their meetings over more than twenty years.

41.    ^ "Review: "Wagon Master"". Variety. December 31, 1949.Presumably, Variety was reviewing a screening of the film that occurred some months before national release in April 1950.

42.    ^ Jewell, Richard; Harbin, Vernon (1982). The RKO Story. New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House. p. 248.

43.    ^ Anderson, Jeffrey M. "Wagon Master (1950): Mormons on the Move". Combustible Celluloid. Yet Ford considered it among his personal favorites, and a handful of Ford's biggest admirers consider it a neglected masterpiece. (I do too.)

Rio Grande (1950)

Directed by

John Ford

Produced by

Uncredited:
Merian C. Cooper
John Ford

Screenplay by

James Kevin McGuinness

Based on

Mission With No Record, 1947 story Saturday Evening Post, by James Warner Bellah

Starring

John Wayne
Maureen O'Hara

Music by

Victor Young

Cinematography

Bert Glennon

Edited by

Jack Murray

Production company

Argosy Pictures

Distributed by

Republic Pictures

Release date

November 15, 1950

Running time

105 minutes

Country

United States

Language

English

Budget

$1,214,899[1]

Box office

$2.25 million (US rentals)[2]

Rio Grande is a 1950 Western film[3][4] directed by John Ford, and starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara. The picture is the third installment of Ford's "cavalry trilogy", following two RKO Pictures releases: Fort Apache (1948) and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949).

John Wayne plays the lead in all three films, as Captain Kirby York in Fort Apache, then as Captain of Cavalry Nathan Cutting Brittles in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and finally as a promoted Lieutenant Colonel Kirby Yorke in Rio Grande (scripts and production billing spell the York[e] character's last name differently in Fort Apache and Rio Grande).

Plot

Lieutenant Colonel Kirby Yorke (Wayne) is posted on the Texas frontier with the 2nd U.S. Cavalry Regiment to defend settlers against attacks by marauding Apaches. Colonel Yorke is under considerable pressure due to the Apaches using Mexico as a sanctuary from pursuit, and by a serious shortage of troops in his command. The action of the movie is set in the summer of 1879 ("fifteen years after the Shenandoah").

Tension is added when Yorke's son (whom he has not seen in 15 years), Trooper Jefferson Yorke (Claude Jarman Jr.), is one of 18 recruits sent to the regiment. He had flunked out of West Point, but immediately enlisted as a private in the Army. In a private "father-son" meeting in the commanding officer's tent, Trooper Yorke informs his father that he does not expect, nor want, any special treatment because he is his son. He asks that he be treated like any other soldier—to which the colonel somewhat reluctantly agrees. By his willingness to undergo any test and trial, Jeff is befriended by a pair of older recruits, Travis Tyree (Ben Johnson) (who is on the run from the law) and Daniel "Sandy" Boone (Harry Carey Jr.), who take him under their wings.

With the arrival of Yorke's estranged wife, Kathleen (Maureen O'Hara), who has come to take the underage Yorke home by buying him out of his enlistment, further tension is added. During the Civil War, Yorke had been forced by circumstances to burn Bridesdale, his wife's plantation home in the Shenandoah Valley. Sergeant Major Quincannon (Victor McLaglen), who put the torch to Bridesdale, is still with Yorke and is a constant reminder to Kathleen of the episode. In a showdown with his mother, Jeff refuses her attempt to buy him out of the Army by reminding her that not only the commander's signature is required to discharge him, but his own is needed, as well, and he chooses to stay in the Army. The tension brought about in the struggle over their son's future (and possibly the attentions shown to her by Yorke's junior officers) rekindles the romance the couple once felt for each other.

The Apaches attack the fort one night. Many of them are killed by the awakened troopers, but they succeed in freeing their leader, who had been captured at the start of the movie.

Two U.S. marshals from Texas arrive at the post with a warrant for Trooper Tyree's arrest on a manslaughter charge. Confined to the post hospital, with the connivance of the regimental surgeon (Chill Wills) and Sergeant Major Quincannon, he breaks jail, steals Colonel Yorke's horse, and goes on the run, intending to stay away until the marshals head back to Texas.

Yorke is visited by his former Civil War commander, Philip Sheridan (J. Carrol Naish), now Commanding General of the Military Division of the Missouri, the headquarters responsible for pacifying the Great Plains. Sheridan has decided to order Yorke to cross the Rio Grande into Mexico in pursuit of the Apaches and kill them all, an action with serious political implications, since it violates the sovereignty of another nation.

If Yorke fails in his mission to destroy the Apache threat, he will have to face a court-martial. Sheridan, in quiet acknowledgment of what he is asking Yorke to risk, promises that if it comes to that, "the members of the court will be the men who rode down the Shenandoah with us" during the Civil War. Yorke accepts the assignment.

Yorke leads his men toward Mexico, only to learn that a wagonload of children from his fort, who were being taken to Ft. Bliss for safety – ironic in that the fort was named for a famous mathematician, William Wallace Smith Bliss, and it was failing mathematics that caused Jefferson Yorke to flunk out of West Point – has been captured by the Apaches. Tyree trails the Apaches to their hideout in Mexico, and then rejoins his regiment with the information and a plan to rescue the children. After permitting three troopers—Tyree, Boone, and Jeff—to infiltrate the ruined church in the Mexican village where the Indians have taken the children, Yorke leads his regiment in an all-out attack. The cavalrymen rescue all of the children unharmed, though Colonel Yorke is wounded by an arrow that he orders Jeff to remove. He is taken back to the fort by his victorious troops, where Kathleen meets him and holds his hand as he is carried on a travois into the post.

After Colonel Yorke recovers, Tyree, Boone, Jeff, Navajo Scout Son of Many Mules, and Corporal Bell are decorated. At the ceremony, Trooper Tyree is given a furlough to continue his run from the law when one of the Texas marshals reappears, stealing General Sheridan's horse for the purpose. As the troops pass in review (with the regimental band playing Dixie at the General's request to please Mrs. Yorke), the movie closes.

Cast

·       John Wayne as Lieutenant Colonel Kirby Yorke

·       Maureen O'Hara as Kathleen Yorke

·       Ben Johnson as Trooper Travis Tyree

·       Claude Jarman Jr. as Trooper Jefferson Yorke

·       Harry Carey Jr. as Trooper Daniel "Sandy" Boone

·       Chill Wills as Dr. Wilkins, Regimental Surgeon

·       J. Carrol Naish as General Philip Sheridan

·       Victor McLaglen as Sergeant Major Quincannon

·       Grant Withers as Deputy Marshal

·       Sons of the Pioneers as the Regimental Singers

·       Peter Ortiz as Captain St. Jacques

·       Steve Pendleton as Captain Prescott

·       Karolyn Grimes as Margaret Mary

·       Alberto Morin as Mexican Lieutenant

·       Stan Jones as Sergeant

·       Fred Kennedy as Trooper Heinze

Production

Background

With the completion of Wagon Master, Ford did not want to make another Western. Instead, he wanted to film the Ireland-set romantic comedy-drama film The Quiet Man with Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, but Herbert Yates, the studio president of Republic Pictures, insisted that Ford first make Rio Grande with the same pairing of Wayne and O'Hara because he thought the script of The Quiet Man was weak and that the story was of little general interest. Yates insisted that Rio Grande be made before The Quiet Man, to offset the anticipated losses on that film.[5]

When The Quiet Man was eventually released in 1952, though, it vastly out performed Rio Grande by grossing $3.8 million in its first year and giving Yates and Republic Pictures one of the top-10 hits of the year.[6]

Writing

The script for Rio Grande was written by Irish-born screenwriter James Kevin McGuinness. It is based on a short story "Mission With No Record" by James Warner Bellah that appeared in The Saturday Evening Post on September 27, 1947.[7][8] Parts of the story loosely resemble the expedition of the 4th Cavalry Regiment (United States) under Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie when they conducted a military campaign in Mexico in 1873.[9]

McGuinness died in December 1950, just four weeks after the film's premiere in November.[10]

Casting

The film was the first of three directed by Ford that starred the pairing of Maureen O'Hara and John Wayne. Rio Grande was followed by The Quiet Man in 1952 and The Wings of Eagles in 1957. The pair also starred together in McLintock! (1963) and Big Jake (1971). The film marked the uncredited debut of 11-year-old Patrick Wayne, Wayne's second son.

Filming[

The film was shot entirely on location in Moab, Utah, during the extremely hot summer of 1950. Cast and crew struggled with the heat. Sets and stages had to be built in the difficult conditions, while actors were required to perform their scenes in heavy period costumes.[12]

Music

The film contains folk songs led by the Sons of the Pioneers, one of whom is Ken Curtis (Ford's son-in-law and best known for his role as Festus Haggen on Gunsmoke). Bob Nolan had previously serenaded Charles Starrett, lead actor in Rio Grande directed by Sam Nelson in 1938.

Reception

A review by New York Times described it as a "familiar story" that "travels a well-rutted road". It was also noted for its similarities to the 1935 epic-adventure film The Lives of a Bengal Lancer. Praise was given, though, for the Western-style ballads sung by the Sons of the Pioneers.

The film currently has a 75% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Accolades

The film was recognized by the American Film Institute in 2008: AFI's 10 Top 10: Nominated Western film.[16]

References

1.        The Top Box Office Hits of 1950', Variety, January 3, 1951

2.       Variety film review; November 8, 1950, page 6.

3.       Harrison's Reports film review; November 4, 1950, page 176.

4.       The Quiet Man 60th Anniversary Edition, Special Features: Maltin, Leonard, "The Making of The Quiet Man," 1992.

5.       Gallagher, Tag (1986). John Ford: The Man and his Films. University of California Press. p. 499.

6.       "Mission With No Record". The Saturday Evening Post. 220(13). September 27, 1947.

7.       Nollen, Scott Allen (2013). Three Bad Men: John Ford, John Wayne, Ward Bond. McFarland. p. 194. 

8.       Roberts, Randy (1997). John Wayne: American. University of Nebraska Press. pp. 323–324. 

9.        

10.    Scott Eyman John Wayne: The Life and Legend 2015 -1439199590 Page 197 "Yates insisted that the Sons of the Pioneers appear in Rio Grande, which Ford found appalling, but he found a way to work them in as a sort of musical Greek chorus, cavalry style. "

11.     "THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; 'Rio Grande,' a John Ford Film Starring John Wayne, Makes Its Bow at the Mayfair". New York Times. November 20, 1950.

12.    "Rio Grande". www.rottentomatoes.com.

13.    AFI's 10 Top 10 Nominees" (PDF).

Return to John Ford Table of Contents