John Ford

[MissGoddess]

12/20/11: I've added some videos here featuring Dan Ford and Clint Eastwood to my site posting about the John Ford Award.


Finally, with all these film festivals out there today, there is going to be one inspired by Pappy! And in Ireland!

http://www.johnfordireland.org/

Needless to say, I'm tremendously excited and hope, God willing, to attend!

[pvitari]

Link to a great write up at the Alt Screen website about Wagon Master in anticipation of the MoMA screenings at the end of this month.

http://altscreen.com/12/21/2011/wednesd ... ster-1950/

[MissGoddess]

Very nice collection of reviews! Thank you, Paula.

[JackFavell]

Tag's review, as usual, strikes through to the core of what makes the film great. I like the way he talks about the movie being in the ever present, not looking back, never getting to the future. It doesn't really have a beginning, it just moves from one event to another, continues on and on, and never really ends, like the cycle of life.

[MissGoddess]

I'm very proud that Bill Levy, author of John Ford: A Bio-Bibliography and the upcoming book, The John Ford Stock Company, has contributed a series of articles to my website in a new special section, Ford's Forgotten Gems. You can read more at: http://www.directedbyjohnford.com/blog/ ... tten-gems/

[movieman1957]

This is good news. Thanks for sharing. I read "The Long Gray Line" and noted it had some nice pictures with it.

[MissGoddess]

Thanks I'm glad you liked it, Chris!

[pvitari]

Wow, great stuff, MissGoddess -- congratulations! I will be posting about this on my Ben site, of course, with links to all the new goodies on your John Ford site. :)

I look forward to Mr. Levy's forthcoming book The John Ford Stock Company -- especially the chapter on Ben, of course. :)

(Would you really consider Young Mr. Lincoln, They Were Expendable and Rio Grande "forgotten gems"? I thought they were all widely regarded as classics -- forgotten only in the sense that the vast majority of people out there don't pay attention to old movies at all. Wagon Master is now receiving its due now too although I think for a long time it could be included as a "forgotten gem.")

[MissGoddess]

Hi Paula, and thanks very much for the plug! I'm really looking forward to the book myself. Levy has put me on the track of several much more obscure players that I want to add to my own "stable" at directedbyjohnford.com. I told him about you and your site on Ben.

I agree with you that I don't really consider some of those "forgotten" but Levy's articles were part of a series that seemed to be written for a more general movie watching audience who might be less aware of any but the most famous classic films. It's my hope that the site will have something for that kind of viewer as well as the more in-depth aficianado.

[JackFavell]

These writeups are great, MissG, I only wish they were longer. Thanks for posting them.

[movieman1957]

I've seen The World Moves On and I liked it very much. It's among my favorite little known Ford movies. It does have some of his personal touches in the framing of certain shots and the humanistic, anti-war tone, though the material feels more like a studio "epic" of sorts. I didn't notice any footage that felt extraneous so I'm curious where the '31 shots could have come in.

Among the best scenes are the battlefield sequences, and they are pure Ford.

Madeleine is at the peak of her beauty and has a really good scene when she gives an impassioned anti-war speech.

Ford lavishes quite a few beautiful close-ups on her, so her fans won't be disappointed---her character really is what pulls the whole thing together.

I finally saw "The World Moves On." It's kind of an odd story. It's the story of an old industrial family that has installations in the US and various places in Europe with cousins all around and it is all good and well until WWI breaks out. Then it comes to the family crossing paths, at times without knowing it, and how the war impacts all the relatives.

Madeleine is fine and lovely. Franchot Tone is okay but a bit stiff but he picks it up late in the film. It's all beautifully filmed under Ford's hand. Some of the clips from the movie Moira mentioned (Wooden Crosses) are slipped in among the battle scenes. They look much like actual footage from the war. They are short but seem different enough to be noticeable.

The family generational deja vu is the only awkward part of it all but other than that it is an interesting film and one I had never known. Is it me or is there a hint of "Four Sons" about it? It was shot after "Lost Patrol." It's fine but it doesn't strike me in the same vein as "Lost Patrol" with those fine discussions we had about it.

I'm glad I caught it.

[MissGoddess]

Hi Chris...glad you go to see The World Moves On. It's interesting to step back and see the range of stories and genres Ford directed in the 1930s, like any director beginning to hit his stride in the studio system. This movie is overlong and one account for this is related to a writer who complained of cuts to his scrip to which Ford responded by filming every single scene as written and unedited. The movie wasn't mentioned by name but most people conclude it was TWMO.

I'm always amused by Ford's responses to interference.

[pvitari]

The Warner Archive folks just posted a link to a radio adaption of The Fugitive starring Henry Fonda that John Ford directed.

[RedRiver]

Henry Fonda as Richard Kimble...

[MissGoddess]

Thanks, Paula, I've made note of it at my site. What a difference between the written/spoken word and visuals.