February 1, 1894 – John Ford:
“When in doubt, make a western.“
You might not think John Ford and The WoW Report would go together, but stick with me here.
In 2019, I purchased an original poster for the Italian release of the film Flying Leathernecks (1951), a Technicolor action war film directed by bisexual Nicholas Ray, starring John Wayne and Robert Ryan. It’s quite large, and when it was hanging in my husband’s shop in the West End of downtown Portland, there were many complaints about it because throughout most of his life, Wayne was a vocally prominent conservative Republican in Hollywood, supporting anti-communist positions. However, he did vote for Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1936 presidential election and expressed admiration for Roosevelt’s successor, fellow Democratic President Harry S. Truman. But, he took part in creating the conservative Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals in 1944 and was a vocal supporter of the House Un-American Activities Committee, serving as a proactive inside enforcer of the “Hollywood Black List” denying employment and undermining careers of many actors and writers who expressed their personal political beliefs earlier in life. Declassified Soviet documents reveal that, despite being a fan of Wayne’s movies, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin according to some sources contemplated the assassination of Wayne for his frequently espoused anti-communist politics.
My spouse would try to counsel cranky shoppers by pointing out that he loved the graphics, while acknowledging that, yes, Wayne was homophobic and just a bit racist, like nearly all Republicans, but Wayne’s costar in the movie was Robert Ryan, a lifelong liberal.
As a youth, I detested John Wayne for his support of the war in Vietnam, and I avoided his films. But, in the early aughts, at The Husband’s urging, I watched The Quiet Man (1952), where Wayne gives an especially stupendous performance that won me over to Wayne’s work on camera, if not his personal life. I think we need to forgive Golden Age of Hollywood conservatives for some of their stands. A world without Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers or Barbara Stanwyck? At least they weren’t supporters of White Nationalist despots.
His career spanned more than 50 years, directing more than 140 films. John Ford is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. His work was held in highest regard by his colleagues and film critics. He is most noted for his Westerns, of course, but too often he seems to only be considered “an artist” when he was working in other genres. Ford won a total of six Academy Awards, four of them were for Best Director, none of them Westerns: The Informer (1935), The Grapes Of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), and The Quiet Man (1952). His four Oscars for Best Director remain a record.
Interestingly enough, the one Best Director nomination he lost was for the film that had perhaps the most profound impact on his career: Stagecoach (1939). The first of many westerns Ford shot in his beloved Monument Valley, it was also the beginning of a long and iconic career with leading man John Wayne, with whom he made more than a dozen films. It also single-handedly revolutionized the spurs-and-saddles genre, which until then was little more than B-level entertainment meant to show on the second half of a double-bill.
Ford was so identified with his Western films and his evocative use of images and powerful vistas of the American West that Orson Welles said that other filmmakers were reluctant to take on the genre for fear of accusations of plagiarism.
Ford had an intense personality filled with idiosyncrasies and eccentricities. Beginning in the early 1930s, he always wore dark glasses and a patch over his left eye, which was only partly to protect his delicate eyesight.
He always had music played on the set and he would always break for tea at mid-afternoon every day during filming. He discouraged chatter and swearing on the set. He never drank during the making of a film, but when a production wrapped, he would often lock himself in his office, wrapped only in a sheet, and go on drinking binge for several days, followed by his usual contrition and a vow to give up drinking. He was very sensitive to criticism. He rarely attended premieres or award ceremonies, although his Oscars and other awards were proudly displayed in his home.
Ford was highly intelligent, erudite, sensitive and sentimental, but he cultivated the image of, as he put it:
“…a tough, two-fisted, hard-drinking Irish sonofabitch”.
Ford was known for his discipline and efficiency while filming. He was extremely tough on his actors. Any actor foolish enough to demand star treatment would receive the full force of his scorn and sarcasm. He is noted for being the only man who could make John Wayne cry.
Because of his long association with Wayne, James Stewart, and Maureen O’Hara, you might assume Ford was a Republican, but you would assume wrong; Ford was a solid progressive, and a major supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy.
Ford pushed back against McCarthyism in Hollywood. A faction of the Directors Guild Of America (DGA), led by Cecil B. DeMille, tried to make it mandatory for every member to sign a loyalty oath. A whispering campaign was being conducted against powerful screenwriter/director Joseph Mankiewicz, then President of the Guild, alleging he had communist sympathies. At a crucial meeting of the Guild, DeMille’s faction spoke for four hours until Ford spoke against DeMille and proposed a vote of confidence in Mankiewicz, which was passed. Ford said:
“My name’s John Ford. I make Westerns. I don’t think there’s anyone in this room who knows more about what the American public wants than Cecil B. DeMille and he certainly knows how to give it to them… But, I don’t like you, C.B. I don’t like what you stand for and I don’t like what you’ve been saying here tonight.”
Ford was rumored to be bisexual. In her memoir, ‘Tis Herself (2004), his favorite actor Maureen O’Hara writes about catching Ford kissing a famous male star (whom she did not name) in his office at Columbia Studios.
After working as an actor, assistant director, stuntman, and prop man, his first film as director was The Tornado (1917), a short Western film. He was only 22 years old. Ford’s last film was 7 Women (MGM, 1966), a drama set in about 1935, about missionary women in China, with Anne Bancroft who took over the lead role from Patricia Neal, who suffered a near-fatal stroke two days into shooting. The supporting cast includes Margaret Leighton, Flora Robson, the late Sue Lyon, and Mildred Dunnock.
The Screen Directors Guild gave tribute to Ford in 1972, and in 1973 the American Film Institute honored him with its first Lifetime Achievement Award at a ceremony which was telecast nationwide, with President Richard Nixon promoting Ford to full Admiral and presenting him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Ford’s final credits rolled in summer 1973 at his home in Palm Desert. His funeral was held at Hollywood’s Church of the Blessed Sacrament. He was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, with a view of the MGM backlot.
Ten Best Ford Films:
The Whole Town’s Talking (1935)
Stagecoach (1939)
Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)
The Grapes Of Wrath (1940)
My Darling Clementine (1946)
The Quiet Man (1952)
Mister Roberts (1955)
The Searchers (1956)
Sergeant Rutledge (1960) is of special interest to me. This 1960 Technicolor Western crime drama stars Jeffrey Hunter, Woody Strode and Billie Burke and was shot in Monument Valley. Strode plays a black first sergeant in the United States Cavalry accused of the rape and murder of a white girl at a U.S. Army fort in the early 1880s. This was Burke’s final film role.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
