John Ford

Filmmakers

John Ford (Born John Martin Feeney; February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973) was an American film director. He is renowned both for Westerns such as Stagecoach (1939), with Claire Trevor and John Wayne; The Searchers (1956), with Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Ward Bond, and Natalie Wood; and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), with Wayne, James Stewart, and Lee Marvin; as well as adaptations of classic 20th-century American novels such as The Grapes of Wrath (1940), with Henry Fonda. His four Academy Awards for Best Director (in 1935, 1940, 1941, and 1952) remain a record. One of the films for which he won the award, How Green Was My Valley, also won Best Picture.

In a career of more than 50 years, Ford directed more than 140 films (although most of his silent films are now lost) and he is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. Ford’s work was held in high regard by his colleagues, with Orson Welles and Ingmar Bergman among those who named him one of the greatest directors of all time. Ford made frequent use of location shooting and long shots, in which his characters were framed against a vast, harsh, and rugged natural terrain.

One notable feature of John Ford’s films is that he used a ‘stock company’ of actors, far more so than many directors. Many famous stars appeared in at least two or more Ford films, including Harry Carey Sr., (the star of 25 Ford silent films), Will Rogers, Wayne, Fonda, Maureen O’Hara, Stewart, Woody Strode, Richard Widmark, Victor McLaglen, Miles and Hunter. Many of his supporting actors appeared in multiple Ford films, often over a period of several decades, including Ben Johnson, Chill Wills, Andy Devine, Ward Bond, Grant Withers, Mae Marsh, Anna Lee, Harry Carey Jr., Ken Curtis, Frank Baker, Dolores del Río, Pedro Armendáriz, Hank Worden, John Qualen, Barry Fitzgerald, Arthur Shields, John Carradine, O.Z. Whitehead and Carleton Young.

His films in the 1960s include Sergeant Rutledge (1960), with Hunter, Constance Towers, Woody Strode, and Billie Burke; Two Rode Together (1961), with Stewart, Richard Widmark, and Shirley Jones; The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), with Wayne, Stewart, Marvin, and Vera Lynn; Donovan’s Reef (1963), with Wayne, Marvin, Elizabeth Allen, Jack Warden, Cesar Romero, Dick Foran and Dorothy Lamour; Cheyenne Autumn (1964), with Widmark, Carroll Baker, Stewart, Karl Malden, Sal Mineo, and Edward G. Robinson; and 7 Women (1966), with Anne Bancroft, Sue Lyon, Margaret Leighton, Flora Robson, Mildred Dunnock, Betty Field, Anna Lee, with Eddie Albert, Mike Mazurki, and Strode.

Each review will be linked to the title below.

(*seen originally in theaters)

(**seen rereleased in theaters)

Silent Films

  • The Tornado (1917) – short, lost
  • The Scrapper (1917) – short, lost
  • The Soul Herder (1917) – short, lost
  • Straight Shooting (1917)
  • The Secret Man (1917) – partially lost
  • A Marked Man (1917) – lost
  • Cheyenne’s Pal (1917) – lost
  • Bucking Broadway (1917)
  • The Phantom Riders (1918) – lost
  • Wild Women (1918) – lost
  • Thieves’ Gold (1918) – lost
  • The Scarlet Drop (1918) – partiality lost
  • Hell Bent (1918)
  • A Woman’s Fool (1918)
  • The Craving (1918) – co-director
  • Three Mounted Men (1918) – lost
  • Roped (1919) – lost
  • The Fighting Brothers (1919) – short, lost
  • A Fight for Love (1919) – lost
  • Rustler’s (1919) – short, survival status unknown
  • Bare Fists (1919) – lost
  • Gun Law (1919) – short, survival status unknown
  • By Indian Post (1919) – short, incomplete
  • The Gun Packer (1919) – short, survival status unknown
  • Riders of Vengeance (1919) – lost
  • The Last Outlaw (1919) – short, incomplete
  • The Outcast of Poker Flat (1919 – lost
  • Ace of the Saddle (1919) – lost
  • Rider of the Law (1919) – lost
  • A Gun Fightin’ Gentleman (1919) – partially lost
  • Marked Men (1919) lost
  • The Prince of Avenue A (1920) – lost
  • The Girl in Number 29 (1920) – lost
  • Hitchin’ Post (1920) – lost
  • Just Pals (1920)
  • The Big Punch (1921) – lost
  • The Freeze-Out (1921) – lost
  • The Wallop (1921) – lost
  • Desperate Trails (1921) – lost
  • Action (1921) – lost
  • Sure Fire (1921) – lost
  • Jackie (1921) – lost
  • Little Miss Smiles (1922) – lost
  • Silver Wings (1922) – directed prologue only, lost
  • The Village Blacksmith (1922) – lost
  • The Face on the Bar-Room Floor (1923) – lost
  • Three Jumps Ahead (1923) – lost
  • Cameo Kirby (1923)
  • North Hudson Bay (1923) – partially lost
  • Hoodman Blind (1923) – lost
  • The Iron Horse (1924) – uncredited
  • Hearts of Oak (1924) – lost
  • Lightnin’ (1925)
  • Kentucky Pride (1925)
  • Thank You (1925) – lost
  • The Fighting Heart (1925) – lost
  • The Shamrock Handicap (1926)
  • 3 Bad Men (1926)
  • The Blue Eagle (1926) – partially lost
  • Upstream (1927)
  • Mother Machree (1927) – uncredited, partially lost
  • Four Sons (1928)
  • Hangman’s House (1928) – uncredited
  • Riley the Cop (1928) – uncredited
  • Strong Boy (1929) – lost
  • The Black Watch (1929)
  • Men Without Women (1930) – sound version lost)

Talking Films

  • Napoleon’s Barber (1928) – short, lost
  • Salute (1929) uncredited co-director
  • Born Reckless (1930)
  • Up the River (1930)
  • Seas Beneath (1931)
  • The Brat (1931)
  • Arrowsmith (1931)
  • Air Mail (1932)
  • Flesh (1932) – uncredited
  • Pilgrimage (1933)
  • Doctor Bull (1933)
  • The Lost Patrol (1934)
  • The World Moves On (1934)
  • Judge Priest (1934)
  • The Whole Town’s Talking (1935)
  • The Informer (1935)
  • Steamboat Round the Bend (1935)
  • The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936)
  • Mary of Scotland (1936)
  • The Plough and the Stars (1936)
  • Wee Willie Winkie (1937)
  • The Hurricane (1937)
  • Four Men and a Prayer (1938)
  • Submarine Patrol (1938)
  • Stagecoach (1939)
  • Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)
  • Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)
  • The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
  • The Long Voyage Home (1940)
  • Tobacco Road (1941)
  • How Green Was My Valley (1941)
  • Sex Hygiene (1942) – short, co-director
  • The Battle of Midway (1942) – documentary short
  • Torpedo Squadron (1942) – documentary short
  • At the Front in North Africa with the U.S. Army (1943) – documentary short
  • December 7th (1943) – co-director
  • We Sail at Midnight (1943) – documentary short, uncredited
  • German Industrial Manpower (1943) – documentary
  • How to Operate Behind Enemy Lines (1943) – training film
  • Undercover (1944) – documentary, uncredited
  • They Were Expendable (1945)
  • My Darling Clementine (1946)
  • It’s Your America (1946) short
  • The Fugitive (1947)
  • Fort Apache (1948)
  • 3 Godfathers (1948)
  • She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)
  • Pinky (1949) – uncredited original director
  • When Willie Comes Marching Home (1950)
  • Wagon Master (1950)
  • Rio Grande (1950)
  • This Is Korea! (1951) – documentary
  • The Quiet Man (1952)**
  • What Price Glory (1952)
  • The Sun Shines Bright (1953)
  • Mogambo (1953)
  • The Long Gray Line (1955)
  • Mister Roberts (1955)
  • The Searchers (1956)
  • The Wings of Eagles (1957)
  • The Rising of the Moon (1957)
  • Gideon of Scotland Yard (1958)
  • The Last Hurrah (1958)
  • The Horse Soldiers (1959)
  • Korea (1959) – documentary short
  • Sergeant Rutledge (1960)
  • Two Road Together (1961)
  • The Man Who Short Liberty Valance (1962)
  • How the West Was Won (1962) – anthology, directed with Henry Hathaway and George Marshall
  • Donovan’s Reef (1963)
  • Cheyenne Autumn (1964)
  • Young Cassidy (1965) – uncredited original director
  • 7 Women (1966)
  • Chesty: A Tribute to a Legend (1976) – documentary short, released posthumously