Born 100 years ago this month, John Ford helped define American film. The director of Stagecoach and Liberty Valance was a box-office success, but critics differ on the lasting significance of his work.
Among American film directors, John Ford was the most prolific, the most iconic and certainly one of the most visually poetic. He made the western into a serious film genre and laid down the classic form for constructing a picture story. He was largely responsible for the careers of numerous stars, among them John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara and Henry Fonda. A host of noteworthy filmmakers - including Sergei Eisenstein, Peter Bogdanovich and Paul Schrader - have paid homage to him. Before making Citizen Kane, Orson Welles studied Ford's Stagecoach (1939) intensively, viewing it more than two dozen times; later, when asked which other directors he admired, Welles replied, "The Old Masters, by which I mean John Ford, John Ford and John Ford."No doubt Ford is the Old Master of American cinema. But Ford also had weaknesses, including a taste for bawdy humor - the drunken soldier in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), the boozy, poker-obsessed judge and twittering women spectators in Sergeant Rutledge (1960) - that cropped up even in his best films; indeed, he and Fonda came to blows over Ford's insistence on putting such low comedy in Mr Roberts (1955). And his penchant for speed and obsession with single takes sometimes led to slipshod work. Critic Richard Winningham claims that Ford is consistently overrated; Georges Sadoul called the majority of his films mediocre, while admitting his craftsmanship.During the past 15 years, studies of reviewers, publishers, and academics have spawned fresh insights into Canada's literary past. Notable contributions include Clara Thomas and John Lennox's William Arthur Deacon: A Canadian Literary Life (1982), Paul Rutherford's A Victorian Authority (1982), George Parker's The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada (1985), Laura Groening's E.K. Brown: A Study in Conflict (1993) and David MacKenzie's Arthur Irwin: A Biography (1993). At the same time, work remains to be done concerning editorial figures who have influenced the production of Canadian writing. Sandra Campbell's forthcoming biography of Lorne Pierce (1890-1961) will fill one hole in the written record of Canada's literary and publishing history.(f.1) Another editorial figure worthy of attention is Edward S. Caswell, book publishing manager of the Methodist Book and Publishing House (MBPH) from 1892 to 1909 and, in many respects, Pierce's turn-of-the-century counterpart in the history of The Ryerson Press.(f.2) Indeed, Caswell is arguably the first literary editor of major consequence in the history of Canadian book publishing.The Francis Ford Serial Co. had become associated with Universal Studios. In those preunion days, when as many as 40 companies with a total of 5,000 people could be shooting at one time on the Universal complex, an enterprising soul could and did do almost everything. John played bit parts, performed stunts, built sets and learned to work with extras, horses, explosives and cameras. He assisted prominent directors such as D.W Griffith. Taking advantage of his brother's well-known name, he changed his to Ford as well.In 1917, Ford wrote, directed and acted in his first film, The Tornado, a two-reeler. He quickly established a pattern of working fast, making eight films that year. At age 22, he had signed a contract with Universal; by the end of 1923, he had made nearly 50 pictures. During this time, Ford teamed up with actor Harry Carey, who would become a favorite collaborator.Toward the end of his first year of filmmaking, Ford and Carey, working behind their bosses' backs at Universal, made a feature-length film called Straight Shooting. It was a hit. (In 196S, a print of Straight Shooting was unearthed in Prague; it is the oldest Ford picture known to exist and exhibits a strong plot, genuine rhythm and subtle characterization.) But critics agree that his first truly great film was The Iron Horse, a railroad epic shot in 1924 starring John Wayne.ReactionVariesBorn in Goderich, Canada West in 1861, Edward Samuel Caswell was the son of Elizabeth Pearson, a native of Aurora descended from Quaker stock, and James Caswell, an English-born, second-generation preacher who came to Canada in 1844 as a missionary of the Methodist New Connexion Church. Reputedly a "hearty sympathizer" of the union efforts that in 1874 merged the Methodist New Connexion Church of Canada, the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada, and the Conference of Eastern British America into the Methodist Church of Canada, James Caswell served as a member of the first general conference of the new body and "enjoyed many honours at the hands of his brethren."(f.8) Church union also paved the way for the later employment of several of his children with the Methodist Book and Publishing House, which had been owned, prior to union, by the Wesleyan Methodists.Last year, Gee Bee experienced a 20% increase in the curtains and tiers business, and expects 1986 volume to grow at the same pace, said buyer Samuel Renda. Like other buyers, Renda is relying on the strong priscilla business and different top treatments to fuel sustained interest.Broadening MixIn priscillas, the chain is getting in a country ruffle program to sell at $49.99 from Croscill, a department store resource that would previously not sell to a discounter. Egan expects to meet little price resistance from shoppers because the item would be priced from $80 to $120 in department stores. Also, she added, Caldor customers are already accustomed to spending $80 at Caldor for a multiple width drape set, or coordinating a tier curtain for, say, $10 with a $15 topper and a $6 valance for a total of $31.He added Cape Cods are priced everyday for $3.99 for the 24-inch, the lead size. The bulk of the tier business is in the $3.99 to $5.99 range for the 24-inch size, with some lead sizes starting at $7.99 to $9.99.Discounters say the business has been left wide open for them as department stores increasingly opt out of the ready-made market in favor of custom designing. That upstairs store decision, industry observers explained, stemmed from intensified competition among discounters and the growing hard window treatment business that drove margins down in the business.In drapery, Caldor is testing a line of antique satin drapes from Contemporary Classics (a division of Rennie) in 50 of its stores that is fan folded and pre-pinned. The program, which retails at $29.99 for the 63-inch with a rope tie-back and a festoon valance, is available in six colors, including peach, light blue and celery, said buyer Gale Egan.
At their best, Ford's movies are lifted out of the realm of the ordinary by this sensitivity to the complexity of life. That he works large themes so unaffectedly into his stories and tells those stories so well visually makes his films, for all their flaws, truly outstanding.
Author: Lloyd Eby
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