The Grapes of Wrath
Long remembered for Henry Fonda’s speech, the film was further proof Ford could wrestle with more than just killing Indians. John Steinbeck’s novel carried on the tradition of the socially conscious novel. It addressed the plight of farmers escaping the dust bowl for California and the problems they endured. Though the film tends to fall into sappy Mr. Smith Goes to Washington type drivel, it offers a glimpse of Ford at his visual best.
Fonda’s performance in the film serves as a shining example of why actors liked to work with Ford. He drew the best from them. It didn’t matter what your name was. Nor how big a star you were.
Steamboat Round The Bend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJCE27lUqrk
Steamboat Round the Bend was the last film Will Rogers made before his untimely death in a plane crash. It was a pet project of John Ford’s. Wikipedia tells us, “A con man enters his steamboat in a winner-take-all steamboat race with a rival while attempting to find a eyewitness that will save his nephew, who has been wrongly convicted of murder, from the gallows.”
Will Rogers and John Ford together must have been a trip for all those who were able to witness them firsthand. It didn’t matter the genre. As a director, John Ford was adaptable to all genres. It mattered not the style or form or who was acting in the film. Ford elicited performances that few other directors could. He did this with minimal direction.
Cheyenne Autumn
