Warner Brothers brings five of John Ford’s films for the first time on DVD in a new collection -two are exclusive to this set (Mary of Scotland and Sergeant Rutledge) and includes the Academy Award winning The Informer.
Ford is considered one of the true masters of American cinema, and Warner Bros. celebrates his early achievements in film with this collection. The four-time Academy Award-Winning Ford is best known for his Westerns (many of which included work with western icon John Wayne), but the studio decided to show the directors ability to cross genres and his diversity through this collection of films.
Lost Patrol (1934): The troop’s young captain is shot by Arabs while they’re on patrol in the desert. The problem is that only he knew their mission and where they were going and that information was in his head and now his head is six feet under. The Sergeant (Victor McLaglen) is now in charge of the troop and keeps the marching in the direction in which they were headed. Fortunately they find an oasis, unfortunately they begin to be picked off one by one by the unseen Arab snipers. The troop has some colorful characters, religious zealot Sanders (Boris Karloff), Morelli (Wallace Ford), Brown (Reginald Denny), Cook (Alan Hale), Pearson (Douglas Walton), and Quincannon (J. M. Kerrigan) to name a few.
Lost Patrol is presented in fullscreen, but has no special features (not even a trailer). Ford wisely chooses to keep the Arabs an unseen menace until the very end and then only shows them in a long shot. The deaths of their comrades by unseen forces causes the remaining men to slowly loose their sanity. Karloff goes over the edge quite easily since he really wasn’t too far from it to begin with. The acting is bit over the top but it’s in keeping with the acting of the time, so I am forgiving of it.
Lost Patrol would easily receive three stars on its own, and fans of Karloff will enjoy the movie.
The Informer (1935): In 1922 Dublin, Gypo (Victor McLaglen) has been cast out of the “organization” (Republican Army) because he did not execute a traitor. He’s down on his luck and has no money. He meets his girl Katie (Margot Grahame) on the streets and she also is penniless and can’t pay her rent so she’s about to turn a trick to get money. Gypo sees a wanted poster for his friend Frankie McPhillip (Wallace Ford). The reward is twenty pounds, a large amount in those days (it costs ten pounds for fare to America). McPhillip contacts Gypo to confirm that his mother’s (Una O’Connor) house is not being watched since he wants to visit her and his sister (Heather Angel). So now Gypo knows exactly where his buddy is going to be so he decides to turn him over for the twenty pounds. The police raid Mrs. McPhillips house and in the melee Frankie is killed. Gypo has his money but he also has the guilt associated with his turning Judas.
Boris Karloff in Lost Patrol
The Informer is presented in fullscreen. The Informer was winner of four Academy Awards, Best Director (Ford’s first of four), Best Actor for McLaglen, Best Music for Max Steiner, and Best Screenplay for Dudley Nichols. The Informer is one of Ford’s masterpieces. Since it is they do provide some small special features. First is a 10 minute documentary entitled “The Informer: Out of the Fog.”
It has interviews with Ford author Joseph McBride, Allen Daviau (a director of photography), Robert Elswit (also a director of photography), and Peter Bogdanovich (who interviewed Ford towards the end of his life). All the principles of the film are long gone, but it is a shame that McBride doesn’t provide a commentary here. The theatrical trailer is also included.
There are several wonder moments in the film. The first is how McPhillips’ wanted poster appears to follow Gypo as he considers turning over his friend. Another is when we encounter Katie for the first time and is the vision of innocence, looking rather like the Virgin Mary, until she removes her shawl and is the vision of a streetwalker. Victor McLaglen is also well deserving of his best actor award (although it is very much acting in the style of the period).
With the special features and great performances, The Informer is easily a four star movie on its own.
Mary of Scotland (1936): In 1561, Mary Stuart (Katherine Hepburn) returns to rule in Scotland along with her faithful Italian secretary David Rizzio (John Carradine). This upsets Queen Elizabeth I (Florence Eldridge), who sees her as a rival to her throne, and Lord Morton (Robert Barrat), her brother who has been ruling in her stead. She also runs afoul of the other noblemen ruling with Morton and the Protestant fanatic John Knox (Moroni Olsen). Knox hates her so because she’s Catholic and Knox thinks that she’ll turn Scotland Catholic. The only two noblemen that are on Mary’s side are Lord Huntley (Donald Crisp) and the Earl of Bothwell (Frederic March).
Twenty pounds to inform on a friend
To secure her position on the throne she marries the foppish drunk Lord Darnley (Douglas Walton), who is also in line for Elizabeth’s throne, but Bothwell is her true love and ally. The nobles attempt a coup and murder Rizzio, but are turned back by Bothwell. The now exiled nobles eventually kill Darnley but pin the blame on Bothwell. Bothwell and Mary marry against the advice of Huntley and hole up in the castle. Morton and the nobles attack and easily outnumber them, but they agree to the terms of the nobles and exile Bothwell. The nobles agreed to let Mary stay on the throne, but renege on their promise as soon as Bothwell is out of the picture. Mary escapes to England hoping to get help from Elizabeth, but a finds that a worse fate awaits her.
Mary of Scotland is presented in fullscreen. There are no special features, not even a trailer. Rumor has it that during the filming of Mary of Scotland that Ford had a crush on Hepburn. It’s not hard to believe since he shoots her in loving close up for most of the picture. I found the movie enjoyable, but there’s a lot of court intrigue. I also thought that John Carradine’s death scene was very good with Carradine crying “Justice!” to his obviously uninterested assassins.
Mary of Scotland is a three star movie on its own, and I would recommend it to Ford fans, or fans of historical movies.
Sergeant Rutledge (1960): Lt. Tom Cantrell (Jeffrey Hunter) is the counsel for the defense of Sergeant Rutledge (Woody Strode). Rutledge is the soldier’s soldier but he has been accused of the murder of his commanding officer and the rape and murder of that officer’s daughter. The film starts with the trial and the critical evidence is told in flashback as each witness takes the stand. The first witness is called by the prosecution, however, it’s a defense witness. Mary Beecher was on her way to her father’s farm via train (Cantrell was also on the train and he’s interested in her) and they drop her at the seemingly abandoned train station.
The station was attacked by Indians and the stationmaster killed, unknown to Beecher and everyone on the train, however Rutledge shows up and protects Mrs. Beecher from certain doom. Next witness is the fort commander’s scatterbrained wife (Billie Burke – Glenda the good witch) who saw Rutledge leaving the scene of the crime. They also call the post surgeon Dr. Eckner (Charles Seel) to describe the state of the commander’s daughter. They also call Cantrell himself as a prosecution witness to tell of his pursuit of Rutledge. Cantrell tells of how much of a help that Rutledge was in an Apache raid even though he was a prisoner and even blows his opportunity to escape to save the troop. So is the dedicated Rutledge guilty of the crime or was it committed by somebody else?
Sergeant Rutledge is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and enhanced for 16x9 televisions. The only special feature is the movie’s theatrical trailer. Sergeant Rutledge is not too bad of a film, but it’s just that the mystery is not too mysterious. Rutledge is such a soldier’s soldier you doubt that he truly had anything to do with the crime.
He’s just a victim of circumstance. Strode plays him as such a heroic straight arrow that you know from scene one that he’s innocent. The shock ending would’ve been for him to actually confess to have committed the crime. Speaking of that, the revelation of the real killer is done a little too easily in the last five minutes of the film.
Mary Stuart and Rizzio
Sergeant Rutledge has some problems, but still rates three stars and a recommendation.
Cheyenne Autumn (1964): The Cheyenne tribe is sent to a reservation in Oklahoma, there were 1000 when they arrived and in 1878 there were 286 left. The Cheyenne are awaiting the arrival of a senator to finally see if the white man will keep his promises. They stand and wait all day (literally) and the senator never arrives (he decides the road is too bumpy and turns around). Under the leadership of Little Wolf (Ricardo Montalban) and Dull Knife (Gilbert Roland) the Cheyenne (including Sal Mineo, Victor Jory, and Delores Del Rio) decide to make the 1500 mile trek back to their homelands in Wyoming. Captain Archer (Richard Widmark) is sympathetic to the Indians but is forced to lead his troops (including Ben Johnson, Harry Carey, Jr., and Patrick Wayne) to stop them.
The Quaker school teacher, Deborah (Carroll Baker), that Archer has a crush on decides to go with the Cheyenne. The army has an encounter with the Indians and suffers causalities. The press blows the casualties out of proportion. This gets the Secretary of the Interior (Edward G. Robinson) into hot water, so much so that the government threatens to take control of the Indian bureau from him and give it to the Army.
During one sequence the denizens of Dodge City decide to give chase to the Indians, including Wyatt Earp (Jimmy Stewart), Doc Holliday (Arthur Kennedy), and Jeff Blair (John Carradine) and they even have a wagon with a full bar on it. Karl Malden shows up towards the end as an order following commandant that cruelly confines the surrendering faction of Apaches.
Cheyenne Autumn is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2:20:1) and enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include an informative commentary by Joseph McBride, writer of Searching for John Ford. There’s also a 16 minute vintage documentary called Cheyenne Autumn Trail. It’s about some decendents of the original Apaches retracing the trail and is narrated by Jimmy Stewart.
Sgt Rutledge on the stand
Finally, there’s the trailer for the film. This was Ford’s last western (and second to last film). The print looks wonderful to my untrained eye. It also includes the overture, intermission and entr’acte music. This cut has the complete Dodge City sequence as in some prints it was cut out entirely or just missing the last seven minutes. This sequence has been criticized because of its broad comedy, but Ford wanted to show the crazy reaction of the town of white settlers to the ONE Indian they see on the trail.
I probably shouldn’t admit it, but it’s my favorite part of the picture with Ford regular John Carradine popping up as a card shark. There are some other oddities that McBride mentions in his commentary like Sal Mineo being shot at exactly the same time that John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
When the news of Kennedy’s assassination reached the set this cast a pall over the production. Even Ford seemingly gave up interest in the picture. I think this led to some of the poor production shots used in the finale. The final resolution between Archer, Interior Secretary, Dull Knife, and Little Wolf is shot before some horrible background shots instead of being shot on location. The film is not too bad, but gets flack for its comedy interlude.
With the star power and Ford’s work as a director, Cheyenne Autumn is worth three stars and watching.
The later films look the best with the earlier ones having signs of age and scratches.
Let us make peace in front of this bad backdrop
It would also seem that the other set gets the lion’s share of special features, but there is some informative commentary on Cheyenne Autumn. However, I wish more was done with the Informer since it’s truly one of Ford’s best non-Western pictures.
The John Ford Film Collection is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD’s database for more information.
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