John Ford

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movielocke
Joined: Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:44 am

Re: John Ford

#276 Post by movielocke » Mon Feb 24, 2020 3:40 pm

Marwood wrote:Does anyone know of the Peter Bogdanovich documentary DIRECTED BY JOHN FORD har been released as an extra on any DVD or blu release of Ford's films? I see that the single release is OOP and quite expensive.

I seem to remember having seen it on disc, but cant find it on any film in my collection.

Thanks :)
It is literally hidden in the bottom of the big ford at fox set. If you have it, Unpack the whole thing, I only found the disc in my set about eight years after buying the ford at Fox set and four years after finishing watching what I had thought was everything in the set.

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NABOB OF NOWHERE
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Location: Brandywine River

Re: John Ford

#277 Post by NABOB OF NOWHERE » Mon Feb 24, 2020 4:44 pm

The dvd in that set is Becoming John Ford by Nick Redman. At least it is in mine- Has anyone else got the Bogdanovitch doc instead?

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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: John Ford

#278 Post by knives » Mon Feb 24, 2020 5:51 pm

Capt. Ascot is an extra on it if I recall correctly. It's definitely there somewhere.

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bearcuborg
Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2007 2:30 am
Location: Philadelphia via Chicago

Re: John Ford

#279 Post by bearcuborg » Mon Feb 24, 2020 6:05 pm

Just checked mine, the DVD case at the bottom contains Becoming John Ford, 4 WWII docs and Frontier Marshall.

Also, thanks for making me dust my custom made shelf...

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domino harvey
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Re: John Ford

#280 Post by domino harvey » Mon Feb 24, 2020 6:08 pm

Directed by John Ford is a Warners DVD release, it wouldn’t be in a box of Fox titles

Marwood
Joined: Thu Sep 19, 2013 8:05 am

Re: John Ford

#281 Post by Marwood » Mon Feb 24, 2020 7:12 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Mon Feb 24, 2020 6:08 pm
Directed by John Ford is a Warners DVD release, it wouldn’t be in a box of Fox titles
Exactly. I knew it would be either a Warner release, or perhaps a newer Criterion which had licensed it.

Anyway, i found the answer. It's in the "John Wayne: John Ford Film Collection" that has:
The Searchers (2-disc)
Fort Apache
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
They Were Expendable
3 Godfathers
The Wings of Eagles
+ the Bogdanovich documentary.

I had bought it way back in 2012 hoping to get the original release which is 7 individual amaray cases. Instead I got a compact one with all films crammed in to a 8-disc amaray. So, I ended up answering my own question. I knew I had it. Just took some searching.

Thanks for the feedback guys : :D

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NABOB OF NOWHERE
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Re: John Ford

#282 Post by NABOB OF NOWHERE » Tue Feb 25, 2020 3:30 am

If it's any consolation there is no Bog doc in the amaray set. Only a commentary by his good self on the Searchers disc.

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knives
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Re: John Ford

#283 Post by knives » Thu Sep 01, 2022 9:53 pm

Is there any proof that Women in Defense narrated by Kat Hepburn was directed by Ford?

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Rayon Vert
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Re: John Ford

#284 Post by Rayon Vert » Fri Jun 30, 2023 10:15 pm

Catching up recently on various Ford blu ray upgrades of the past years.

It's so depressing that Disney now owns the Fox catalog. What are the realistic chances of seeing any of these films released on blu ray: The Iron Horse (I know it got a French release on Sidonis but I don't trust that label), Pilgrimage, the Will Rogers films especially Steamboat Round the Bend, The Informer, The Prisoner of Shark Island? That's a significant part of his filmography.
Last edited by Rayon Vert on Fri Jun 30, 2023 10:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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ryannichols7
Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2012 2:26 pm

Re: John Ford

#285 Post by ryannichols7 » Fri Jun 30, 2023 10:18 pm

I genuinely wonder if Kino or MOC (the two most likely labels to take it on) made inquiries about The Iron Horse, a film certainly most fitting for both of their catalogs

Criterion would earn my goodwill forever if they used their Disney-dealing-exclusitivity to bring Ford at Fox to Bluray, along the lines of Bergman or Varda. but that's just not realistic, the best they can do is free those for Channel screenings here and there

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Rayon Vert
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Re: John Ford

#286 Post by Rayon Vert » Fri Jun 30, 2023 10:47 pm

Before re-checking my memory assumed The Fugitive was Fox, so I'm glad I was wrong and that it could eventually get a release through WAC. That's a movie whose filmic qualities (like The Informer) really depend on good resolution.

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hearthesilence
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Re: John Ford

#287 Post by hearthesilence » Mon Jan 22, 2024 12:02 am

Tomorrow (Monday) at 4 p.m., MoMA will hold the world premiere of a new 4K restoration of John Ford’s Arrowsmith in its original theatrical release, newly restored by The Library of Congress from a nitrate print owned by the film’s star, Ronald Colman, that’s 10 minutes longer than subsequent versions.

David Bordwell suggests it's even possible this was a great influence on Orson Welles as it looks much more like Citizen Kane than Stagecoach.

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mizo
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Re: John Ford

#288 Post by mizo » Mon Jan 22, 2024 12:35 am

I didn't know Bordwell and Thompson were still doing that "best films of ninety years ago" series! Reading the first few entries as a young cinephile was great. So many exotic and intriguing films I never thought I'd see. Sure enough, they covered 1933 last month. Not quite as thread-appropriate, though, as they didn't see fit to include...er, Pilgrimage or Doctor Bull

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ryannichols7
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Re: John Ford

#289 Post by ryannichols7 » Mon Jan 22, 2024 1:06 am

Warner Archive put out Arrowsmith on DVD-R in 2014 apparently, wonder if we'll see a Bluray for it

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hearthesilence
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Re: John Ford

#290 Post by hearthesilence » Mon Jan 22, 2024 1:16 am

I should add, if you can't make that screening, MoMA will show it again next week on Tuesday, Jan 30 at 7:00 p.m.

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domino harvey
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Re: John Ford

#291 Post by domino harvey » Mon Jan 22, 2024 8:53 am

ryannichols7 wrote:
Mon Jan 22, 2024 1:06 am
Warner Archive put out Arrowsmith on DVD-R in 2014 apparently, wonder if we'll see a Bluray for it
It was originally a pressed DVD from MGM, my guess is it’s part of the Samuel Goldwyn collection

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hearthesilence
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Re: John Ford

#292 Post by hearthesilence » Mon Jan 22, 2024 9:03 pm

FWIW, according to the opening credit, the original materials for Arrowsmith are considered lost, which explains why they used Ronald Colman's print. He donated it to the Academy a year or two after WWII ended and apparently it was this print that was eventually transferred to the Library of Congress.

It's interesting because I mentioned back in 2016 that Mike Mashon of the Library of Congress presented a new digital scan of the "original" 130-minute cut of Good Sam (very different than the theatrical version which McCarey reshot in addition to re-editing) and he warned us the scan was done on a 16mm dupe because that's all they had - the studio originally deposited a 35mm nitrate print (I think for copyright registration), but it was copied down to 16mm and turned into fertilizer as a part of federal program to destroy nitrate prints for safety reasons while producing fertilizer to be distributed by the Department of Agriculture. I guess Colman's print was given to the LoC after the program ended or simply evaded destruction some other way?

Anyway, it looks good - obviously not clean and detailed like a scan of an OCN, but the diffuse gauziness looks right with the grain texture pretty much intact. I can't say it's one of Ford's best, but it definitely looks and plays like his work. It's amusing how in the first two scenes, we even get moments that feel like references to his later films:
SpoilerShow
an opening shot of pioneers traveling into the Old West, and then listing the three necessary texts for any doctor as Gray's Anatomy, the Bible, and Shakespeare (see Victor Mature's "Doc" Holliday)
His visual style almost seems fully developed, but it doesn't reach the same heights here. Even a key death scene feels strangely lacking in the emotional heft he surely would've given it years later, even though it's staged with a distinctive look.

In terms of adapting the book, it's a bit eye-rolling how they dumb down the dialogue - no doctor or scientist refrains from using the word "bacteria" in all of its forms, much less replace it with "bugs." And it's amusing (but not surprising) how they replace his ridiculous womanizing with chaste fidelity. (Well, almost.)

pistolwink
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Re: John Ford

#293 Post by pistolwink » Wed Jan 24, 2024 3:06 pm

I'd say the really astonishing look of Arrowsmith owes at least as much to cinematographer Ray June and the Goldwyn 1930s "house style" as Ford -- it doesn't look much like Ford's previous pictures, but looks a fair bit like other of Goldwyn's "A" pictures of the time.

Indeed I think Ford picked up a lot of ideas from his various cameramen in this period, many of which went into the more fixed "Ford style" that became evident by 1939–41 or so. But the visual styles of his '30s films are a bit all over the place in interesting ways.

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