A Look Back At John Ford's Classic Western "My Darling Clementine," Starring Henry Fonda

Raymond Benson reviews the Criterion Blu-Ray special edition of John Ford's classic western film My Darling Clementine for cinemaretro.com.

The great John Ford made many outstanding westerns, and My Darling Clementine (1946) is certainly one of them. I would argue that not since Stagecoach (1939) had there been as good a picture in the genre, and it didn’t even star John Wayne.

Purportedly the story of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, the Clanton Gang, and the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, the film is hogwash as far as the truth is concerned. But as pure entertainment, it’s right up there with the best of the classic westerns that have given us stylistic and physical imagery that is today considered cliché. And in order to become cliché, whatever it is has to have been great to begin with. It must be a trend setter, a groundbreaker, an artistic decision that resulted in an iconic piece of celluloid. Much of what John Ford did accomplished just that. My Darling Clementine has it all—the dumpy saloon with the honky tonk piano player and free-roaming prostitutes, “Injuns,” cattle rustlers and thieves, stagecoaches and horses, ornery villains, and, most of all—the scenery of Monument Valley, Utah.

 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

 

http://www.cinemaretro.com/index.php?/archives/8286-REVIEW-JOHN-FORDS-MY-DARLING-CLEMENTINE-1946-STARRING-HENRY-FONDA;-CRITERION-BLU-RAY-SPECIAL-EDITION.html   

A Look Back At Don Siegel's Great Crime Films

I'm a big fan of the late film director Don Siegel.

I often watch his films again whenever I catch them on TV, especially his great crime films, like Madigan, with Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda (seen in the above photo with Don Siegel on the left), Coogan's Bluff  and Dirty Harry, both with Clint Eastwood, and Charley Varrick, with Walter Matthau.

Siegal also made a good spy thriller with Michael Caine called The Black Windmill and he directed John Wayne's last film, a great Western called The Shootist. 

Oliver Lyttelton at indiewire.com takes a look back at Don Siegal and five of his notable films.

In the credits to his masterpiece "Unforgiven," Clint Eastwood included a dedication: "for Don Siegel and Sergio Leone." Leone was a no-brainer, one of the great filmmakers who worked with Clint on a trio of films ("The Good The Bad And The Ugly," "A Fistful Of Dollars" and "For A Few Dollars More"). But Siegel was less beloved of cinephiles. A cosmopolitan Chicago native who studied at Jesus College, Cambridge, he started directing montages at Warner Bros. (including the opening scene of "Casablanca"), before breaking into features, with a string of B-movies with everyone from Robert Mitchum to Elvis Presley (the latter on 1960's "Flaming Star"), but became most notable for his work with Eastwood on five pictures from 1968's "Coogan's Bluff" to 1979's "Escape From Alcatraz."

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/the-essentials-the-films-of-don-siegel-20120420

A Look Back At 'Fort Apache,' John Ford's Classic Film Of The U.S. Cavalry

 

Fort Apache, director John Ford's classic U.S. Cavalry tale, is one of my favorite Ford films and one of my favorite films.

John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Ward Bond, Pedro Armendariz and many other actors are all at the top of their game in this great film. I served in the U.S. Navy, not the U.S. Cavalry, but the Ford characters are all familiar to me.

I've seen Fort Apache a dozen times and I want to see it again after reading Lee Pfeiffer's cinemaretro.com review of the Blu-Ray DVD release of the film.

Fort Apache, however, is a far more sinister look at the West, one that was decades ahead of its time in terms of presenting the case of the Native Americans in a sympathetic fashion. It's ironic that people like Marlon Brando, who extolled the cause of Native American rights, would cite Ford's films as having been detrimental to the Indian cause. In fact, Ford was so highly regarded by the Navajo that he was made an honorary member of the tribe, primarily because of his consistent efforts to improve their lives.

...The story clearly takes its origins from the legend of General Custer, with Henry Fonda portraying Lt. Colonel Owen Thursday, a strutting martinet who is assigned as commanding officer of Fort Apache, a remote U.S. cavalry outpost deep inside territory that has been characterized by raids led by the legendary Apache chief Cochise. It isn't long before Thursday locks horns with his second in command, Capt. Kirby York (John Wayne). York tries to convince Thursday that his heavy-handed philosophies might be appropriate for West Point, but are hopelessly out of touch with commanding an outpost in this region. Thursday will have none of it. He runs a tight ship, tolerates no dissent from his edicts and alienates any hope of striking a truce with the Apaches by intentionally breaking his word and personally insulting Cochise.

...There are also all those wonderful Ford "stock company" actors including Ward Bond, Guy Kibbee, Victor McLaglen, Jack Pennick, Anna Lee, Pedro Armendariz, as well as George O'Brien.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.cinemaretro.com/index.php?/archives/6674-BLU-RAY-REVIEW-JOHN-FORDS-FORT-APACHE-1948-STARRING-JOHN-WAYNE-AND-HENRY-FONDA.html