Ford At Fox: 3 Bad Men (1926)

The next film in the set is 3 Bad Men, which again showcases the sparkling cinematography of George Schneiderman - whose work is one of the many marvels of this set. In collaboration with Ford, he composes exquisite long shots of western landscapes (most of them shot at Jackson Hole, Wyoming - thanks Joseph McBride!). They are deep focus wonders, rich with chiaroscuro and constantly slashed by intrepid wagon trains, preparing for a land rush into the Dakotas (land wrested away from the Sioux nation). The three bad men aren't so bad, at least after they run into toothsome Olive Borden (former Mack Sennett bathing beauty) after her father is killed by horse bandits (who just happened to beat the naughty trio to the punch). The whiskered heroes are played by Tom Santschi, J. Farrell MacDonald (a Ford Stock Company regular), and Frank Campeau.

Filled with Fordian low humor, including a choice bathing beauty in a barrel farce, it's also a complex take on one of his favorite themes - the noble outlaw making way for a civilization that has no use for them. The three drunken louts defend Miss Borden from the slick advancements of the corrupt local Sheriff, a smug, corrupt bastard whose official cover masks a naked lust for power. This ambivalence about the new order is encapsulated in the final action sequence, where the oleaginous sheriff sneaks behind the line of the land rush and plots to take over Olive's plot of land - as she has the inside dope on a gold vein. In a beautifully orchestrated defense, the three dirtbags give up their lives to the law in order to preserve the future for Olive and her athletic beau (George O'Brien, also of The Iron Horse).

But one can't get away from that photography. It's glorious - and Schneiderman is a guy who deserves further research.

Ford At Fox: The Iron Horse (1924)

John Ford's first epic production, The Iron Horse, flung Jack onto the critical map. While his previous Westerns with Harry Carey were popular, they were treated as run-of-the-mill programmers by the stuffed shirts. But throw a lot of money and publicity behind a historical pageant - and they take notice! Laureled upon first release but downgraded during his auteurist deification (along with his other silent work), its real value lies somewhere in between. Sure, it's saddled with an ungainly plot, with the fresh faced George O' Brien (who three years later would star in Murnau's Sunrise, which proved to be a huge influence on Ford) seeking love with his childhood sweetheart Madge Bellamy as they build the transcontinental railroad. The love plot is rife with coincidence and an evil mustachioed boyfriend.

But there are enough Fordian touches to offset the creaky melodrama - including luminous landscape photography by George Scheiderman (who shot Ford's Will Rogers trilogy), scenes of low humor preceding tragedy (after a train car is turned into a raucous outdoor casino, Ford pans down to a wife mourning her husband, who died of drink), and some wonderful scenes of drunken Irish humor (played besottedly by charter Ford Stock Company member J. Farrell McDonald). What lifts The Iron Horse to another level is the effortless way in which Ford links the personal and historical - as O'Brien and Bellamy's romance is fixed only after the last railroad spike is driven, effortlessly lifting the cliched romance into the realm of a founding myth - a couple uniting the country from East to West.

Ford at Fox: Just Pals (1920)

I have it! (thanks Spinster Aunt!) A handsome set of 24 films John Ford made at Fox, plus a newly produced documentary directed by Nick Redman. In addition, there is a beautiful coffee table book with a valuable introduction by Ford biographer Joseph McBride, and reproductions of the original press notes for The Iron Horse and Four Sons. As I gleefully wade through the set (which will likely take up the better part of '08), I hope to post a few notes about each film.

The earliest film in the set is Just Pals, a short and sweet slice of Americana. It's a charming, minor work centered around the figure of Bim (Buck Jones - a young Western star), a good-natured layabout in love with the local schoolmarm, and who becomes a father figure to a young runaway who tumbles out of a train. The figure of Bim is one who will pop up later in Ford's films, a principled outcast who feels more at home in the wild than in civilization. Just Pals touches the countours of this conflicted figure who would reach full expression in later works like My Darling Clementine. But on its own merits, the film stands just fine - with some gentle satire of small-town paranoia, a likeable turn by Buck, and plenty of knockabout humor. An auspicious start!

In other news, I saw There Will Be Blood, which is technically astonishing but emotionally inert. Ed Gonzalez's review at Slant reflects my reaction pretty accurately.

Also check out Dave Kehr's dissenting opinion on No Country For Old Men, by far the most overrated film of the year.