John Ford

John Ford

Date of Birth: 01 Feb 1894

Country: USA

Biography: Born in Maine, John Ford followed his brother Francis to Hollywood in 1914 and directed his first film, The Tornado, in 1917. Ford learned the art of filmmaking in the silent era, often combining well-paced stories with poetic and mythic imagery. He made a seamless transition to sound, eventually winning the Best Director Oscar four times. He might be best known for his many films starring John Wayne, and 1956's The Searchers remains widely regarded as a masterpiece in the history of cinema.

Total Credits at Criticker: 10 (Actor), 95 (Director), 7 (Writer)

Biography and picture submitted by Icarus

Find more information about John Ford at The Internet Movie Database

Titles you haven't rated - Actor (10) | Director (95) | Writer (7)

    The Searchers
    As a Civil War veteran spends years searching for a young niece captured by Indians, his motivation becomes increasingly questionable. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    My Darling Clementine
    A Western retelling the tale of the Shoot-out at the OK Corral. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    The Grapes of Wrath
    A poor Midwest family is forced off of their land. They travel to California, suffering the misfortunes of the homeless in the Great Depression. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Stagecoach
    A simple stagecoach trip is complicated by the fact that Geronimo is on the warpath in the area. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
    A senator, who became famous for killing a notorious outlaw, returns to a funeral of a homeless man and tells the truth about his deed. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    The Quiet Man
    A disgraced American boxer retires to Ireland, where he finds love. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Fort Apache
    In John Ford's sombre exploration of THE FETTERMAN MASSACRE OF 1866 mythologising of American heroes... (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Young Mr. Lincoln
    A fictionalized account of the early life of the American president as a young lawyer facing his greatest court case. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    The Whole Town\
    A meek milquetoast of a clerk is mistaken for Public Enemy #1, and the notorious killer takes advantage of the situation.
    Your probable score
    ?
    How Green Was My Valley
    At the turn of the century in a Welsh mining village, the Morgans (he stern, she gentle) raise coal-mining sons and hope their youngest will find a better life. Lots of atmosphere, very sentimental view of pre-union miners' lives (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    3 Godfathers
    Three outlaws on the run discover a dying woman and her baby. They swear to bring the infant to safety across the desert... (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Donovan\
    'Guns' Donovan prefers carousing with his pals Doc Dedham and 'Boats' Gilhooley, until Dedham's high-society daughter Amelia shows up in their South Seas paradise. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Chesty: A Tribute to a Legend
    A tribute documentary on the most decorated U.S. Marine, General Lewis B. 'Chesty' Puller. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Mary of Scotland
    Mary Stuart returns to Scotland to rule as queen, to the chagrin of Elizabeth I of England who finds her a dangerous rival. There is much ado over whom Mary shall marry; to her later regret, she picks effete Lord Darnley over the strong but unpopular Earl of Bothwell. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
    Captain Nathan Brittles, on the eve of retirement, takes out a last patrol to stop an impending massive Indian attack. Encumbered by women who must be evacuated, Brittles finds his mission imperiled. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    The Informer
    In 1922, an Irish rebel informs on his friend, then feels doom closing in. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    They Were Expendable
    A dramatized account of the role of the American PT Boats in the defense of the Philippines in World War II. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Mister Roberts
    Comedy-drama about life on a not particularly important ship of the US Navy during WW2. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Rio Grande
    Rio Grande takes place after the Civil War when the Union turned their attention towards the Apaches. Union officer Kirby Yorke is in charge of an outpost on the Rio Grande in which he is in charge of training of new recruits one of which is his son whom he hasn't seen in 15 years. He whips him into shape to take on the Apaches but not before his mother shows up to take him out of there. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    The Horse Soldiers
    A Union Cavalry outfit is sent behind confederate lines in strength to destroy a rail/supply centre. Along with them is sent a doctor who causes instant antipathy between him and the commander. The secret plan for the mission is overheard by a southern belle who must be taken along to assure her silence. The Union officers each have different reasons for wanting to be on the mission. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    The Lost Patrol
    A World War I British Army patrol is crossing the Mesopotomian desert when their commanding officer, the only one who knows their destination is killed by the bullet of unseen bandits. The patrol's sergeant keeps them heading north on the assumption that they will hit their brigade. They stop for the night at an oasis and awake the next morning to find their horses stolen, their sentry dead, the oasis surrounded and survival difficult. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Mogambo
    Victor Marswell runs a big game trapping company in Kenya. Eloise Kelly is ditched there, and an immediate attraction happens between them. Then Mr. and Mrs. Nordley show up for their gorilla documenting safari. Mrs. Nordley is not infatuated with her husband any more, and takes a liking to Marswell. The two men and two women have some difficulty arranging these emotions to their mutual satisfaction, but eventually succeed. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Young Cassidy
    Rod Taylor is Cassidy, a boisterous boy who digs ditches to support his mother and sister. In his spare time, Cassidy is active with the Irish revolutionary movement against the occupying British. He still finds time enough for romance, notably with trashy chorine Julie Christie and timid librarian Maggie Smith... (All Movie Guide)
    Your probable score
    ?
    The Wings of Eagles
    A biography of Navy flier-turned-screenwriter Frank W. "Spig" Wead. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    7 Women
    In a mission in China in 1935, Agatha Andrews (Margaret Leighton) is a rigid missionary beset by Mongolian bandits led by Warlord chief Tunga Khan (Mike Mazurki). (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Wagon Master
    A group of Mormons hoping to found a new colony in the trackless San Juan River country hire horse traders Travis and Sandy as wagonmaster and guide. One attraction for Sandy is "redheaded gal" Prudence. Soon they're joined by Doc Hall's broken down medicine show, with "scarlet women" Denver and Fleuretty. Then the Clegg boys, slightly psycho outlaws, decide a Mormon wagon train will make ideal camouflage... (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    The Sun Shines Bright
    John Ford weaves three "Judge Priest" stories together to form a good- natured exploration of honour and small-town politics in the South around the turn of the century. Judge William Priest is involved variously in revealing the real identity of Lucy Lake, reliving his Civil War memories, preventing the lynching of a youth and contesting the elections with Yankee Horace K. Maydew. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    The Hurricane
    In the days of the tall ships and colonial rule of the South Pacific, a naive native sailor working as first mate on an island hopping windjammer is unjustly jailed in Tahiti for striking a racist planter with government connections. His attempts to escape imprisonment and return to his home island and young wife are contrasted with the attitudes of the white colonials... (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    How the West Was Won
    Sprawling epic which follows the Prescotts, an emigrant family through four generations, from the Erie Canal in the 1830's to their settled home in the West a half a century later... (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    The Last Hurrah
    An aging politician (Spencer Tracy) tries to get re-elected one last time in the changing world of the 1950s when TV started to play a bigger part in politics. Based loosely on the career of multi-term Boston Mayor James Michael Curley, this film examines the good and evil inherent in politics and all the things that go into an election. Tracy's uphill battle to stay in office is set against the political machinery that preyed on ethnic hatred and old-time money. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Cheyenne Autumn
    When the government agency fails to deliver even the meager supplies due by treaty to the proud Cheyenne tribe in their barren desert reserve, the starving Indians have taken more abuse then it's worth and break it too by embarking on a 1,500 miles journey back to their ancestral hunting grounds. US Cavalry Capt. Thomas Archer is charged with their retrieval, but during the hunt grows to respect their noble courage, and decides to help them. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Two Rode Together
    The US Army is under pressure from the desperate relatives of white prisoners of the Comanches to secure their rescue. A cynical and corrupt marshal, Guthrie McCabe, is persuaded by an army lieutenant to assist in the negotiations with the Comanches. However, just two captives are released; and their reintegration into white society proves highly problematic. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Sergeant Rutledge
    Lieutenant Tom Cantrell is sent to defend Sergeant Braxton Rutledge a black cavalry soldier on a charge of rape and murder. The story begins in a courtroom and the story is told through flashbacks. This is a story of how a black soldier in the face of danger from the Indians can be so easily mistaken as a criminal. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    The Long Gray Line
    The life story of a salt-of-the-earth Irish immigrant, who becomes an Army Noncommissioned Officer and spends his 50 year career at the United States Military Academy at West Point. This includes his job-related experiences as well as his family life and the relationships he develops with young cadets with whom he befriends. Based on the life of a real person. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    What Price Glory
    In 1918 France, Captain Flagg commands a disreputable company of Marines; his new top sergeant is his old friendly enemy, Quirt. The two men become rivals for the favors of fair innkeeper's daughter Charmaine, but the rivalry goes into reverse when Charmaine proves to be angling for a husband. When the company is ordered to the front, this comedy interlude gives way to the grim realities of war. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    The Fugitive
    Based of the Graham Greene novel about a revolutionary priest in Central America. A priest who is The Fugitive is trying to getaway from the authorities who have denounced Christianity and want anyone linked to it dead... (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Tobacco Road
    Shiftless Jeeter Lester and his family of hillbilly stereotypes live in a rural backwater where their ancestors were once wealthy planters. Their slapstick existence is threatened by a bank's plans to take over the land for more profitable farming; subplots involve the affairs and marriages of son Dude and daughter Ellie May. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    The Long Voyage Home
    Aboard the freighter Glencairn, the lives of the crew are lived out in fear, loneliness, suspicion and cameraderie. The men smuggle drink and women aboard, fight with each other, spy on each other, comfort each other as death approaches, and rescue each other from danger. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Drums Along the Mohawk
    Before the Revolutionary War farmer Martin brings bride Magdelana the Mohawk Valley where they are burned out by Indians. Neighbors take them in and Martin joins the militia to fight the Indians. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Four Men and a Prayer
    Colonel Loring Leigh, British Indian Army, appears to have issued an order that cost 90 lives. Cashiered, he returns home, tells his sons of a conspiracy by an arms syndicate to supply the rebels...then is found dead, an apparent suicide. To clear their father, the four sons must globetrot in a hazardous search for evidence, closely followed by Geoffrey's sweetheart Lynn Cherrington. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Wee Willie Winkie
    Little Priscilla Williams goes to live with her grandfather, the colonel at a British Army base in 19th century India. She drills with the troops, gets captured by rebels, and generally cheers everyone up. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    The Prisoner of Shark Island
    A few short hours after President Lincoln has been assassinated, Dr. Samuel Mudd gives medical treatment to a wounded man who shows up at his door. Mudd has no idea that the president is dead and that he is treating his murderer, John Wilkes Booth... (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Steamboat Round the Bend
    Two of America's most distinguished humorists, Oklahoma's Will Rogers and Kentucky's Irvin S. Cobb, costar in Steamboat Round the Bend. Cobb isn't much of an actor, so it is Rogers who carries the comic weight of this fast-paced slice of Americana. Will uncharacteristically sticks to the script for most of the proceedings as the proprietor of a combination travelling waxworks and medicine show... (All Movie Guide)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Just Pals
    Small-town tramp befriends runaway boy. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    The Iron Horse
    Springfield, Illinois. Brandon, a surveyor, dreams of building a railway to the west, but Marsh, a contractor, is sceptical. Abraham Lincoln looks on as their children, Davy Brandon and Miriam Marsh, play together. Brandon sets off with Davy to survey a route. They discover a new pass which will shave 200 miles off the expected distance, but they are set upon by a party of Cheyenne... (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    3 Bad Men
    Three outlaws come to the aid of a young girl after her father is killed. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Four Sons
    In Burgendorf, Bavaria, Mother Bernle has four sons. Franz is in the army, Johann works at the forge, Andreas tends the sheep. Joseph is riding a hay wagon with a pretty girl when some of the hay falls off, landing on the fearsome Maj. Von Stomm... (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Hangman\
    Set in Ireland and notable today as the first movie in which John Wayne is clearly visible, a spectator at the steeplechase. He knocks the fence down and leads the other spectators toward the winning horse. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Born Reckless
    Hoping to use the publicity to get re-elected, a judge sentences a notorious gangster to fight in the war. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Up the River
    Two prisoners, Saint Louis and Dannemora Dan, escape during a theatrical production in order to go to the aid of Steve, a former prisoner whose past is about to be exposed by the man who framed Judy unless Steve agrees to help him commit another crime. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Seas Beneath
    In the waning days of WWI, a U.S. "Mystery Ship," sets sail for the coast of Spain towing a submarine. Their mission is to find and sink a U-boat that has been especially effective in attacking Allied shipping. Posing as a harmless schooner, the mystery ship is in fact fitted with a formidable gun capable of sinking a U-boat... (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Arrowsmith
    Based on a Sinclair Lewis novel "Martin Arrowsmith". A medical researcher is sent to a plague outbreak, where he has to decide priorities for the use of a vaccine. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Pilgrimage
    A possessive mother pushes her son into World War I service rather than see him get married.
    Your probable score
    ?
    Doctor Bull
    Dr. Bull is an old-fashioned country doctor whose affair with the widow Janet Cardmaker is creating waves in the small town where he practices. When there is a mysterious outbreak of typhoid which the doctor is slow in reacting to, it all comes to a head... (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Judge Priest
    Will Rogers plays the lead roll, that of Judge William "Billy" Priest in a very patriotic (Confederate) southern town. Priest plays a laid-back, widowed judge who helps uphold the law in his toughest court case yet. In the meantime, he plays matchmaker for his young nephew. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    The World Moves On
    An epic drama following the Girard family company over 100 years and across two continents, from the early nineteenth century up through the Great Depression. (Icarus)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Bucking Broadway
    Cheyenne Harry follows his former fiancee to New York after she runs off with another man.
    Your probable score
    ?
    Torpedo Squadron
    John Ford puts together footage of Torpedo Squadron 8, all but one of whom were later shot down and killed in the Battle of Midway.
    Your probable score
    ?
    The Battle of Midway
    On June 4-6, 1942, a large Japanese force attempted to capture Midway Island in the North Pacific, but was defeated by U.S. forces with a loss ratio of 4:1 in favor of the Americans. On hand was a crew of naval photographers directed by John Ford; their documentary footage was edited together with narration by Hollywood actors. The film covers the attack on Midway, some limited aerial footage, the search for survivors, and aftermath of the battle. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    December 7th
    The short, released version of this film is purely documentary footage shot in the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
    Your probable score
    ?
    Sex Hygiene
    Sex Hygiene (1942) - Short Film
    A U.S. Army training film about sexually transmitted diseases.
    Your probable score
    ?
    This Is Korea!
    John Ford's documentary about the early battles of the Korean War, shot in color.
    Your probable score
    ?
    When Willie Comes Marching Home
    A war comedy depicting Willie, a soldier frustrated by his lack of battle action, caught behind enemy lines and forced into heroism for his survival.
    Your probable score
    ?
    Riley the Cop
    In this early comedy from John Ford, Riley is a New York Irish cop sent to Germany to track down a young man who stole money from a local bakery.
    Your probable score
    ?
    The Black Watch
    Donald King, a captain in the British Army is called away from his regiment just as World War I begins. Disappointed that he cannot be with his men as the war begins, King is ordered to infiltrate a group of Afghan rebels.
    Your probable score
    ?
    By Indian Post
    By Indian Post (1919) - Short Film
    Jode MacWilliams, a cowboy working on the Circle O ranch, has a crush on the bosses daughter, Peg. After his friend writes a love letter for him, an Indian steals and delivers it to Peg. Meanwhile, word of Jode's affection reaches Peg's father, who has a decidedly less romantic view of this young couple.
    Your probable score
    ?
    Pinky
    Pinky, a light skinned black woman, returns to her grandmother's house in the South after graduating from a Northern nursing school. Pinky tells her grandmother that she has been "passing" for white while at school in the North. In addition, Pinky has fallen in love with a young white doctor, Dr. Thomas Adams, who knows nothing about her black heritage. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Gideon of Scotland Yard
    Gideon's Day follows a busy day in the life of Inspector Gideon, a Scotland Yard detective. While his home life is comically amiss, as a professional, he doggedly pursues the criminals until their found, sacrificing personal comfort and time with family to make sure justice is done.
    Your probable score
    ?
    The Shamrock Handicap
    The first film having an Irish motif that John Ford directed, a six reel delight set in Eire's County Kildare and in the United States, with a steeplechase background, mixing charged elements of comedy and sentimental drama, benefiting from a sterling cast including Leslie Fenton, Janet Gaynor, and Ford favourite J. Farrell MacDonald. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Lightnin\
    On the border between California and Nevada there is a hotel run by Mother Jones (Edythe Chapman). Her husband Lightnin' Bill (Jay Hunt) doesn't help much, but he does no harm either -- the easy-going fellow prefers to share a little nip with his pal Zeb (Otis Harlan) above anything else... (All Movie Guide)
    Your probable score
    ?
    The Blue Eagle
    Two men from rival neighborhoods serve together on a ship in World War I. When they return after the War, they discover their neighborhoods have been overrun by drug dealers. Will their competition for the same woman prevent them from working together to get rid of the drugs?
    Your probable score
    ?
    Straight Shooting
    Cattleman Flint cuts off farmer Sims' water supply. When Sims' son Ted goes for water, one of Flint's men kills him. Cheyenne is sent to finish off Sims, but finding the family at the newly dug grave, he changes sides. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Air Mail
    The air-mail pilots who fly from a small airport in the Rocky Mountains are determined but not paid well, and there are occasional fatal crashes. It's a tradition of long standing that when this happens, chief pilot Mike Miller (Ralph Bellamy) makes the next flight himself. Daredevil Duke Talbot (Pat O'Brien) is hired; he starts an affair with Irene Wilkins (Lilian Bond), wife of pilot Dizzy (Russell Hopton)... (allmovie.com)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Flesh
    A simple-minded wrestler falls for a woman with a dark secret. (TCM.com)
    Your probable score
    ?
    The Rising of the Moon
    Three stories examine the lives of the Irish living under British oppression. (TCM.com)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Upstream
    A "backstage drama", the movie is about a Shakespearean actor and a woman from a knife-throwing act. (wikipedia)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Korea
    Korea (1959) - Short Film
    An orientation film for American soldiers traveling to Korea in the years after the war.
    Your probable score
    ?
    Cameo Kirby
    Wrongfully blamed for the death of Col. John Randall, Cameo Kirby (Gilbert) must find the true villain and clear his name before he can declare his love for Adele (Olmstead), the dead man's daughter. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    The Plough and the Stars
    John Ford, whose fierce pride in his Irish heritage often manifested itself in his work, directed this historical drama which uses as its backdrop the 1916 Easter Rebellion of Irish patriots against British rule. Nora Clitheroe (Barbara Stanwyck) runs a rooming house in Dublin and tries to stay away from the political turmoil raging around her, so she becomes quite upset when she learns that her husband Jack (Preston S. (allmovie.com)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Submarine Patrol
    A naval officer is demoted for negligence and put in command of a run-down submarine chaser and with a motley crew. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Hell Bent
    Featuring Carey as his popular Cheyenne Harry hero. From the Plains, Harry rides into the disorderly western town of Rawhide, where he makes an immediate friend in Cimmaron Bill (Duke Lee). Harry then falls for dance-hall girl Bess (Neva Gerber), an upstanding woman forced into this particular line of work by a series of dire circumstances.
    Your probable score
    ?
    The Brat
    A society novelist brings a brash young chorus girl home in order to study her for inspiration for his new novel. His family is distraught, but soon her behavior has forever altered their snobbish ways. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Men Without Women
    Navy divers clear the torpedo tube of a sunken submarine. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Mother Machree
    Ellen McHugh, a poor Irish immigrant to America, finds work in a carnival and is thus able to send her son Brian to a fine school. But when her position is found out, the school expels Brian. Mrs. McHugh feels compelled to allow the school principal and his wife to adopt Brian. The widow McHugh becomes a housekeeper and raises her employer's daughter Edith, who grows up to fall in love with Brian McHugh. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    The Village Blacksmith
    Only the final reel (11 minutes) of this John Ford (as "Jack Ford") directed melodrama survives, presently, but it's a good one. We see the storyline's climax, and an epilogue tying up loose ends. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    Salute
    West Point Cadet John and Annapolis Midshipman Frank focus their fraternal rivalry on the big Army-Navy football game. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    A Gun Fightin\
    Cheyenne Harry, owner of the biggest cattle ranch in his corner of the west, is having trouble with John Merritt, a land-grabbing Chicago meat-packer. By some artifice of shrewd legal aid, Merritt manages to seize Harry's ranch under a bogus writ of foreclosure. Failing to get justice by his many letters to Merritt, Cheyenne Harry goes east and calls at the millionaire's mansion. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    The Last Outlaw
    An aging outlaw returns to an old haunt for revenge.
    Your probable score
    ?
    How to Operate Behind Enemy Lines
    A training film for OSS agents who are to be dropped behind enemy lines, covering cover and concealment, ambush techniques, etc. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    North of Hudson Bay
    On a steamboat heading North, where his brother has struck gold, Mike Dane falls in love with Estelle MacDonald. When he arrives at the Canadian trading post, Dane learns that his brother has been murdered and his partner sentenced to death as the killer. (imdb)
    Your probable score
    ?
    At the Front in North Africa with the U.S. Army
    Documentary depicting and explaining the Allied campaign against the Germans in North Africa.
    Your probable score
    ?
    Kentucky Pride
    The story of a Beaumont race horse, told through from the point of view of the horse via intertitles.
    Your probable score
    ?
    It\
    This short--long rumored to have been directed by John Ford--was produced by the US government specifically for veterans returning home from World War II, showing them what their responsibilities as citizens were now that they were returning to civilian life.
    Your probable score
    ?
    We Sail at Midnight
    A short documentary style film it depicts the story of The British obtaining a special tool from America to help with the building of a tank.
    Your probable score
    ?
    Rookie of the Year
    This title has not yet been approved, and is only visible to the submitter and moderators.
    Your probable score
    ?