Powerful performance of a man who sells out a friend
Added 3/23/2006
Victor McLaglen, one-time Heavyweight Champion of Great Britain, won an Oscar for his portrayal of Gypo Nolan, a drunken lug of an Irishman during the Dublin uprisings in 1922, who rats out his best friend for a 20-pound reward. McLaglen is perfect in this role; director John Ford, who also won an Oscar, was not looking for subtlety from McLaglen and didn't get an ounce of it: he takes the camera on as if it was one of his old boxing opponents. Perhaps there was no more powerful a dumb-brute screen performance until Brando's Stanley Kowalski. Legend has it that Ford kept McLaglen soused for most of the picture (it was made in only 17 days), and it looks like it might be true. The photography is stunning and captures perfectly the "as wet as drip" look of Dublin. Max Steiner's musical score is also very moving. Definitely worth a watch.
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I thought that date looked a bit funny. It's a classic film and it otherwise aptly illustrates the confusion that was the Irish War for Independence. I would also like to correct another reviewer who stated that the Black and Tans patrolled "Northern Ireland" during that time. For the record, prior to 1922, there was no "Northern Ireland" in existence and the Tans and Auxiliaries were stationed throughout Ireland. McLaglen gives an exceptional performance but, like others who have reviewed this film, I really wish they could have gotten the date correct on the opening title card for the sake of future viewers (who likely haven't a clue about Irish history anyway).
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A minor correction
Added 7/27/2004
I was so happy to see upon reading the other reviews that someone else had a problem with the movie being set in 1922 with Black and Tans running around. I thought it was just me bothered by this! By 1922, Gypo could possibly have sold out his friend to the Irish Free State or Provisional government authorities, but not to the Tans. It's stupid to let this affect one's view of an otherwise classic movie, but couldn't Ford have gotten a simple date right? Also, not sure the IRA drew straws when they took out someone; I think once they got the orders, they just did it. However, I could be wrong on that one... Apart from these minor carps, a classic.
1 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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"Confused!"
Added 10/18/2003
Editorial reviewer Sam Sutherland has titled this film The Imposter? Whats up with that? Anyway one of the greatest films of all time, also Director John Ford's masterpiece!
1 out of 5 people found this helpful.
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the informer
Added 2/4/2003
It's one of the best move to show the viewer an insight in the life so hard, but made more so by the english hold in Irland & it people, But on reading a number of review that set the move in 1922, I would not say that by 1922 the Irish war had come to a end on January 7. And on January 18, 1922, two days after the new Provisional Government took office, Michael Collins took possession of Dublin Castle, so bring a end to British rule in Ireland, One must write the true, so as not to give out the wrong info, as is give out by so many source today.
2 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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John Ford: Four classics and an Edsel
Added 9/23/2007
John Ford was arguably the greatest American movie director of the 20th century. His career spanned the end of the silent era to the Vietnam era, and though he is most famous for his Irish films - namely "The Quiet Man" and his John Wayne westerns, this five movie set is an interesting mix of his non-Wayne movies. The development and perfection of his craft can be seen through this range of five films. The people who put this collection together, however, were faced with an impossible task - show the scope, power and breadth of John Ford's career WITHOUT including any John Wayne movies! The actor and director were so inseperable, that the decision to exclude any Wayne film meant that the very best of Ford's movies are missing. And one wonders, seeing most of John Ford's stable of actors wandering through these five movies, except Wayne, if some of these films might not have been better with John Wayne in a starring role.
"The Lost Patrol" is a decent World War I film, that displays the burgeoning talent of the younger John Ford, who had not yet cut his ties to the silent film era. This movie is overdramatized like a silent film, and would only need to have the dialog replaced with cue cards to be a run-of-the-mill silent movie. Yet the promise of Ford's directorship starts to leak through. This movie stars Victor McLaglen, who has trouble deciding if he is acting with a British Accent, an Irish Accent or an American accent and a young, tall Boris Karloff (!). The most interesting thing about this movie is we see the beginning of not only John Ford's family stable of actors in this film, we also see names like Quincannon and Corporal Bell that will appear again and again in Ford's later western films.
"Mary of Scotland" is the only painful movie of the batch. It is a sad costume drama with Katherine Hepburn trying to play the title role. This movie comes off as a stage play performed before the camera. The movie is about as difficult to watch as a mediocre opera, with people in immaculate costumes, posturing their way through dialog, only without singing. I suspect that this was either one of the movies Ford was forced to make for a studio in order to get the funding for a project he would have preferred to do, or else it was one of those director's pet projects that would better have been shelved. In a "garage" full of Ford classics, this movie is an "Edsel".
"The Informer" was a very low budget film, and, like the later "Rio Grande", John Ford turns the lack of money for sets and extras into strengths, getting the most out of his characters and script, and using the camera and lighting (or lack thereof) to enhance the story. Victor McLaglen plays a former IRA terrorist who turns in his own best friend for a reward in order to get the money to flee to America with his doxie girl friend, and is so consumed by guilt that he tries to lose himself in a night of debauchery, but cannot escape the consequences of his actions. The interesting thing about this film is that the IRA are not protrayed as heroic buffons (as in The Quiet Man) and the English occupiers are not portrayed as villians. This is John Ford at his best!
"Sergeant Rutledge" is the forgotten treasure of the collection. Jeffery Hunter stars as an army officer who defends an African American Buffalo Soldier accused of rape and murder. Woody Strode excels as Sgt. Rutledge, trapped in a situation where it appears there is no chance of his receiving justice because of the color of his skin. John Ford stacks the deck to make it appear that Rutledge is indeed guilty of the charges against him, and Jeffrey Hunter as a misguided crusader. Jeffery Hunter is most famous for making the most bone-headed Hollywood career move ever made. Offered the role of Captain Pike in the TV Series "Star Trek", he turned the role down in preference of his movie career. He lived only four years after making this decision, and thus lost his one chance at film and TV immortality.
"Cheyenne Autumn" is the only one of these films to receive continued critical acclaim and air time. It is noteable as John Ford's final western. Ford returned to Monument Valley for the final time in order to make this movie, and it is interesting to watch as he tries to use different vistas of the region to pass for Nebraska and the Dakotas and every place inbetween, none of which the land resembles. The cinematography is beautiful. Ford also called upon the natives of the Monument Valley to protray the Cheyenne - but only in bit parts. As if to reinforce his patriarchal attititude towards the Native Americans, he puts white actors like Delores Del Rio, Sal Mineo, and Ricardo Montalbahn in the indian speaking roles. Surely by the time Ford made this movie there were enough Native American actors in the business to have filled these roles. Although the story contains powerful material, Ford is unable to pull it off with anything like the power of "The Searchers". The movie wanders, with a completely ridiculous and unnessesary comic relief section in the middle where Jimmy Stewart plays Wyatt Earp as a buffoon, fool and dandy. This overlong section completely destroys the pacing and tension built up over the course of the pursuit. It is almost like Ford suddenly realized that the humor in his earlier westerns was missing and so he decided to throw some in. "The Searchers" ended with John Wayne standing in a doorway, determined face set, looking in on an unseen domestic future he has no part in. It is a powerful scene that speaks volumes, possibly the best ending in any Ford movie ever. In "Cheyenne Autumn" the aging and ailing Ford was unable to pull such a grand and subtle performance from his actors, and relies instead on a cliche ending with Ricardo riding away into a sunset. "Cheyenne Autumn" is a very good Ford western, it is just not a great Ford western. One wonders why John Ford did not cast John Wayne in this movie. There were three or four roles Wayne could have played, and he might have given Ford the focus necessary to pull the movie off better. Perhaps Ford believed the public would not have accepted a John Wayne sympathetic to indians but given the strength of Wayne's performance in some of his final films, there is no doubt he could have pulled it off. It may be that since Wayne had his own career directing and producting films, Ford did not want to have another "director" - especially one he had brought along from nothing - hanging over his shoulder.
Thus this Wayne-less collection spans most of Ford's career, and is thus a good representation of his body of work (if one wanted to do so by ignore all the John Wayne movies) though I do wonder if some better choices might have been made for some of the pictures. "The Iron Horse" might have been a better choice for his early career than "The Lost Patrol". And certainly Ford made some oddities that could have been a better pick than "Mary of Scotland", after all, he directed such unusual actors as Will Rogers and a young Shirley Temple. I would like to see a second collection of non-Wayne Ford movies, that might include "The Iron Horse" as well as some classics like "My Darling Clementine", "The Long Grey Line", "Two Rode Together" and "The Plow and the Stars".
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Five from Mr. Fenny aka John Ford
Added 3/20/2007
I agree with one reviewer that "The Hurricane" should have been included. Also, "Three Bad Man" and "The Iron Horse" need to be accessed but they very likely still belong to Fox. My take on the films here:
"The Lost Patrol" Victor McLaglen and Boris Karloff made an odd team indeed. McLaglen has led this patrol to somewhere in North Africa and he has to thankless job to hold his men together to maintain his own sense of sanity. Karloff already lost his and there's really not much anyone can do until the rest of the troops find them. Almost ten years later, Bogart would star with an all male cast in "Sahara", but the outcome would be different. Kurasawa may have been influeneced with the simple graves at the end as he used graves to an even more haunting ending in the "Seven Samurai".
"The Informer" As mentioned in the extras, Ford was very influenced with German Impressionism and loved "Sunrise" that starred George O'Brien, Ford's early star in the above mentioned silent westerns. So, it could be said that this Irish tale is actually a film noir, years before its name was ever invoked. Very sad to watch as the viewer clearly sees that poor Gypo doesn't know what he's doing. This is clearing the best film of this lot and stands as one of the best films Ford has ever done. Very catholic, too, as the poor lad dies forgiven. Kudos to the rest of the cast as well.
"Mary of Scotland" There is actually to lot to like about this movie. After all, this stars Katherine Hepburn who gives great a regal performance not too different from all the other roles she's done. This also costars Fredrick March, who appeared in many high brow movies in this time period. The language is rich but is guilty of being too wordy. It's interesting to compare this to other costume drams that starred actresses of this time period, such as Marlene Dietrich "The Scarlett Empress", (my favorite), Greta Garbo "Queen Christina" (a masterpiece, but it bombed at the time), Norma Shearer "Marie Antoninette" and Bette Davis who got away with several, including two in which she played Elizabeth I.
"Sergeant Rutledge" This is intentionally an umcomfortable film to watch and the same theme was much more sucessful in "To Kill A Mockingbird", made just a year later. It must be said that Woody Strode was a very stiff actor. He was such a demanding presense that he usually was given little or no lines in the movies he appeared. Here, he's the title character, a black man accursed of raping and strangling a white woman. After different viewpoints are shown in flashback, he's called upon to give a speech in which he does say the n word. I actually don't have much problem with Jeffrey Hunter. The guy did what he's supposed to do, but Montgomery Cliff he wasn't. He suffered the same kind of blandness John Agar had. It was the Perry Mason type ending, which was a hit show back then, that I have a problem with. The guilty party confesses only because his conscious bothers him. It's simply not believable.
"Cheyenne Authumn" I actually like this film. True, Gilbert Roland, Ricardo Montaban, Sal Mineo and Dolores del Rio weren't actually native Americans but they wouldn't weren't bad at playing them. Ricard Widmark is between a rock and a hard place when he reluntuntly leads the natives. There's also the Quaker love interest played by Carole Baker. There's tension in every meeting they have. I must commend Ford for having the "got to kill me an Indian" scene. Natives ride up to whites begging for food and one gets murdered and scalped in the process. This is quickly followed with Ford satirizng himself. The killer gets accidently shot, then relunctantly treated by a poker playing Wyatt Earp, played by James Stewart. Then we get the Indians trapped by Karl Marden, who claims he knows all about Indians due to all the books he got about them, most in German. Widmark sneaks off to get Edward G. Robinson and they both get to save the Indians from slaughter for the time being. This is a sad movie to watch but there is much to appreciate here. It was a brave film to make in 1964.
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Where s WAGONMASTER?:
Added 12/21/2006
Would have been a much better set with a few other classic s.
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