She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

Executive producers: John Ford, Merian C. Cooper. An Argosy Pictures Production, released through RKO-Radio Pictures. Copyright 26 July 1949 by Argosy Pictures Corp. New York opening at the Capitol: 17 November 1949. U.S. release: 22 October 1949. U.K. release: 8 May 1950. Australian release: 25 May 1950. 9,514 feet. 105 minutes. SYNOPSIS: Cavalry captain enters his last week of service before retirement. Encouraged by Custer's defeat, the various Indian tribes join together to fight their common enemy: the white man. NOTES: Hollywood's most prestigious award went to Winton C. Hoch (only) for Best Color Cinematography of 1949, defeating The Barkleys of Broadway, Jolson Sings Again, Little Women, and Sand. Locations in Monument Valley, Utah. Shooting commenced early November 1948, winding up early December 1948. COMMENT: A terrific film - except for one thing: the unconvincing slapstick involving Victor McLaglen. This seems pretty artificial when it starts (even though it does serve a useful purpose in providing necessary background information), but gets progressively less bearable until culminating in a ridiculous brawl. Fortunately, aside from the climactic all-in, these contrived scenes fail to spoil the picture as a whole. They could in fact easily be eliminated (though it would mean the loss of Francis Ford's part). Otherwise, script, locations, action and acting are absolutely perfect. Wayne, in a character role, gives the best performance of his career. With the exception of the hammy McLaglen, he's given solid support too, with memorable cameos from Tom Tyler as an injured corporal, Rudy Bowman as the dying Trooper Smith, and Chief John Big Tree as the conciliatory Pony That Walks. Amongst the principals, John Agar (Mr Shirley Temple at the time) is adequate enough, Ben Johnson is better, whilst Mildred Natwick is outstanding. But I thought the most winning portrayal came from the beautiful, talented but much under-rated Joanne Dru. Although he had worked with cinematographer Hoch on his immediately previous Three Godfathers, producer-director Ford was unhappy with the amount of time Hoch (a technical perfectionist) took to light his locations whilst cast and the rest of the crew broiled in the desert sun. A showdown came when Ford ordered Hoch to continue shooting during a thunderstorm. Hoch filed an official complaint with his union, alleging that the likely sub-standard photographic quality of the shots would damage his reputation. To Hoch's amazement, the executive board of the American Cinematographers Society sided with Ford, saying the director was within his rights to insist that photography be attempted even though lighting and other conditions may have been unfavorable. Hoch protested vehemently and even canvassed the option of tendering his resignation, when he was hit with a second surprise. His photography captured the Society's award for the best color work of the quarter and subsequently went on to win America's most prestigious award for Best Color Photography for 1949. The thunderstorm sequence was singled out for praise. Belatedly realizing that outstanding photography does not result from mere technical perfection but from an artistic creativity that on occasion involves the taking of risks and bending of rules, Hoch thanked Ford profusely for forcing his hand and expressed the desire to work with the director again. Ford took Hoch at his word, assigning him to The Quiet Man (1952), for which Hoch won yet another award from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences!

The fact that the names of Captain Nathan Brittles and Sgts Tyree and Quincannon have passed, not just into the mythology of the American western, but of movies themselves is testament to the iconic status of Ford's 1949 masterpiece, the second and best of what became known as his cavalry trilogy. That their names are also burned into our collective cinematic consciousness is also testament to the performances of John Wayne, Ben Johnson and Victor McLaglen who are all at their best here and yet are only part of a great ensemble that also includes that very fine and undervalued actress Joanne Dru as well as Mildred Natwick, John Agar, Harry Carey Jr and Arthur Shields. The period is the Indian Wars that followed from the massacre of General Custer and Ford filmed it mostly in his beloved Monument Valley. It is largely devoid of the sentimentality of "Rio Grande" though it is never as dark nor as serious as "Fort Apache", (it straddles the middle-ground magnificently; even the comic fight scene doesn't sit uncomfortably), and while Ford may make the Indians the villains of the piece he nevertheless bestows on them a kind of dignity and some degree of respect. Ford's sentimentality isn't necessarily for the cavalry but for the passing of the 'old' West and the loss of Native American culture

It seems trite to say they don't make them like this anymore. But it's a fact. They don't make them like this anymore. And it seems likely we won't be seeing them making them like this ever again. This is John Ford at the height of his career, at his best, doing what he did best. On location in the Monument Valley, it is more than fair to say the scenery, the colors, even the weather, along with Ford's cinematography, particularly the patient framing of his shots and making full use of the setting and environment in which he filmed, are every bit as much stars of this film as are the featured human stars. None of which is to say the human stars weren't good. John Wayne in the lead turned in a remarkable performance. Wayne was 42-years old when he made this, but he was playing a character much older than that, perhaps as much as 20 years older, and Wayne pulls it off. He looks and seems like a 60-year old man. He showed his acting chops here. Ben Johnson had been around awhile at this point, mainly as a stuntman, but here he makes one of his first forays into real acting, and he does well, which no doubt boosted his career. Perennial John Wayne sidekick Harry Carey, Jr. is here too, at the ripe young age of 28. It occurs to me as I write this in November 2008 that he seems to be the last surviving cast member of this movie. Joanne Dru. What can be said? While this movie was made before I was born, Joanne Dru plays the fetching young woman wearing the yellow ribbon and stirring the male ashes deep inside as well as anybody ever could, and she was quite fetching indeed. Her performance still striking that chord precisely that way almost 60 years later. Ostensibly this is a western, but this movie is actually much more a military movie than just a western. John Ford was a military man himself, who ultimately retired as a Navy Reserve Rear Admiral. He knew what the military was all about, he understood and enjoyed military life, military ways, military customs, and military culture, and he clearly relished making military depictions. So that's what we see here. All that military stuff. Oddly, though, it all seems out of time in a way. This movie was made in 1949, just a few years after WWII. While making a movie about the cavalry fighting the Indian wars in 1876, the military culture Ford depicted seems more apropos of the 1940s than of the 1870s. For instance, I'm just not sold on this version of history where US cavalry men were burdened with and hauled around family members in the wild wild west. Maybe they did, but I'm not so sure. It seems much more likely this was a device added to appeal to 1949 audiences. There are other examples of this. This is the only flaw in an otherwise very good movie. And who knows, maybe it isn't a flaw at all, true or not. It's a good movie. Ford made a movie in which he talked to all those recently mustered out veterans he knew were out there populating his audiences. On that level he succeeds.

source: She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

This film is the second entry in John Ford's "cavalry trilogy" and may be the best of the three with John Wayne's performance being one of the best of his career. The picture is an ode to the U.S. cavalry in the wake of the Custer debacle with the threat of more Indian uprisings on the frontier. Wayne's escort patrol is the film's focal point which also has an on-going romantic squabble between two young officers and a woman which explains the movie's title. The wonderful lensing captures the natural beauty of Monument Valley, and the scenes of the patrol crossing the wide expanses during a thunderstorm with lightning streaks against the dark clouds are among the picture's best moments. Ben Johnson stands out as an ex-Confederate soldier and point man and other Ford stock regulars such as Harry Carey Jr. and John Agar have supporting roles.

One of the best written westerns and an Oscar winner for cinematography, this John Ford western, some 10 years after Stagecoach, shows a different side of Wayne. It is the middle film in John Ford's (and actor John Wayne's) U.S. Cavalry trilogy, which includes Fort Apache (1948) & Rio Grande (1950. It is the best of the three as we see Wayne, just short of retirement, trying to mature a couple of Lieutenant's to take his place. Comic relief is provided by Victor McLaglen, as Top Sergeant Quincannon, especially where he single-handedly whips eight men between drinks. His presence can certainly light up a movie.