Director Ford Stayed an Enigma

By BOB THOMAS, Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) - John Ford worked in the movie studios for 52 years, first as an actor, then as director of two-reelers, later as creator of such enduring classics as ``The Informer,'' ``Stagecoach,'' ``The Grapes of Wrath,'' ``How Green Was My Valley,'' ``My Darling Clementine,'' ``The Quiet Man,'' ``The Searchers'' and ``The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.'' Yet despite his long prominence, Ford remained an enigma to most of Hollywood.

Ford, who died in 1973 at the age of 78, was a study in contrasts. A lifelong Catholic, he was married for 53 years, yet had a reputation as a womanizer. Strictly business on a movie set, he drank himself senseless between pictures. His movies were filled with sentiment, but as a director he often demeaned set workers and actors - even John Wayne, whom he had made a star. An advocate of liberal causes, he also led efforts to ferret out those in the film industry suspected of communist leanings.

The aptly titled ``Searching for John Ford,'' by Joseph McBride, explores with rare diligence the many incongruities about the great filmmaker's life. If anyone can fathom the Ford legend, McBride can. He is a longtime writer, critic and film teacher, and his biographies of Frank Capra and Steven Spielberg are models of scholarship.

The Ford book is McBride's most thorough yet - 720 pages of text plus 118 pages of sources, filmology, acknowledgments and index. It is being published by St. Martin's Press.

He pursued his quest for over 30 years, tracking down everyone he could find who had known Ford. McBride traveled to Ireland to trace Ford's family origins; he went to Maine where Ford was born and grew up as Jack Feeney and to various film locations, especially Monument Valley.

Thirty years ago, McBride, who was teaching film in Wisconsin, felt that Ford had been neglected in his later, lackluster years. So, he and Michael Wilmington, now film critic for the Chicago Tribune, proposed to write a book about Ford. When McBride informed Ford about the project, Ford growled, ``My God! What for? You certainly picked a dull subject.'' McBride was later granted a contentious one-hour interview.

Years later, when McBride sent Ford some of his essays, Ford said he appreciated ``the upbeat kindly way you treated me'' but declined the proposal for a biography - ``I'm too old and tired.'' He died two years later.

``There are a number of mysteries; Ford was always a mysterious character,'' said McBride, in an interview from his home in Berkeley, Calif. ``That's why I thought a biography was needed and why it took so long.

``I spent a lot of time on his politics. It's confusing to people, because sometimes he took a very liberal stance, and at others a very conservative stance. At the end of his life, he was supporting Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War. But in the '30s he was what you might call a bleeding-heart liberal.

``While he was fighting the blacklist at the Directors Guild, he was also part of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, which was the ringleader of the blacklist. ... It was a dangerous game, playing both sides of the fence to protect himself.''

McBride, who teaches film at San Francisco's New College of California, also puzzled over Ford's personal life: ``He was puritanical, yet he fooled around with women. His wife tolerated that as long as she didn't know what was going on. There was the famous romance with Katharine Hepburn that I tried to get more information on.

``It's still unclear how intimate they were in a physical way. But certainly they had a very deep emotional connection. There is some evidence that Ford was tempted to leave his wife and marry Hepburn. But I think they both realized it wouldn't have worked out. She was a very independent woman, and he wanted a wife who would stay home.''

Their closeness began when Ford directed Hepburn in ``Mary of Scotland,'' in 1936. Their paths diverged, but McBride maintains that their affections prevailed.

``In 1973, shortly before he died, Hepburn came out to visit him in Palm Desert for a week,'' he said. ``Dan Ford, his grandson, was researching a biography, and Hepburn talked to (John) Ford on tape to help prod his memory. It's really moving to listen to.''

Ford became notorious for his mean, sometimes sadistic treatment of actors. In the late 1920s, he elevated John Wayne from set worker to actor and recommended him for his first starring role in the 1930 epic ``The Big Trail.'' Wayne's career foundered for a decade and then Ford made him a permanent star with ``Stagecoach.'' They worked on a dozen films together, and Wayne endured constant belittling and badgering. Many others were also subjects of his cruelty.

``A lot of his problem was that he was a very sensitive, artistic guy, yet he grew up in a time when that was considered unmanly,'' McBride reasoned. ``I think he overcompensated to cover up the fact that he was sensitive because he felt people would take advantage of him. In those days you couldn't run around Hollywood and say, `I am an artist.'

``He pretended the opposite, that he was a hard-nosed craftsman doing a job of work. The whole tough-guy thing was part of that. He played football in Portland, Maine, where he was called Bull Feeney. He conformed to the stereotype of Irish immigrant - the brawler and tough guy.''

One of his notable brawls was with Henry Fonda on the Hawaiian location of ``Mister Roberts.''

``I interviewed Fonda, and he re-enacted the fight for me,'' said the author. ``He had me play Fonda, and Fonda played Ford. He showed me how he hit Ford. It was fascinating. Fonda was kind of amused by that time and a little bit sad. I interviewed Jack Lemmon in 1998. He witnessed the fight, and he gave me a terrific account of it.''

 

 

Discuss this on our message board