Considered one of the greatest American filmmakers of Hollywood's Golden Age, John Ford had a remarkable directing career, with a body of work impressive for both its size and consistency. He began making movies during the silent era, with many of his earliest films tragically being lost to time, given how poorly films were preserved. Some estimates put the percentage lost as high as 75%, with even Ford's early works not being safe to this unfortunate statistic.
But given his directorial career went well beyond the silent era, his non-silent feature films are all available, and many hold up surprisingly well. He made feature films until was in his early 70s, ultimately passing away at the age of 79 in 1973. He left behind almost too many good movies to count, with the following being an attempt to celebrate the best of the best, with such highlights being ranked below from great to greatest.
20 'The Last Hurrah' (1958)
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Jeffrey Hunter, and Dianne Foster
Not to be mixed up with an underrated 1979 martial arts movie called Last Hurrah for Chivalry (by the master of action movies, John Woo), 1958's The Last Hurrah is instead a John Ford-directed political drama. It explores the then-rising popularity of journalism/news on TV, and also sheds light on how powerful, wealthy groups try to manipulate a mayoral election.
Its honest look at politics and how it can be corrupted might make it comparable to the films of Frank Capra, given more than a few of his movies dealt with similar things. It's an underrated and solidly made film, with the always-magnetic Spencer Tracy giving a compelling lead performance. It's a surprisingly straightforward drama film by the standards of John Ford, but it's a well-constructed and well-acted one, making The Last Hurrah worth a watch.
19 '3 Godfathers' (1948)
Cast: John Wayne, Pedro Armendáriz, and Harry Carey, Jr.
There's another John who's often talked about in the same breath as Ford: John Wayne. These two Johns collaborated on a total of 14 feature films, so going through Ford's filmography is naturally going to lead to plenty of mentions of the other John, because Ford's interest in casting Wayne never seemed to wane, and Wayne could just about always a-Ford to be there (sorry).
One such collaboration was 3 Godfathers, which is about three men taking an infant across the desert to safety after its mother dies. It's the sort of reliable premise that was used at least once in the Zatoichi film series, and it also inspired Satoshi Kon's underrated anime film, Tokyo Godfathers. It's used well here, too, and makes for an engaging Western.
18 'How the West Was Won' (1962)
Cast: Carroll Baker, Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck, and Debbie Reynolds
It might be cheating to include How the West Was Won as a John Ford movie, because in actuality, this rather remarkable Western epic is split into five chapters, and had three different directors. Ford directed one chapter, George Marshall was responsible for another, and Henry Hathaway undertook directing duties for the other three.
Still, it's a unique and oftentimes impressive film, so it's worth highlighting, especially because Ford is at least one of the credited directors (and it all might've been too much for a single filmmaker to make). It follows one family over multiple generations, spanning from the 1830s until near the end of the 1800s, all shot on a massive scale and with one of the widest aspect ratios ever - it's all overwhelming and visually quite stunning in the best way.
How the West Was Won
- Release Date
- February 20, 1963
- Director
- John Ford , Henry Hathaway , George Marshall , Richard Thorpe
- Cast
- Carroll Baker , Lee J. Cobb , Henry Fonda , Carolyn Jones , Karl Malden , gregory peck
- Runtime
- 164 minutes
- Main Genre
- Western
17 'Mister Roberts' (1955)
Cast: Henry Fonda, James Cagney, William Powell, and Jack Lemmon
In some ways, it's easy to see the DNA for the hit TV show M*A*S*H in Mister Roberts. It's set during World War II instead of the Korean War, sure, but it presents a surprisingly comedic look at getting by during war, and shows military personnel using humor to cope with the boredom and stressfulness of life in a dangerous situation.
Mister Roberts is also unafraid to get bittersweet, with drama combined with comedy to striking effect... and that's something M*A*S*H did very well, too. But when it comes to Mister Roberts, it's really the performances that make it shine - Henry Fonda and James Cagney are both very good, but it's Jack Lemmon who steals the show, and it's not surprising that he ended up winning an Oscar for his role here.
16 'Rio Grande' (1950)
Cast: John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, and Ben Johnson
John Ford obviously didn't just make Westerns, but it's his work within the genre that tends to get most remembered to this day. He's one of the most famous American directors to explore the Western genre, and it's hard to imagine what that once-vital (and still mostly appreciated) genre would've looked like without him - it could well be completely different, given how many he made and how good they generally were.
And Rio Grande is most certainly one of his many good ones, and it has John Wayne in a starring role to boot. It blends a story about defending settlers against Apache attacks with some family drama for good measure, and though it's not one of Ford's most consistent or timeless Westerns by any means, it largely satisfies and marks another solid collaboration for the two Johns.
15 '7 Women' (1966)
Cast: Anne Bancroft, Sue Lyon, and Margaret Leighton
Not related to a certain movie with Seven Samurai by any means, despite the similar name, 7 Women is notable for a couple of key reasons. One is that it was John Ford's final feature film, as his only credit after this was for a 47-minute documentary called Chesty: A Tribute to a Legend, which was made in 1970 and released in 1976. Another key reason is that this film centered on female characters (unsurprising, given the title), whereas most of Ford's well-known movies had male leads.
The film takes place in 1935, and is set in China, with a premise revolving around a group of female missionaries who are being targeted by a Mongolian warlord and his forces. It's a tightly paced film at just 87 minutes long, and a solid one for Ford's filmography to end on, with it also certainly benefiting from a strong lead performance by Anne Bancroft.
14 'The Informer' (1935)
Cast: Victor McLaglen, Heather Angel, and Preston Foster
The Informer is an interesting title within the filmography of John Ford, being something of a crime/drama with a limited scope that remains as compelling as his bigger films nonetheless. It centers on a former member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), and follows his conflicted feelings when he has the chance to escape his downbeat life, though he has to betray a current member of the IRA (and close friend) to do so.
It's set during the 1920s, and takes place in the wake of the Irish War of Independence, but has retained a certain amount of tension and relevance over the years, owing to the fact that conflict in Ireland continued for much of the 20th century. The Informer's unapologetically straightforward, but mines a good deal of drama out of its simple premise, and is one earlier John Ford movie that's certainly worth seeking out.
13 'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon' (1949)
Cast: John Wayne, Joanne Dru, John Agar, and Ben Johnson
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is yet another acclaimed film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne, and it once again can be most easily classified as a Western. The premise here sees John Wayne playing a character who'd perhaps be right at home in a trope-heavy cop movie, as he's not far from retirement (though he's a captain out on patrol during Old West times, making him pretty far removed from a 20th or 21st century police officer).
The "She" of the title is a young woman named Olivia Dandridge who's under the protection of Wayne's character during the aforementioned patrol, and also finds herself in the sights of two younger soldiers who've taken a fancy to her. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon manages to blend Western/adventure thrills with a dash of romance for good measure, ending up as a crowd-pleasing and undeniably solid film that's well worth watching for fans of old-fashioned Hollywood entertainment.
12 '3 Bad Men' (1926)
Cast: George O’Brien, Olive Borden, and Lou Tellegen
3 Bad Men is not related to 3 Godfathers, in any way, even if both movies have titles that begin the same way, and (obviously) share a director. The plot sees three outlaws deciding to help a young woman, as her father has just been killed, with their "badness" ultimately being seen as significantly less serious than other more powerful and corrupt forces in the Old West.
It's noteworthy because it's one of the rare silent movies John Ford directed that survives intact, and given it's in the public domain, it's one of those movies that, interestingly enough, is available to watch on Wikipedia, of all places. Because of its age, it's not one of his best-known Westerns, but that also makes it one of the more underrated movies in the genre out there, and certainly worth a watch for fans of silent cinema.
11 'Fort Apache' (1948)
Cast: John Wayne, Henry Fonda, and Shirley Temple
While he doesn't go into full-on villain mode the way he memorably did in Sergio Leone's masterful 1968 Western Once Upon a Time in the West, Henry Fonda's role in Fort Apache still feels quite far removed from what you'd expect. He plays something of an antagonist here, or at the very least, it's easy to say his character's not exactly likable.
Fonda plays a military man named Owen Thursday, and he clashes with other men at the post he commands, with a particular self-destructive determination to wipe out an Apache chief threatening to be his undoing. It takes a surprisingly balanced look at the Apache Wars (making it something of a great war movie and a great Western simultaneously), and does ultimately get more critical of American forces than one might expect, mainly through Fonda's flawed yet interesting character.
10 'The Quiet Man' (1952)
Cast: John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, and Victor McLaglen
Standing as perhaps John Ford's most romantic film, and one worth seeing for anyone curious how a Ford romantic comedy would look, The Quiet Man is surprisingly good, considering it's sort of peculiar for the filmmaker. It follows an American man going back to the Irish town he was born in, finding love and various other things waiting for him there, and in the process of telling this story becomes one of 1952's strongest releases.
Given it stars John Wayne, it's arguably also one of the actor's strongest non-Western movies overall, and both Johns fit quite comfortably into the genres they tackle here. At over two hours in length, perhaps it feels a tiny bit long, though remains largely compelling throughout while also being a very visually pleasing movie to soak in, thanks to all the shots of the Irish countryside. Undeniably, it holds significant value for showing how the actor/director duo were capable of making a pretty great romantic film.
The Quiet Man
- Release Date
- June 6, 1952
- Director
- John Ford
- Cast
- John Wayne , Maureen O'Hara , Barry Fitzgerald , Ward Bond , Mildred Natwick
- Runtime
- 129
9 'Wagon Master' (1950)
Cast: Ben Johnson, Joanne Dru, and Harry Carey, Jr.
It's not quite the most well-known John Ford movie to center around a dangerous journey across the Old West (more on that in a bit), but Wagon Master is nonetheless a compelling one. The heroes are two drifters, and the titular wagon they need to escort belongs to a group of Mormons, with plenty of obstacles along the way.
It might not be his most loved overall, but when it came to Ford's own views of his body of work, he noted Wagon Master was a personal favorite. For its no-nonsense story complete with a very much no-nonsense sub-90-minute runtime, coupled with Ford himself being proud of it, it's certainly worth exploring for fans of the director's work. It shouldn't be mixed up with Wagon Train, however, a noteworthy Western TV show that did feature some actors John Ford often used, with Ford himself even doing some directing for the show.
8 'Young Mr. Lincoln' (1939)
Cast: Henry Fonda, Alice Brady, Marjorie Weaver, and Arleen Whelan
While a certain 2012 movie directed by Steven Spielberg focuses on the final stages of Abraham Lincoln's life, Young Mr. Lincoln some 70+ years earlier looked at his pre-President days. Henry Fonda plays the titular character here, with the plot mostly focused on Lincoln's law career, particularly an intense trial that saw him defending two brothers accused of murder.
It works as both a loose biopic and an engaging legal drama, and also has value for shedding some light on the less well-known part of a well-regarded U.S. President's life. It's a well-made film with very good performances, and all in all, it holds up well for something released so long ago, being an engaging and emotionally gripping biopic about one of the most notable figures in the history of U.S. politics.
7 'The Long Gray Line' (1955)
Cast: Tyrone Power, Maureen O'Hara, and Robert Francis
A movie that spans almost 50 years, beginning at the end of the 1800s and ending around World War II, The Long Gray Line is an ambitious and impressive John Ford film. It follows the life story of Martin Maher, who ended up working for half a century at West Point's United States Military Academy at West Point, in the state of New York.
In capturing decades of one man's life on film, it bounces between drama and comedy effectively, and in doing so, portrays the ups and downs experienced by Maher during his time at West Point. It's a movie that manages to celebrate being American and coming from Ireland, given the main character here is an Irish immigrant (it makes sense that Ford often explored Irish characters and/or settings in his films, given he had Irish ancestry).
6 'My Darling Clementine' (1946)
Cast: Henry Fonda, Linda Darnell, Victor Mature, and Cathy Downs
There have been plenty of movies made about Old West legend Wyatt Earp. Though My Darling Clementine wasn't the very first, it did precede other well-known films about Earp, including Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Tombstone, and 1994's Wyatt Earp, with this 1946 John Ford film being one of the best to look at the familiar figure and his story.
It's particularly focused on Earp's quest for revenge after the murder of his brother, which then leads to the famed gunfight at the O.K. Corral, which is perhaps the most famous shootout in Old West history, despite lasting only 30 seconds. But it might well be about the journey, rather than the destination, and My Darling Clementine is a tensely constructed and always engaging journey of a film.
5 'How Green Was My Valley' (1941)
Cast: Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, and Anna Lee
Well-known for being the film that beat the legendary Citizen Kane to a Best Picture Oscar, How Green Was My Valley is also just a quality film on its own that doesn't deserve to live entirely in Orson Welles's shadow. It's a drama about a family in Wales during the Victorian era, and how its members get by with making a living through working in oftentimes dangerous coal mines.
How Green Was My Valley is certainly an empathetic film, and was one of Ford's most successful from an awards perspective, with it winning four other Oscars beyond Best Picture, including a Best Director Oscar for Ford. Even among the other films John Ford directed, which have generally aged well, How Green Was My Valley feels particularly timeless, even after 80+ years since its release.
4 'Stagecoach' (1939)
Cast: John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Andy Devine, and John Carradine
Though it was released in 1939, which was an overall very strong year for American movies, Stagecoach still stands out, and is arguably one of the very best releases of its entire decade. It was made before the comparable Wagon Master, and is an even better film overall, following a group of travelers bonding with each other while undergoing a perilous journey on the titular stagecoach.
John Wayne had appeared in small roles throughout some earlier John Ford movies, but Stagecoach marked the first time Wayne had the lead role in a Ford movie. It's now often regarded as one of the main releases that made Wayne a star, and it similarly raised Ford's profile, too, ultimately standing to this day as one of the best-ever Westerns from the first half of the 20th century; maybe even the best.
Stagecoach
- Release Date
- March 2, 1939
3 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' (1962)
Cast: John Wayne, James Stewart, Vera Miles, and Lee Marvin
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was one of John Ford's final Westerns, and arguably his last great one, too. In a way, it even serves to conclude the golden age of American Westerns, given the genre had some evolving to do come the mid to late-1960s, thanks to Spaghetti Westerns and a tendency across the world of cinema to start pushing things in more radical directions.
It's about an aging senator who's always been held in high regard for his shooting of an outlaw, though the film deals with him coming clean regarding the truth about this legend he's wrapped up in. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is a slow and character-focused Western, with a character looking back on the past with honesty and clarity, much as Ford himself used the film in question to look back on the genre he helped popularize and arguably define.
2 'The Grapes of Wrath' (1940)
Cast: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, and John Carradine
One year before he won a Best Director Oscar for How Green Was My Valley, John Ford also won for his work on The Grapes of Wrath. It's an adaptation of the famed John Steinbeck novel of the same name, notably being released in 1940; just one year after the original novel was published.
It's set during the Great Depression and as such is quite depressing, though it offers enough hope for the AFI to consider it one of the greatest inspiring movies of all time, too. The Grapes of Wrath follows a family making a perilous journey from Oklahoma to California, in search of work and a better life, all the while facing monumental challenges, yet finding themselves growing ever closer as they bond and cooperate during tough times.
1 'The Searchers' (1956)
Cast: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, and Natalie Wood
Few Westerns are quite as iconic as The Searchers, to the point where labeling it John Ford's greatest achievement as a filmmaker feels like a no-brainer. It takes place in the Old West, shortly after the Civil War, and has a veteran of that conflict sent on a search for a young woman who's been captured by Indians.
It works as both an entertaining and exciting Western, and one that's surprisingly dark for its time, unafraid to take its main character to some challenging places while refusing to have black-and-white morality like many other Westerns made in America. It's also ridiculously well-shot, being one of the most vibrant and awe-inspiring Westerns of all time from a visual standpoint, and also stands out for having one of John Wayne's very best lead performances on top of being one of the best films of the 1950s.