L'inconnu

John Ford seems to have a habit of getting the best out of his actors, particularly Harry Carey and John Wayne. With Harry Carey, he used him consistently as the character Cheyenne Henry in films like this one. Everything else that Carey appeared in that was directed by someone else was mediocre. Because there was no dialogue at this stage in film-making, John Ford learned the technique of using the camera as a character to probe the story and get beneath a character. He had something to say at the American west between 1857 and 1876 when the Union only had 36 stars, and he uses his camera almost like Hitchcock does to give insights into character.