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One of the most influential auteurs of all time, John Ford is an icon of the Golden Age of Hollywood whose filmography has had an invaluable impact on the history of cinema. Ford began his directorial career in 1917, amassing 147 credits as a director throughout his nearly fifty years working in Hollywood. A filmmaker of immense range, Ford excelled at making war movies, comedies, crime dramas, documentaries, adventure films, and period pieces. However, it is Ford's prowess within the Western genre that truly made him a legend. During his career, Ford directed 56 Westerns, many of which rank among the greatest Westerns ever made.

Ford holds the Academy Award record for most wins for Best Director, winning for The Informer, The Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley, and The Quiet Man. Ironically, Ford never won an Academy Award for any of his iconic Westerns. In 1973, Ford became the inaugural recipient...

John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara are two legends of Hollywood’s Golden Age who starred in five movies together, the most acclaimed of which is John Ford’s 1952 classic The Quiet Man. Wayne and Irish actor O’Hara first worked together in Ford’s Western romance Rio Grande two years earlier, when their on-screen chemistry quickly became apparent. But it was only with follow-up collaboration The Quiet Man that their acting partnership really came into its own.

The film features a rare comic turn from Wayne as Irish-American boxer “Trooper Thorn” Thornton, who moves to rural Ireland to manage his family’s homestead. O'Hara plays Thornton's love interest, whose brother he must fight in one of John Wayne's best fight scenes to win her hand in marriage. The Duke trades in his usual Stetson hat for a peasant’s flatcap, and his whiskey flask for “one of those black beers,...

Actor John Wayne and director John Ford are made for one of the most iconic duos of American Western cinema, but their best collaboration was their first movie, Stagecoach. Released in 1939 and considered one of the best Western movies, Stagecoach remains a memorable film over 80 years later.

John Wayne and John Ford symbolize an important period of Hollywood's golden era, and their collaborations have remained highly influential in Western movies. Their longtime friendship is highlighted by the many films they worked on together over the years. However, despite their incredible portfolio of shared work, nothing comes close to Stagecoach.

John Wayne & John Ford Never Topped 1939's Stagecoach Stagecoach Was Wayne's First Leading Role In A Ford Movie

Wayne and Ford worked on a total of 14 movies together, with Wayne largely in the leading role, over their longtime professional friendship. Their portfolio includes classics like The Searchers and Rio Grande. The...

The steel guitars are silent today as Beach Boys fans and SpongeBob SquarePants stans everywhere mourn the loss of a music giant.

Composer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Andy Paley passed away on Wednesday from cancer complications at the age of 72. A prolific creative and producer, Paley’s fingerprints are all over music history, with credits ranging from Brian Wilson’s solo work to the Ramones’ records to the scores of numerous animated shows, including SpongeBob SquarePants. Paley first broke into the business as one-half of the power-pop duo The Paley Brothers alongside his brother Jonathan, and throughout his nearly 50 years of service to the entertainment industry, the list of high-profile collaborators with whom Paley worked is a veritable who’s-who of the most important musical talents of the later 20th century.

Today, Paley’s past partners mourn him and celebrate his contributions to music history, with Wilson’s official Instagram account...

Over the course of his long Hollywood career, the Hollywood actor appeared in a whopping total of 26 John Wayne movies. Between the 1920s and 1970s, legendary movie star John Wayne starred in well over 100 movies, the vast majority being either Westerns or war movies. Based on that, it's no surprise that he would wind up reuniting with some of his former co-stars in another project at some point or another. However, there were some actors in Hollywood that became recurring co-stars and collaborators of Wayne's.

Easily the most high-profile of Wayne's partners in making movies were John Ford and Maureen O'Hara. A celebrated Western icon in his own right, Ford directed several of John Wayne's movies, including Stagecoach, The Quiet Man, and Rio Grande. As for Maureen O'Hara, she was the female lead in five John Wayne movies, each being a standout entry in the actor's filmography. But neither was...

Of all the incredible acting collaborations seen throughout the history of Hollywood, the pairing of John Wayne and Maureen OHara stood as one of cinemas greatest. With Waynes reputation as perhaps the best leading man of classic American cinema, and OHaras talent for portraying dynamic and passionate heroines, the two were a match made in heaven and to see them starring opposite one another was always a treat. Wayne and OHara collaborated with legendary filmmaker John Ford on three separate occasions which only added to the legacy of their work with one another.

The movies that starred both Wayne and OHara vary greatly and included fantastic Western team-ups, an idyllic rural romance, and even a slice-of-life laugh-out-loud comedy. Wayne and OHara played to each others strengths and their onscreen chemistry cemented their reputations as box office draws who teamed up five times for more than 20 years. With classic movies together,...

Fort Apache is a 1948 Western made by John Ford starring John Wayne and Henry Fonda. The film is the first of a trilogy (with 1949s She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and 1950s Rio Grande) by Ford dealing with the US Cavalry in the West after the Civil War. Ford produced Fort Apache with Merian C. Cooper (King Kong) under the banner Argosy Pictures for Rko Radio Pictures Studio. It is considered to be one of the first movies to present a pro-Indian view of Native Americans. Fort Apache set a trend, followed by Broken Arrow, Cheyenne Autumn, and other films that continued the trend of more accurate portrayals of Indigenous characters.

Plot: An epic saga of the various groups who try to settle the ever-expanding horizon of the old West.

Review: Kevin Costner’s Horizon might be the most ambitious movie undertaking since Lord of the Rings. Think about it – Kevin Costner has sunk a huge chunk of his own personal fortune into making an epic Western saga, with a second movie only weeks away from hitting theatres, regardless of whether or not the first makes him any money. If that weren’t enough, he’s already started shooting pieces of the third film, and he’s sworn he’ll be making a fourth film as well. Given the scope of his ambitions, it’s hard to truly judge Horizon – Chapter 1 as a standalone film, with it so clearly part of a much bigger whole.

Running three hours (with credits), Costner, who also directed, produced and co-wrote the film (with Jon Baird...

"It's A Wonderful Life" is an unforgettable classic that renews itself every holiday season. The striking narrative articulates strong morals, like the importance of family and an individual's importance in a community, punctuated by almost hallucinogenic imagery of the ground opening up beneath one's feet. It's a heartwrenching picture made all the emotional by the sentimentality of Christmastime. The Frank Capra film is nostalgic for everyone, from older people who watched it as a child to the generations to follow who passed down the tradition to their children. Most kids aren't dying to sit down and watch a black-and-white talkie from studio-era Hollywood, and yet the film's fanbase gains new members every year.

But as the 1946 film ages, so too does its cast, and many of the main cast members have not made it to 2024, including leading man Jimmy Stewart. In fact, most of the adults in the film passed...

Director John Ford made some of the most legendary western films in cinematic history, and his frequent collaborator John Wayne often added his cowboy star power to those classics. Highly respected by his contemporaries for his lavish camerawork and on-location shooting style, Ford's 50-year career in cinema earned him four Best Director Oscars among a slew of other accolades. Similarly, Wayne's massive movie and TV catalog earned him a reputation as one of the Golden Age of Hollywood's biggest movie stars, and he won the Best Actor Oscar for his turn in the film True Grit towards the end of his career in 1970.

Starting with 1939's Stagecoach, the actor-director pair would collaborate for a total of 14 feature films, with nine of them being their signature westerns. Though Wayne attempted to break away from westerns at one point in his career, his cowboy roles were what made him famous, and Ford...

Andrew V. McLaglan's 1963 film "McLintock!" is a loose Western adaptation of William Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" (c. 1592), a problematic play to say the least. The story of Shakespeare's play involves a willful and bitter young woman named Kate who refuses to settle down and get married. This upsets Kate's younger sister Bianca, as she will not be permitted to marry until Kate is married. A man named Petruchio is hired to, as the title says, tame the shrew, transforming an outspoken and willful woman into a dutiful wife. By the end, he does. One can easily see the play's misogynist leanings. Critically speaking, one might be able to see a satire at play, however. Or perhaps it's merely sexist. 

"McLintock!" is equally tetchy, with John Wayne playing the Petruchio role, and Maureen O'Hara playing Kate. The story was altered somewhat to explain that Kate and Petrucho, called G.

The enduring legacy of actor John Wayne, America’s ultimate cowboy, will be celebrated this month, fittingly enough, by the Cowboy Channel in association with the John Wayne: An American Experience museum in Fort Worth, Texas. The “Duketober” celebration is a month-long airing of classic John Wayne movies via broadcast and streaming. It will culminate with a 50th anniversary live panel discussion on Nov. 3 in remembrance of Big Jake, the 1971 movie that bought Wayne together with sons Ethan and Patrick, who will participate in a discussion about his films and career. Wayne’s legacy has taken a few hits in the last couple of years. A 50-year-old Playboy magazine interview outlining some of his controversial views on race surfaced, sparking his USC alma mater to remove an exhibit on him. There’s also a movement to remove his name from the Orange County airport. So far, that action has failed to gain ground.

“Two smoldering women made all the danger worthwhile!”… heck, we didn’t even see ’em catch fire. John Wayne is charismatic and Andrew V. McLaglen’s direction is decent for once in this formulaic ‘easy listening’ pot-boiler from the Wayne school of laid-back ’60s entertainment. After winning the Vietnam War, our intrepid action man extinguishes 101 out-of-control oil fires, which appear to happen every twenty minutes. When nothing’s burning, there are plenty of domestic tangles to straighten out with the womenfolk. In support are Katharine Ross, Jim Hutton, Vera Miles, Bruce Cabot and Jay C. Flippen. It’s old-fashioned but not embarrassing — Wayne still has his charm.

Hellfighters

Blu-ray

Mill Creek

1968 / Color/ 2:35 widescreen / 121 min. / Street Date May 4, 2021 / Available from Mill Creek Entertainment / 19.99

Starring: John Wayne, Katharine Ross, Jim Hutton, Vera Miles, Jay C. Flippen, Bruce Cabot, Edward Faulkner, Barbara Stuart, Edmund Hashim, Valentin de Vargas, Frances Fong, Alberto Morin,...

Doug Supernaw, the Texas-born Nineties country singer who had a string of radio hits in the early part of the decade, including the 1993 Number One “I Don’t Call Him Daddy,” has died at 60 following a lengthy bout with lung and bladder cancer. Supernaw’s death was confirmed by his official Facebook on Friday.

Born in 1960 in Bryan, Texas, Supernaw was a durable honky-tonk singer with an approachable voice and everyman persona. After gaining a following in his home state, he landed a record deal with the now defunct Bna Records...

Screen Media has bought all U.S. rights to the comedy-drama “Off the Rails,” starring the late Kelly Preston, Jenny Seagrove, Sally Phillips, Elizabeth Dormer-Phillips, Ben Miller, Franco Nero and Judi Dench.

Screen Media plans to release the film in theaters and on demand in the first half of 2021. “Off the Rails” is one of the final roles for Preston, who died in July at the age of 57 after battling breast cancer. Metro International is handling foreign sales at the online American Film Market, which launches Monday.

“Off the Rails” is Jules Williamson’s feature directorial debut, inspired by Williamson’s own real-life events. Three friends, now in their 50s, recreate an interrail journey from their youth across Europe to fulfill the dying wish of their close friend — whose place is taken by her 18-year-old daughter. With lost passports, train strikes and romantic entanglements thrown their way, they must put...

The reunion of Sofia Coppola and Bill Murray for the new A24/Apple release “On the Rocks” comes 17 years after their first collaboration on the Oscar-winning “Lost in Translation.” Such repeated pairings between directors and actors have been mainstay a in Hollywood since the earliest days of cinema. In the silent era, there were multiple films from D.W. Griffith and Lillian Gish and Charlie Chaplin and Edna Purviance.

One of the great partnerships during the Golden Age of Hollywood was John Ford and John Wayne. Ford had actually befriended Wayne when the young man was doing odd jobs as well as extra work-including in few of the director’s films-at Fox Studios in the late 1920s. Wayne made his official film debut starring in Raoul Walsh’s 1930 epic western “The Big Trail.”

The film wasn’t a hit and Wayne found himself spending the decade doing “B” westerns including 1938’s...

John Wayne, known as “The Duke” to his fans, starred in upwards of 150 movies throughout his 50-year career. While he had hits in a wide range of genres, he is best known as the macho hero at the heart of some classic westerns. Wayne made a slew of low-grade oaters throughout the 1930s. It wasn’t until John Ford‘s “Stagecoach” (1939), an Oscar-winning adventure epic that took the genre to new artistic heights, that he finally achieved stardom.

In all, the Duke and “Pappy” Ford, as his crew called the famously cantankerous director, made 14 films together. Among these are such other spurs and saddles classics as “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” (1949), “The Searchers” (1956) and “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” (1962). All of these feature on our list of John Wayne’s best westerns ranked.

Despite being a top box office draw for decades, Wayne was only nominated for two acting...

A year like no other in film history, 2020 has seen numerous releases and productions delayed, along with worlds of exhibition and distribution needing to rethink their business models. As we near the halfway mark of this tumultuous year, the Oscars and other awards ceremonies have decided to move the marker of eligibility windows to allow more films to be considered but as we look back at the first six months and round up our favorite titles thus far, there’s already plenty of worthwhile films to consider.

While the end of this year will bring personal favorites from all of our writers, think of the below 20 entries (and honorable mentions) as a comprehensive rundown of what should be seen before heading into the back half of the year. As a note, this feature is based solely on U.S. theatrical and digital releases from 2020, with the majority widely available, as noted.

Epigmenio Ibarra proudly shows off the impressive new facilities of his 27-year-old production house, Argos Comunicación, located in an industrial zone outside Mexico City. He walks through one of six brand-new sound stages, a state-of-the-art suite where colorists are working on a series, a set-construction warehouse and more. A production has wrapped the day before, another will start the following week, and still another in two weeks.

Construction of the facilities was completed less than two years ago, just in time for the extraordinary explosion of the Mexican entertainment industry that followed the arrival of global companies like Netflix and Amazon. Not that Ibarra had an inkling of what was coming. As recently as five years ago, he says, the local television landscape was still dominated by Televisa and TV Azteca, and perhaps only five series were being produced in all of Mexico.

Today, Ibarra puts that number at 50. Many...

For auteurists in New York there can hardly be a better series playing right now than "Trilogies" at Film Forum: a four-week extravaganza of 78 films comprising 26 mini director retrospectives from Angelopoulos to Wenders and 24 other auteurs in between. Many of the groupings in the series are actual sequential trilogies, like Kobayashi’s The Human Condition or Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy, while others more loosely stretch the term, such as Lucrecia Martel’s "Salta Trilogy" or Hou Hsiao-hsien’s "Coming of Age Trilogy," very welcome though those are.Very few of the trilogies in the series, however, have posters that were conceived as trios themselves, the French posters for Kieslowski’s Three Colors, above, and Albert Dubout’s cartoony designs for Marcel Pagnol’s Marseilles Trilogy being the major exceptions. There are two terrific matching posters by Jan Lenica for the first two films in Mark Donskoy's Maxim Gorky Trilogy,...

Jack N. Young, a Navy frogman turned stuntman who stood in for Richard Widmark in Slattery's Hurricane, for Rock Hudson in Winchester '73 and for look-alike Clark Gable in the legendary actor's final film, The Misfits, has died. He was 91.

Young died Sept. 12 in Tucson, Arizona, his son, University of Arizona film professor Cody Young, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Young also doubled for Edmond O'Brien in D.O.A. (1949), and his résumé as a stuntman includes the John Wayne films She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), Rio Grande (1950), Hondo (1953), ...

Jack N. Young, a Navy frogman turned stuntman who stood in for Richard Widmark in Slattery's Hurricane, for Rock Hudson in Winchester '73 and for look-alike Clark Gable in the legendary actor's final film, The Misfits, has died. He was 91.

Young died Sept. 12 in Tucson, Arizona, his son, University of Arizona film professor Cody Young, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Young also doubled for Edmond O'Brien in D.O.A. (1949), and his résumé as a stuntman includes the John Wayne films She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), Rio Grande (1950), Hondo (1953), ...

Some actors and directors go together like spaghetti and meatballs. They just gel together in a rare way that makes their collaborations special. Here is a list of the seven best parings of director and actor in film history.

7: Tim Burton & Johnny Depp:

Edward Scissorhands; Ed Wood; Sleepy Hollow; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; Corpse Bride; Sweeney Todd; Alice in Wonderland; Dark Shadows

Of all the parings on this list, these two make the oddest films. (In a good way.) Tim Burton is one of the most visually imaginative filmmakers of his generation and Johnny Depp was once the polymorphous master of playing a wide variety of eccentric characters. They were a natural combo. Depp made most of his best films with Burton, before his current ‘Jack Sparrow’ period began. The duo had the knack for telling stories about misfits and freaks, yet making them seem sympathetic and likable.

John Ford puts a Technicolor sheen on Monument Valley in this second cavalry picture with John Wayne, who does some of his most professional acting work. Joanne Dru plays coy, while the real star is rodeo wizard Ben Johnson and the dazzling cinematography of Winton C. Hoch. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1949 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 103 min. / Street Date June 7, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring John Wayne, Joanne Dru, John Agar, Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr., Victor McLaglen, Mildred Natwick, George O'Brien, Chief John Big Tree. Cinematography Winton Hoch Art Direction James Basevi Film Editor Jack Murray Original Music Richard Hageman Written by Frank Nugent, Laurence Stallings from the stories War Party and The Big Hunt by James Warner Bellah Produced by Merian C. Cooper, John Ford Directed by John Ford

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Have you never seen real 3-Strip Technicolor used for terrific outdoor photography?...

By Todd Garbarini

The Royale Laemmle Theater in Los Angeles will be presenting a 65th anniversary screening of John Ford’s 1950 film Rio Grande. The film, which stars John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, Ben Johnson, and Harry Carey, Jr., will be screened on Tuesday, January 12, 2016 at 7:00 pm.

Actor Claude Jarman, Jr., who appears in the film as Trooper Jefferson “Jeff” York, is scheduled to appear at a Q&A session after the film to discuss his role and career.

From the press release:

65Th Anniversary Screening Of Rio Grande, And Tribute To Maureen O’Hara

Tuesday, January 12, at 7:00 Pm at the Royal Theatre

As a tribute to Maureen O’Hara, we present the final chapter in director John Ford’s Cavalry trilogy (following Fort Apache and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon). Rio Grande works affecting variations on some of the director’s favorite themes. While there is an...

As a tribute to the late Maureen O’Hara, Laemmle's Royal Theatre in Los Angeles will screen Republic's "Rio Grande," the final chapter in director John Ford’s Cavalry trilogy (after Rko's "Fort Apache" and "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon"), on January 12 at 7 pm. While it looks like a Western, complete with Apache attacks, "Rio Grande" is also a delicately acted intimate family drama, as estranged husband and wife Lt. Col. Kirby Yorke (Wayne) and Kathleen Yorke (O'Hara) reunite on the Texas frontier (Ford shot in Monument Valley), where the mother pursues her son Jeff Yorke (Claude Jarman, Jr.) after he signs up to prove himself as a soldier in the cavalry battalion led by his father. Read More: Maureen O'Hara and the Road to the Academy Governors Awards While Ford wanted to make "The Quiet Man" with Wayne, Republic insisted that he first deliver the presumably more commercial "Rio Grande,...

The Hurricane

Written by Dudley Nichols

Directed by John Ford

USA, 1937

“My name is John Ford and I make Westerns,” so the legendary filmmaker once declared. As has been pointed out (by Martin Scorsese among others) that statement in a sense discounts the great director’s non-genre works, like the four features for which he won Academy Awards: The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), and The Quiet Man (1952). But with more than 140 directing credits on his résumé, it also sidesteps many lesser known, though quality, Ford films, those that either fall into the middle of the road category or those that are very good, if not quite great. That’s where his 1937 romantic drama The Hurricane comes in.

Produced by Samuel Goldwyn, directed by Ford (two years after The Informer and two years before his groundbreaking Stagecoach [1939]), and written by Dudley Nichols, himself an Oscar-winner for his writing The Informer,...

Maureen O'Hara: Queen of Technicolor. Maureen O'Hara movies: TCM tribute Veteran actress and Honorary Oscar recipient Maureen O'Hara, who died at age 95 on Oct. 24, '15, in Boise, Idaho, will be remembered by Turner Classic Movies with a 24-hour film tribute on Friday, Nov. 20. At one point known as “The Queen of Technicolor” – alongside “Eastern” star Maria Montez – the red-headed O'Hara (born Maureen FitzSimons on Aug. 17, 1920, in Ranelagh, County Dublin) was featured in more than 50 movies from 1938 to 1971 – in addition to one brief 1991 comeback (Chris Columbus' Only the Lonely). Maureen O'Hara and John Wayne Setting any hint of modesty aside, Maureen O'Hara wrote in her 2004 autobiography (with John Nicoletti), 'Tis Herself, that “I was the only leading lady big enough and tough enough for John Wayne.” Wayne, for his part, once said (as quoted in 'Tis Herself): There's only one woman who has been my friend over the...

It’s with great sadness that we report that a genuine Irish acting legend, Maureen O’Hara, has passed away at the age of 95. One of the last living actresses of Hollywood’s golden age, O’Hara (real name Maureen Fitzsimmons) is best known for her role as the irascible Mary Kate Danaher alongside John Wayne in director John Ford’s The Quiet Man, a pair she would collaborate with often. During her illustrious career, the actress became known for her fiery nature and equally fiery red hair, and for the pride she had from being from the Emerald Isle, spending her life sharing her heritage and the culture of her home with the rest of the world. Besides The Quiet Man, her other notable credits include Rio Grande, McClintock!, How Green Was My Valley, The Parent Trap, and Miracle on 34th Street. She had garnered many accolades throughout the years,...

From the AP:

Maureen O’Hara, the flame-haired Irish movie star who appeared in classics ranging from the grim “How Green Was My Valley” to the uplifting “Miracle on 34th Street” and bantered unforgettably with John Wayne in several films. She was 95.

O’Hara died in her sleep at her home in Boise, Idaho, said Johnny Nicoletti, her longtime manager.

O’Hara received an Honorary Award at the 2014 Governors Awards.

“She passed peacefully surrounded by her loving family as they celebrated her life listening to music from her favorite movie, ‘The Quiet Man,'” said a statement from her family.

“As an actress, Maureen O’Hara brought unyielding strength and sudden sensitivity to every role she played. Her characters were feisty and fearless, just as she was in real life. She was also proudly Irish and spent her entire lifetime sharing her heritage and the wonderful culture of the Emerald Isle with the world,...

Actress Maureen O’Hara, who appeared in five of director John Ford’s films including How Green Was My Valley, Rio Grande and The Quiet Man, has died. Awarded an honorary Oscar last year, O’Hara was 95 and died at her home in Boise, Idaho. “She passed peacefully surrounded by her loving family as they celebrated her life listening to music from her favorite movie, The Quiet Man,” according to a statement by her family. In a film and TV career that spanned several decades…...

Let's hear it for the great westerns -- not the Ford and Hawks classics, but the fascinating marginal gems that see The West in a different way. Do you like Sam Peckinpah? Robert Parrish's evocation of Texas and Mexico in the 1880s will be pleasantly familiar -- a testing ground of personal codes and shifting loyalties in a treacherous land. The Wonderful Country Savant Blu-ray Review Kl Studio Classics 1959 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 98 min. / Street Date September 29, 2015 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95  Starring Robert Mitchum, Julie London, Pedro Armendariz, Gary Merrill, Jack Oakie, Albert Dekker, Charles McGraw, Leroy "Satchel" Paige. Cinematography Floyd Crosby Film Editor Michael Luciano Production Design Harry Horner Original Music Alex North Written by Robert Ardrey from the book by Tom Lea Produced by Chester Erskine Directed by Robert Parrish

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

This gem is as individual a western as any made in the 1950s, and a...

Hondo (1953), which is set to play June 13 - July 4 at the Museum of Modern Art as part of their "3-D Summer" series, was John Wayne's first Western in three years. It was produced by his own Wayne/Fellows Productions (later named Batjac), founded just the year prior by Wayne and producer Robert Fellows. And James Edward Grant, who had already written several Wayne features and had a particular flair for writing classic John Wayne dialogue, penned the screenplay. All told, one gets the sense that everything about this exemplary return to the genre was a carefully conscious decision by the iconic American star. Hondo is a definitive Western. Moreover, it's a definitive John Wayne Western.When Wayne made Hondo, his masculine persona was already firmly established. After viewing the film at one point, Wayne supposedly declared, "I'll be damned if I'm not the stuff men are made of." Such a comment,...

It's fitting that Clint Eastwood and John Wayne both have the same birthday week. (Wayne, who died in 1979, was born May 26, 1907, while Eastwood turns 85 on May 31). After all, these two all-American actors' careers span the history of that most American of movie genres, the western.

Both iconic actors were top box office draws for decades, both seldom stretched from their familiar personas, and both played macho, conservative cowboy heroes who let their firearms do most of the talking. Each represented one of two very different strains of western, the traditional and the revisionist.

As a birthday present to Hollywood's biggest heroes of the Wild West, here are the top 57 westerns you need to see.

57. 'Meek's Cutoff' (2010)

Indie filmmaker Kelly Reichardt and her frequent leading lady, Michelle Williams, are the talents behind this sparse, docudrama about an 1845 wagon train whose Oregon Trail journey goes horribly awry. It's an intense...

Throughout the vast history of cinema the profession of law enforcement has been portrayed heavily and made its mark on the big screen in both dramatic and comical fodder. Whether it be straight up cops and robbers or crooked officers on the take in gangster flicks or ant-hero gun-slinging loners trying to buck the system the presence of crime-busting cads never fail to add compelling, if not at times over-exaggerated, insight into the world of law-enforcing personalities.

The one element of the law-enforcing community that seems somewhat limited but still registers mightily in some cinematic arenas is the concept of the sheriff. Sheriffs do cast a prominent shadow in all sorts of fields in the movies: westerns, medieval times, contemporary country car-chasing farces and even some urban melodramas.

In Arresting Developments: Top Ten Sheriffs in the Movies we will take a look at some of the notable on-screen sheriffs in...

The 6th Annual Governors Awards took place on Saturday, November 8, 2014 in The Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, CA.

Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award recipient Harry Belafonte, Honorary Award recipient Hayao Miyazaki, Honorary Award recipient Jean-Claude Carrière and Honorary Award recipient Maureen O’Hara were honored by their peers during the evening.

The Honorary Award, an Oscar statuette, is given “to honor extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or for outstanding service to the Academy.”

The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, also an Oscar statuette, is given “to an individual in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry.”

Pictured (left to right): Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award recipient Harry Belafonte, Honorary Award recipient Hayao Miyazaki, Honorary Award recipient Jean-Claude Carrière and Honorary Award recipient Maureen O’Hara

Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs introduces the 2014 Governors Awards

Carrière,...

Maureen O'Hara movies: 2014 Honorary Oscar for Hollywood legend (photo: Maureen O'Hara at the 2014 Governors Awards) In the photo above, the movies' Maureen O'Hara, 2014 Honorary Oscar recipient for her body of work, arrives with a couple of guests at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 2014 Governors Awards. This year's ceremony is being held this Saturday evening, November 8, in the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood. For the last couple of years, Maureen O'Hara has been a Boise, Idaho, resident. Before that, the 94-year-old movie veteran -- born Maureen FitzSimons, on August, 17, 1920, in Dublin -- had been living in Ireland. Below is a brief recap of her movies. Maureen O'Hara movies: From Charles Laughton to John Wayne Following her leading-lady role in Alfred Hitchcock's British-made Jamaica Inn, starring Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Hara arrived in Hollywood in 1939 to play the gypsy Esmeralda opposite Laughton in William Dieterle...

In "The Honoraries" we're looking at the careers of this year's Honorary Oscar recipients (O'Hara, Miyazaki, Carrière) and the Jean Hersholt winner (Belafonte). Here's abstew on an Irish fav...

 

I have often said that "The Quiet Man" is my personal favourite of all the pictures I have made. It is the one I am most proud of and I tend to be very protective of it. I loved Mary Kate Danaher.

-Maureen O'Hara 'Tis Herself

The making of John Ford's Oscar-winning film The Quiet Man was a labor of love for all involved. Despite having already won the Best Director Oscar three times, Ford found it difficult to get his passion project off the ground. As far back as 1944, John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara had agreed to star in Ford's love letter to Ireland. And it eventually found a home at the most unusual of places. B-movie studio...

Revisionist westerns in the modern age take a much darker view of the “white man’s” participation in the migration out west than the earlier westerns did. Maureen O’Hara,...

The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted Tuesday night (August 26) to present Honorary Awards to Jean-Claude Carrière, Hayao Miyazaki and Maureen O’Hara, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Harry Belafonte.

All four awards will be presented at the Academy’s 6th Annual Governors Awards on Saturday, November 8, at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center.

“The Governors Awards allow us to reflect upon not the year in film, but the achievements of a lifetime,” said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs. “We’re absolutely thrilled to honor these outstanding members of our global filmmaking community and look forward to celebrating with them in November.”

Carrière, who began his career as a novelist, was introduced to screenwriting by French comedian and filmmaker Pierre Étaix, with whom he shared an Oscar for the live action short subject “Heureux Anniversaire (Happy Anniversary)” in 1962. He...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced recipients of the 2014 Honorary Oscars, to be presented at the annual Governors Awards ceremony in November. Writer and actor Jean-Claude Carrière ("The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie," "The Unbearable Lightness of Being"), Japanese animation titan Hayao Miyazaki ("My Neighbor Totoro," "Spirited Away") and actress Maureen O'Hara ("The Parent Trap," "The Quiet Man") will receive Honorary Awards, while, singer/songwriter, actor and social activist Harry Belafonte will receive the organization's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Carrière, a frequent collaborator with Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel, has been nominated by the Academy as a screenwriter on three occasions. He won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short alongside comedian Pierre Étaix for 1963's "Happy Anniversary." He has also collaborated with filmmakers such as Andrzej Wajda ("Danton"), Jean-Luc Godard ("Every Man for Himself") and one of this year's Telluride tributees, Volker Schlöndorff ("The Tin Drum"). Miyazaki,...

Harry Belafonte will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and Jean-Claude Carrière, Hayao Miyazaki and Maureen O’Hara will receive Honorary Awards at the Academy’s 6th Annual Governors Awards November 8 at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland. The Academy’s Board of Governors did not award the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, which is given out periodically. The last recipient was Francis Ford Coppola in 2010. Deadline’s Pete Hammond will give his take later today. The full release follows:

Los Angeles, CA —The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted Tuesday night (August 26) to present Honorary Awards to Jean-Claude Carrière, Hayao Miyazaki and Maureen O’Hara, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Harry Belafonte. All four awards will be presented at the Academy’s 6th Annual Governors Awards on Saturday, November 8, at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center®.

“The...

As the democratization of film has made it possible for just about anyone to make a film, it has conversely made it more difficult for the individual filmmaker and his or her films to stand out. Online content platforms now offer a hundred times more films in their catalogs then the films cataloged by IMDb from the inception of film (1,764,727 titles as of 14 Jan 2011). So despite assertions to the contrary, branding is more important than ever.

Filmmakers Are Brands, Their Films Are Products Though difficult for some in a creative pursuit to accept, in the words of Moonstruck (1987): “Snap out of it!” The music world has brands Madonna Louise Ciccone and Joanne Angelina Germanotta, known by their much more memorable brand names, Madonna and Lady Gaga.

Consistency Counts When your audience knows what they can expect from your “brand”, even if it is to be continually surprised, you’ve...

Our new contributor Diana D Drumm reporting on the TCM Festival which recently concluded

Maureen O'Hara introducing "How Green Was My Valley" at TCM 2014

Even at 93, Maureen O’Hara is still sublime, crossing the threshold of everyday stunning into moment-stopping magnificence. Peering at you, you can’t help but feel wonder. Whether she’s speaking on the beauty of a life well-lived or correcting someone’s Spanglish pronunciation of “Rio Grande” (the actress is fluent in Spanish), she transcends her surroundings, even on the red carpet in front of Grauman’s or in front of a brimmingly packed house at El Capitan Theatre. She may not be as full-bodied as her Wayne-pairing prime (that was over 60 years ago, people), but she continues to exemplify a certain Old Hollywood quality unmatched by any contemporary equivalents and envied by her compatriots at the time (including close friend and fellow famous redhead Lucille Ball...

John Ford’s The Quiet Man is unquestionably one of Ireland most well-known films. It remains, to this day, a popular Hollywood love story as well as one of the most dominant representations of Ireland in film. A worldwide success, it won audiences over with its majestic landscapes, lighthearted dialogue, and beautiful cast. Despite its enduring appeal, it is also highly criticized by many; its depiction of exceedingly stereotypical stage-Irish characters, almost to the point of condescension, can be seen as problematic, to say the least. It is certainly not an apt portrayal of Ireland, past or present, and this lends to the reading of it being a predominantly American pastoral view of a paradise lost.

Set in post-war Ireland, in the fictitious village of Innisfree, the story begins with Sean Thornton (John Wayne), an American who comes home to the land of his birth and buys a little thatched...

Every Monday until the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, EW is celebrating a great success story from independent film’s most prestigious showcase. Last week, we revisited Lee Daniel’s Precious. Today, we look back at Frozen River, the 2008 movie that made Hollywood take notice of Melissa Leo.

Leo had been acting for more than 20 years when Frozen River came to Sundance, and most people knew her best for her five seasons as Detective Kay Howard on TV’s Homicide: Life on the Street. In 21 Grams, she’d proven she could act with anyone, but she wasn’t considered for many leading movie roles until Frozen River.

There are few things in this world more warm and cozy than digging into a humanistic John Ford picture. Few things more downright entertaining. I’m inclined to call Ford my favorite filmmaker of all time, if I felt it necessary to make such distinctions. Steamboat Round the Bend was to be, for all intents and purposes, a minor Ford experience for me; a film one watches when they’ve run out of the “better” Ford and wanna see what else he made in between and around Stagecoach and The Searchers. Steamboat Round the Bend came four years prior to Stagecoach – the film inevitably referred to as more or less the starting point of Ford’s lucrative Western stint and, more egregious and wrongheadedly, when he started to get “good”. Not only had he made good films before Stagecoach, he’d made better films Than Stagecoach before Stagecoach. He’d...

Harry Carey Jr., the son of legendary Western movie actor Harry Carey, has died from natural causes at age 91. Although the younger Carey never became a star, he worked steadily over the decades as a reliable character actor. He was the last surviving member of the so-called John Ford "Stock Company", a reference to the mercurial director's penchant for working with the same actors on many films. He also appeared in numerous films starring his good friend John Wayne, who idolized Carey's father, who he also made several films with. It was Ford and Wayne who gave Carey Jr. his most memorable screen roles in films such as Rio Grande, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Wagon Master and The Searchers. After Ford's death, he appeared with Wayne in the popular Westerns The Undefeated, Big Jake and Cahill: U.S. Marshall. A younger generation of directors were respectful of Carey's...

American character actor who appeared in seven westerns directed by John Ford, including The Searchers and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

The actor Harry Carey Jr, who has died aged 91, was the last surviving member of the director John Ford's stock company, which included John Wayne, Victor McLaglen, Ben Johnson, Anna Lee, Ward Bond, Andy Devine and Harry's own parents, Olive and Harry Carey Sr. They formed a cohesive group and contributed to the distinctive world of the Fordian western.

Carey Jr, nicknamed "Dobe" by his father because his red hair was the same colour as the adobe bricks of his ranch house, made seven westerns with Ford, typically in the role of a greenhorn soldier. The most characteristic of these was Lieutenant Ross Pennell in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), the callow rival of John Agar for the hand of Joanne Dru. After she opts for the more handsome Agar,...

Los Angeles -- Harry Carey Jr., a character actor who starred in such Westerns as "3 Godfathers" and "Wagon Master," has died. He was 91.

His daughter, Melinda Carey, said he died Thursday of natural causes surrounded by family at a hospice facility in Santa Barbara, Calif.

"He went out as gracefully as he came in," she said Friday.

Carey's career spanned more than 50 years and included such John Ford classics as "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon," "The Searchers" and "The Long Gray Line." Later in life, he appeared in the movies "Gremlins" and "Back to the Future Part III."

His memoir, "Company of Heroes: My Life as an Actor in the John Ford Stock Company," was published in 1994.

While he lacked the leading-man stature of longtime friend and co-star John Wayne, Carey's boyish looks and horse-riding skills earned him roles in many of Ford's films.

He and fellow character Ben Johnson...