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In the realm of classic Hollywood cinema, few names shine as brightly as that of John Ford. Known for his remarkable storytelling prowess and unparalleled directorial vision, Ford’s impact on the film industry is undeniable. Join us on a journey through the life, works, and enduring legacy of this legendary director as we delve into the cinematic masterpieces that have solidified his place in movie history.

Early Life

John Ford was born John Martin Feeney on February 1, 1894 in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. He was the youngest of 13 children born to Irish immigrants John Augustine Feeney and Barbara Curran. The Feeney family were devout Roman Catholics, and Ford’s childhood was steeped in Irish traditions and values.

At a young age, Ford developed a love of the sea. He worked as a deckhand and boatman during his teen years, gaining experience that would later influence his filmmaking. Though his beginnings were humble,...

Proving again that there’s always more to learn about film history, Marc J. Perez’s documentary tells the story of a major American film capital before Hollywood. Milestone surrounds it with a couple of hours of early silent films made in the cinema Mecca of . . . Fort Lee, New Jersey.

The Champion: A Story of America’s First Film Town

DVD

The Milestone Cinematheque

2015 / Color + B&W / 1:33 flat full frame / 35 min. main documentary; many more short subjects / Street Date October 17, 2017 / available through The Milestone Cinematheque / 34.99

Film Editor: B.B. Enriquez

Original Music: Ryan Shore

Based on a book by Richard Koszarski

Produced by Tom Myers, John L. Sikes

Directed by Marc J. Perez

Milestone’s new crash course in film history is a two-disc set centered around a 2015 documentary, The Champion: A Story of America’s First Film Town. ‘The Champion’ was the name of a short-lived but significant film company,...

Relatively few films from Fox Pictures (before they became Twentieth Century Fox) are readily available: Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans is the big one. The modest caper Black Sheep wouldn't be high on the list for reissue: stars Edmund Lowe and Claire Trevor aren't too well-remembered, though he's in Dinner at Eight and she's in Stagecoach. Despite a large cast of supporting players, rotund character man Eugene Pallette is the only other really familiar figure, though founding Keystone Kop Ford Sterling has a good bit as a ship's detective.We're on a transatlantic liner, see, and there are warnings posted about professional gamblers: The Lady Eve territory, before Sturges thought of it. Lowe is such a gambler, but he's a swell guy really. Trevor plays an actress, which is no stretch, and the two have real chemistry. He has a debonair manner and a mellifluous voice—and a drunk scene,...

It's the final Hollywood film by the legendary Ziegfeld star Marilyn Miller, and it's also a terrific talkie feature debut for W.C. Fields -- with one of his dazzling juggling bits. But the real star is director William Dieterle, whose moving camera and creative edits rescue the talkie musical from dreary operetta staging. Her Majesty, Love DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1931 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 75 min. / Street Date January 19, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Marilyn Miller, Ben Lyon, W.C. Fields, Leon Errol, Ford Sterling, Chester Conklin, Clarence Wilson, Ruth Hall, Virginia Sale, Oscar Apfel. Cinematography Robert Kurrie Film Editor Ralph Dawson Songs Walter Jurmann, Al Dubin Written by Robert Lord, Arthur Caesar from story by Rudolph Bernauer, Rudolf Österreicher Directed by William Dieterle

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

The Warner Archive Collection has been kind to fans of early talkies. We've been able to discover dramatic actresses like Jeanne Eagels...

By Mireille Latil-Le-Dantec. Originally published in Cinématographe, no. 35, February 1978 in an issue with a Chaplin dossier.

Translation by Ted Fendt. Thanks to Marie-Pierre Duhamel.

The Chaplinesque Quest

The overbearing weight of interpretative studies devoted to Chaplin makes any pretension to some "fresh look" at a universe already studied from every angle seem absurd from the outset. At least, on the occasion of the homages currently being made in theaters to the little man who would become so big, a few fragmentary re-viewings more modestly allow for the rediscovery of the thematic unity of this body of work and the inanity of any artificial divide between the "excellent" Charlie films and the "mediocre" Chaplin films – a divide corresponding, of course, to the event which his art was not supposed to have survived: the appearance of those talkies that – in the excellent company of Eisenstein, Pudovkin, René Clair and many others – he...

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A Thief Catcher (Keystone, 1914), featuring a previously unknown performance by silent comedy star Charlie Chaplin, will have its west coast re-premiere during the 46th annual Cinecon Classic Film Festival at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood California over Labor Day Weekend, September 2-6, 2010

Chaplin is officially credited with appearing in thirty-five films during his year at Keystone in 1914, but he claimed in various interviews that he had also played bit roles as a cop and a barber while at the studio--but he did not name the films, and although there has been some speculation about the possibility of additional Chaplin-Keystone appearances, none has turned up until now. Film collector Paul Gierucki found a 16mm film print in a trunk at a Taylor, Michigan, antique store last year. "I could tell it was a Keystone comedy,...

It's not exactly a Chaplin masterpiece, but the ten-minute 1914 film A Thief Catcher featured an early, maybe 3-minute cameo with Charlie Chaplin playing a Keystone cop. The film had disappeared from the record books: Chaplin filmographies neglected to list it, and Keystone filmographies listed it without mentioning Chaplin. In a late interview, Chaplin himself recalled making it, but did not mention the title.

The film turned up at an antique sale in Taylor, Michigan, the Associated Press reported Thursday. Film historian Paul Gierucki thought he was buying an ordinary Keystone Studios movie. When he finally watched it, he was shocked and had to show the film to his friend, Richard Roberts, to be sure he could believe his eyes. The two men help organize the annual Slapsticon festival in Arlington, Virginia, and A Thief Catcher will make its debut at this year's fest (July 15-18).

Chaplin was one of the...

How do you follow up a newly found John Ford film?

How about a newly found Charlie Chaplin film sound?

That’s just what was found at an antique sale in Michigan. The film, A Thief Catcher, doesn’t star the silent legend, but it features a rather extensive cameo from him, as he reprises his legendary role as the Keystone Cop in this Keystone comedy clocking in at just around 10 minutes.

The film was originally released in 1914, and was, like many films from that era, thought to be lost to history. It stars Ford Sterling, Mack Swain and Edgar Kennedy, and as the Palm Beach Post put it, “finding a lost Chaplin appearance can be roughly compared to finding a lost Beethoven quartet.”

I second those sentiments.

While not quite as massive a find as a full length John Ford film, this is still one hell of a discovery,...