John Ford

[MissGoddess]

Wonderful news! Another lost silent of Pappy's has been found, in New Zealand! It's called
Upstream (1927, Fox) and is described as a backstage drama and supposedly is one of the first movies
by Ford to reflect the influence of F.W. Murnau on his work. The article by Dave Kehr (NY Times)
below says we can expect a screening at the Academy this fall and that it will be available
to view at filmpreservation.org.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/movies/07silent.html

Several other silents were found, including one directed by Mabel Normand, and a Clara Bow
movie!

[JackFavell]

Oh my gosh! That's fantastic news, MissG! Now I have to go read the article - I was so excited, I just jumped on here to say how great your news is!

[MissGoddess]

And Jackie, it looks like ANOTHER one is part of that batch of 75 films....STRONG BOY, one that
Ford made with Vic MacLaglen!!! I'm not sure,it might even be the first one they worked on together. I'm just deliriously
happy!

[feaito]

Those are fantastic news April! Thanks for sharing.

[JackFavell]

Goddess - that article was so exciting.... we may actually see "Upstream" within a short while if we are lucky! and the link to the preservation site is now bookmarked on my computer. Thanks for finding and posting this wonderful news!

[MissGoddess]

Well, it looks like it's only the trailer to STRONG BOY that survives, too bad.

I hope the Academy will screen Upstream in New York as well as L.A.

[JackFavell]

I hope so...I really can't imagine they wouldn't, but I guess stranger things have happened.

According to at least one source, a very early Francis Ford film, Billy and His Pal (1911), was also among the films found... I would post the link, except that my computer said that there was a possibility of a virus threat coming from that site. I do not know if this film is directed by Francis or not. It is credited to George Méliès / American Wild West Film Company, and it was filmed in San Antonio Texas. It was retitled Bobby and His Pal for New Zealand audiences.

[MissGoddess]

I hope so...I really can't imagine they wouldn't, but I guess stranger things have happened.

According to at least one source, a very early Francis Ford film, Billy and His Pal (1911), was also among the films found... I would post the link, except that my computer said that there was a possibility of a virus threat coming from that site. I do not know if this film is directed by Francis or not. It is credited to George Méliès / American Wild West Film Company, and it was filmed in San Antonio Texas. It was retitled Bobby and His Pal for New Zealand audiences.

This just gets curiouser and curiouser! Oh, I hope it's true and that these movies will somehow be viewable to the public.

[JackFavell]

You and me both!

Billy and his Pal stars Francis and Edith Storey who was, as I recall, a dark, very Victorian looking woman with deep set eyes.


Here is the cast list of Upstream:


* Nancy Nash - Gertie Ryan
* Earle Foxe - Eric Brasingham
* Grant Withers - Jack La Velle
* Lydia Yeamans Titus - Miss Hattie Breckenbridge
* Raymond Hitchcock - Star Boarder
* Emile Chautard - Campbell Mandare
* Ted McNamara - Callahan and Callahan
* Sammy Cohen - Callahan and Callahan
* Judy King - Sister Team
* Lillian Worth - Sister Team
* Jane Winton - Soubrette
* Harry A. Bailey - Gus Hoffman (as Harry Bailey)
* Francis Ford - Juggler
* Ely Reynolds - Deerfoot

[MissGoddess]

John Ford directing a backstage drama in a Murnauesque style. I just have to see this.
It's a cast largely unknown to me. Grant Withers certainly appeared in a ton of Ford's movies.
Judging by his placement on the cast list, Francis' part seems already to be quite small
when just a few years prior he was a director and star. The vicissitudes of Hollywood fortunes!

[JackFavell]

Earle Foxe was the commandant in Four Sons....He was also in The Informer and My Darling Clementine in bit parts! He played the Earl of Kent in Mary of Scotland. Just like Francis Ford, his career goes back to about 1912....Now that I read about him, I would really like to see him in something else.... He seems a little like an effete Lon Chaney to me, but I really have no idea.

I found these photos of him, now I am dying to see him in Upstream!

from Four Sons:









Earle circa 1925

with an unknown starlet or could this be his wife, Gladys Borum? They certainly don't look close, or even like they know one another.....

Earle 1914

[MissGoddess]

Thank you so much, Jackie, for looking up Earle Foxe...I will never forget him as the commandant.
Wow, 1912. And Papps was still giving him work in 1946.

It makes you realize how huge a gap there is, at least in my knowledge, of those early
days of cinema because so many of the films are lost. I hope we'll see more discoveries as different
countries realize what treasures they may be sitting on.

[JackFavell]

I feel sad that I only knew Earle Fox as a man in a picture book....I never knew anything about him, or about Francis Ford, really, either. And we are diehard classic film fans! I will try very hard from now on to start upgrading my silent film knowledge just a little.

With this New Zealand discovery getting so much press, I wonder if there will be other countries influenced to look into their archives and film storage facilities? I hope.

[movieman1957]

They find these things in the most unusual places. Works by various classical composers have been found stuck in the middle of other papers or libraries that you would have thought things would have been found earlier. Someone's garage seems as likely as an archive.

[JackFavell]

Yes, it's sort of like these films are "hiding in plain sight"..... waiting for someone to come along who knows what they are looking at.