ethanedwards
December 16th, 2009, 09:22 AM
Books On Duke's Directors
(That Include references to Duke)
JOHN FORD, by Peter Bogdanovich
One read is not enough. Bogdanovich is of course now a filmmaker in his own right. His visit to Ford in Monument Valley and his long interview is now legendary.
JOHN FORD, by Joseph McBride and Michael Wilmington
Will give you lots of insight
PAPPY, THE LIFE OF JOHN FORD, by Dan Ford
Written by his grandson. A must.
JOHN FORD INTERVIEWS
Ford in his own words: So he DID give interviews. About two dozen of them.
COMPANY OF HEROES- My Life As An actor In The John Ford Stock Company- Harry Carey.Jr, [Hardcover]
In my opinion, not only the best book about Ford, it’s also one of the best about Wayne as well. The long-time member of Ford’s Stock company tells it all. And it’s so much fun.
Product Description
When Harry Carey, Sr. died in 1947, director John Ford cast Carey's 26-year-old son, Harry, Jr. in the role of The Abilene Kid in "3 Godfathers." Ford and the elder Carey had filmed an earlier version of the story, and Ford dedicated the Technicolor remake to his memory. "Company of Heroes" is the story of the making of that film, as well as the eight subsequent Ford classics. In it, Harry Carey, Jr. casts a remarkably observant eye on the process of filming Westerns by one of the true masters of the form. From "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" and "Wagonmaster" to "The Searchers" and "Cheyenne Autumn", he shows the care, tedium, challenge, and exhilaration of movie-making at its highest level. Carey's portrayal of John Ford at work is the most intimate ever written. He also gives us insightful and original portraits of the men and women who were part of Ford's vision of America: John Wayne, Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Maureen O'Hara, Ward Bond, Victor McLaglen, and Ben Johnson. Funny, insightful, and brutally honest, "Company of Heroes" is a rip-roaring good read that presents the remarkable life story of Harry Carey, Jr. and his many continuing fine performances.
JOHN FORD
Published by the French Cahiers de Cinema, which are of course the movie critics who started to look at films differently in the Fifties, so men like Budd Boetticher could be discovered as cult directors. They analyze Ford at length. Good photographs.
JOHN FORD, THE MAN AND HIS FILMS, by Tag Gallagher
Considered to be the man who knows Ford’s work the best. I once attended a screening of Ford’s documentary “Battle of Midway” and Callagher asked us to see it twice the same evening. He knows his stuff. Beware: this is written from the perspective of a film professor, not from a man who loves Ford and wants to tell about this love.
ABOUT JOHN FORD, by Lindsay Anderson
Now he is the contrary to Callagher – a film student who admires Ford for what he is: Cinemas greatest poet. Anderson met Ford several times.
THE WESTERN FILMS OF JOHN FORD, by J.A. Place
Deals with every single Ford western, beautifully illustrated, interesting points.
THE NON-WESTERN FILMS OF JOHN FORD by J.A. Place
The companion piece, by same author.
JOHN FORD'S WESTERNS- A Thematic Analysis with a Filmography- By William Darby
As the title suggests, it's all about Ford's westerns. Most of it is critical analysis and I'd say it's pretty well done. The Duke films that are analyzed in depth are The Horse Soldiers, Fort Apache, Rio Grande, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Three Godfathers, The Searchers, and Stagecoach.
SEARCHING FOR JOHN FORD - Joseph McBride
(St Martins Press 2003)
Another heavyweight book but very interesting reveals some unusual facts and destroys some legends.
JOHN FORD - Joseph McBride and Michael Wilmington
(Martin Secker and Warburg 1974)
Begins with Ford's funeral.
JOHN FORD by Scott Eyman, Paul Duncan
This new release of yet another book on John Ford won't tell you anything new if you already have other works dealing with his life and his films. But this is by far the best book on Ford yet for photos of Ford himself! There's a great number of behind the scenes shots and very funny candid shots as well as rare and never before seen color photographs (for instance, from the sets of the black & white pictures Wagon Master, Liberty Valance and Fort Apache). Pictures such as Chief Scar getting his hair sprayed for the upcoming scene, Wayne and Fonda playing poker, let the making of these pictures come alive again.
JOHN FORD DOCUMENTARY
Danish Film Museum
JOHN FORD AND THE AMERICAN WEST, by Peter Cowie
As more and more books about Ford's work and life are published, this one won't fail to attract readers who already have sufficient knowledge about Ford. It compares the great American painters, Remington and Russell, als well as others like Schreyvogel, in the most beautiful reproductions, to Ford's direction. The author makes it a point that Ford often studied paintings, especially Remington. In the case of "Yellow Ribbon" he officially went after Remington's style of composition and lighting. Peter Cowie especially analyzes the meaning of Monument Valley in Ford's films and guides the reader through the valley and the different locations he used. A handsome book.
There's nothing wrong with the theory of the paintings, of course, just one thing one must remind himself when reading the book: When paintings and photos from the films are compared, remember that the publicity stills were taken not by Ford - but by the official still taker. Very often those stills are quite different then the Ford's composition in the film. The publicity photograph would often have the actors for a shooting session while the still photographer would shoot pictures while the actors would try the upcoming scene (but not during shooting).
HOWARD HAWKS, by Robin Wood
Standard work, often quoted from.
HAWKS ON HAWKS, by Joseph McBride
The Best – Hawks gives a long interview, very much like Francois Truffaut’s famous interview with Hitchcock.
HOWARD HAWKS, STORYTELLER, by Gerald Mast
Interesting points.
HOWARD HAWKS, by Noel Simsolo
Nothing new here.
HOWARD HAWKS - THE GREY FOX OF HOLLYWOOD - Todd McCarthy
(Grove Press New York 1997)
A great book dealing at length with Dukes relationships with his co-workers some of whom he got on with, and some whom he didn't. Great in depth narrative of the making of Hatari
CUT, PRINT - AND THAT'S A WRAP.- by Paul Helmick
Written in 2001, Howard Hawks' reliable assistant director and 2nd unit director Helmick tells the tales of his Hollywood years. He was around when they made some of the Hawks classics, as well as the films with Wayne: Rio Bravo (it was him who suggested to cast Dean Martin to Hawks), El Dorado, Rio Lobo. Of special interest I found his descriptions of working in Africa on Hatari. This must have been the techniqually most difficult film to make up to that point! Helmick would go out and shoot animal action (with, yes, the doubles) then call Hawks who would come in the next day and shoot scenes they just made up so they would fit to the things Helmick got in the cane. For the spectacular entrance scene with the Rhino, they just happend to find one that was mean enough to attack Bruce Cabot's double and they got it on film - the double acted as if being horned. So they wrote the whole entrance around it - writing Bruce Cabot out of the film for a large part of it (for all of us who forever wondered why his "Indian" character was in the film anyway). No wonder it took Hawks more than a year to assemble the cut (other Wayne releases before Hatari were actually shot AFTER it, he moved to Africa right after Alamo, and, according to Helmick, was glad to because he wanted to get away from it).
Helmick also says that him and Wayne never got really friendly, he thinks that Wayne held one incident against him, when Wayne and Hawks were discussing what Ricky Nelson should say when asked by Chance: Pretty young for riding guard, don't ya, and it was Helmick who just came up with the cool line: Just how old you gotta be? Obviously, Hawks didn't tell Wayne that Nelson's response would be just that (he often didn't tell his actors to get a natural response) and Wayne barked: "Since when does the 2nd assistant get to write the dialogue?!"
HOWARD HUGHES - THE UNTOLD STORY by Peter Harry Brown and Pat H Broeske.
Published by Little Brown Books 1996
JW is mentioned on pages 239, 255, 282, 289, 391, 392,393,
One part refers to the making of Jet Pilot and tells how the film started filming in 1949, they were still filming in 1951 and because of Hughes indeciviness, he couldn't dtop tinkering with the aviation scenes - the film was not released until 1957 and looked outdated.
It also mentions that when 'The Conqueror' came out the audience howled but Hughes was so delighted that he bought the film outright.
EACH MAN IN HIS TIME, by Raoul Walsh
The only one of Wayne's director's who lived the life of a real adventurer. His very own biography reads like a Jack London novel. He rode with Villa. He was a cowboy. He was a prospector. An actor. Finally a director. And then he discovered John Wayne. He describes the incident in detail as well as the work on The Big Trail, which he renamed THE BIG DRUNK - for all the drinking going on.
Book is out of print now and valuable, but still available in second hand shops.
JOHN HUSTON, AN OPEN BOOK His biography.
He himself couldn’t figure out quite right what the hell went wrong with Barbarian and the Geisha. An interesting life to read about.
HOLLYWOOD TRAILBOSS, by Burt Kennedy
Kennedy’s biography, lots of funny stories.
A SEIGAL FILM By Don Seigal
1993
__________________________________________________ ________________
Edited and Updated by
ethanedwards
Copyright-©dukewayne.com.2009.
I offer my sincere thanks to itdo, for initially starting this topic,
and the tireless work he put into the original thread.
However since then, there have been many additions,
and the list is now probably 20 times bigger,
so much so, I have split it into 5 easier to read and find sections.
Thanks therefore, not only to itdo,
but all the members who have contributed new titles.
Any discussion here:-
Duke's Book- Discussion (http://www.dukewayne.com/showthread.php?t=466)
Itdo's original list and posts are here, and as a tribute
now forms the basis of our discussion thread
(That Include references to Duke)
JOHN FORD, by Peter Bogdanovich
One read is not enough. Bogdanovich is of course now a filmmaker in his own right. His visit to Ford in Monument Valley and his long interview is now legendary.
JOHN FORD, by Joseph McBride and Michael Wilmington
Will give you lots of insight
PAPPY, THE LIFE OF JOHN FORD, by Dan Ford
Written by his grandson. A must.
JOHN FORD INTERVIEWS
Ford in his own words: So he DID give interviews. About two dozen of them.
COMPANY OF HEROES- My Life As An actor In The John Ford Stock Company- Harry Carey.Jr, [Hardcover]
In my opinion, not only the best book about Ford, it’s also one of the best about Wayne as well. The long-time member of Ford’s Stock company tells it all. And it’s so much fun.
Product Description
When Harry Carey, Sr. died in 1947, director John Ford cast Carey's 26-year-old son, Harry, Jr. in the role of The Abilene Kid in "3 Godfathers." Ford and the elder Carey had filmed an earlier version of the story, and Ford dedicated the Technicolor remake to his memory. "Company of Heroes" is the story of the making of that film, as well as the eight subsequent Ford classics. In it, Harry Carey, Jr. casts a remarkably observant eye on the process of filming Westerns by one of the true masters of the form. From "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" and "Wagonmaster" to "The Searchers" and "Cheyenne Autumn", he shows the care, tedium, challenge, and exhilaration of movie-making at its highest level. Carey's portrayal of John Ford at work is the most intimate ever written. He also gives us insightful and original portraits of the men and women who were part of Ford's vision of America: John Wayne, Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Maureen O'Hara, Ward Bond, Victor McLaglen, and Ben Johnson. Funny, insightful, and brutally honest, "Company of Heroes" is a rip-roaring good read that presents the remarkable life story of Harry Carey, Jr. and his many continuing fine performances.
JOHN FORD
Published by the French Cahiers de Cinema, which are of course the movie critics who started to look at films differently in the Fifties, so men like Budd Boetticher could be discovered as cult directors. They analyze Ford at length. Good photographs.
JOHN FORD, THE MAN AND HIS FILMS, by Tag Gallagher
Considered to be the man who knows Ford’s work the best. I once attended a screening of Ford’s documentary “Battle of Midway” and Callagher asked us to see it twice the same evening. He knows his stuff. Beware: this is written from the perspective of a film professor, not from a man who loves Ford and wants to tell about this love.
ABOUT JOHN FORD, by Lindsay Anderson
Now he is the contrary to Callagher – a film student who admires Ford for what he is: Cinemas greatest poet. Anderson met Ford several times.
THE WESTERN FILMS OF JOHN FORD, by J.A. Place
Deals with every single Ford western, beautifully illustrated, interesting points.
THE NON-WESTERN FILMS OF JOHN FORD by J.A. Place
The companion piece, by same author.
JOHN FORD'S WESTERNS- A Thematic Analysis with a Filmography- By William Darby
As the title suggests, it's all about Ford's westerns. Most of it is critical analysis and I'd say it's pretty well done. The Duke films that are analyzed in depth are The Horse Soldiers, Fort Apache, Rio Grande, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Three Godfathers, The Searchers, and Stagecoach.
SEARCHING FOR JOHN FORD - Joseph McBride
(St Martins Press 2003)
Another heavyweight book but very interesting reveals some unusual facts and destroys some legends.
JOHN FORD - Joseph McBride and Michael Wilmington
(Martin Secker and Warburg 1974)
Begins with Ford's funeral.
JOHN FORD by Scott Eyman, Paul Duncan
This new release of yet another book on John Ford won't tell you anything new if you already have other works dealing with his life and his films. But this is by far the best book on Ford yet for photos of Ford himself! There's a great number of behind the scenes shots and very funny candid shots as well as rare and never before seen color photographs (for instance, from the sets of the black & white pictures Wagon Master, Liberty Valance and Fort Apache). Pictures such as Chief Scar getting his hair sprayed for the upcoming scene, Wayne and Fonda playing poker, let the making of these pictures come alive again.
JOHN FORD DOCUMENTARY
Danish Film Museum
JOHN FORD AND THE AMERICAN WEST, by Peter Cowie
As more and more books about Ford's work and life are published, this one won't fail to attract readers who already have sufficient knowledge about Ford. It compares the great American painters, Remington and Russell, als well as others like Schreyvogel, in the most beautiful reproductions, to Ford's direction. The author makes it a point that Ford often studied paintings, especially Remington. In the case of "Yellow Ribbon" he officially went after Remington's style of composition and lighting. Peter Cowie especially analyzes the meaning of Monument Valley in Ford's films and guides the reader through the valley and the different locations he used. A handsome book.
There's nothing wrong with the theory of the paintings, of course, just one thing one must remind himself when reading the book: When paintings and photos from the films are compared, remember that the publicity stills were taken not by Ford - but by the official still taker. Very often those stills are quite different then the Ford's composition in the film. The publicity photograph would often have the actors for a shooting session while the still photographer would shoot pictures while the actors would try the upcoming scene (but not during shooting).
HOWARD HAWKS, by Robin Wood
Standard work, often quoted from.
HAWKS ON HAWKS, by Joseph McBride
The Best – Hawks gives a long interview, very much like Francois Truffaut’s famous interview with Hitchcock.
HOWARD HAWKS, STORYTELLER, by Gerald Mast
Interesting points.
HOWARD HAWKS, by Noel Simsolo
Nothing new here.
HOWARD HAWKS - THE GREY FOX OF HOLLYWOOD - Todd McCarthy
(Grove Press New York 1997)
A great book dealing at length with Dukes relationships with his co-workers some of whom he got on with, and some whom he didn't. Great in depth narrative of the making of Hatari
CUT, PRINT - AND THAT'S A WRAP.- by Paul Helmick
Written in 2001, Howard Hawks' reliable assistant director and 2nd unit director Helmick tells the tales of his Hollywood years. He was around when they made some of the Hawks classics, as well as the films with Wayne: Rio Bravo (it was him who suggested to cast Dean Martin to Hawks), El Dorado, Rio Lobo. Of special interest I found his descriptions of working in Africa on Hatari. This must have been the techniqually most difficult film to make up to that point! Helmick would go out and shoot animal action (with, yes, the doubles) then call Hawks who would come in the next day and shoot scenes they just made up so they would fit to the things Helmick got in the cane. For the spectacular entrance scene with the Rhino, they just happend to find one that was mean enough to attack Bruce Cabot's double and they got it on film - the double acted as if being horned. So they wrote the whole entrance around it - writing Bruce Cabot out of the film for a large part of it (for all of us who forever wondered why his "Indian" character was in the film anyway). No wonder it took Hawks more than a year to assemble the cut (other Wayne releases before Hatari were actually shot AFTER it, he moved to Africa right after Alamo, and, according to Helmick, was glad to because he wanted to get away from it).
Helmick also says that him and Wayne never got really friendly, he thinks that Wayne held one incident against him, when Wayne and Hawks were discussing what Ricky Nelson should say when asked by Chance: Pretty young for riding guard, don't ya, and it was Helmick who just came up with the cool line: Just how old you gotta be? Obviously, Hawks didn't tell Wayne that Nelson's response would be just that (he often didn't tell his actors to get a natural response) and Wayne barked: "Since when does the 2nd assistant get to write the dialogue?!"
HOWARD HUGHES - THE UNTOLD STORY by Peter Harry Brown and Pat H Broeske.
Published by Little Brown Books 1996
JW is mentioned on pages 239, 255, 282, 289, 391, 392,393,
One part refers to the making of Jet Pilot and tells how the film started filming in 1949, they were still filming in 1951 and because of Hughes indeciviness, he couldn't dtop tinkering with the aviation scenes - the film was not released until 1957 and looked outdated.
It also mentions that when 'The Conqueror' came out the audience howled but Hughes was so delighted that he bought the film outright.
EACH MAN IN HIS TIME, by Raoul Walsh
The only one of Wayne's director's who lived the life of a real adventurer. His very own biography reads like a Jack London novel. He rode with Villa. He was a cowboy. He was a prospector. An actor. Finally a director. And then he discovered John Wayne. He describes the incident in detail as well as the work on The Big Trail, which he renamed THE BIG DRUNK - for all the drinking going on.
Book is out of print now and valuable, but still available in second hand shops.
JOHN HUSTON, AN OPEN BOOK His biography.
He himself couldn’t figure out quite right what the hell went wrong with Barbarian and the Geisha. An interesting life to read about.
HOLLYWOOD TRAILBOSS, by Burt Kennedy
Kennedy’s biography, lots of funny stories.
A SEIGAL FILM By Don Seigal
1993
__________________________________________________ ________________
Edited and Updated by
ethanedwards
Copyright-©dukewayne.com.2009.
I offer my sincere thanks to itdo, for initially starting this topic,
and the tireless work he put into the original thread.
However since then, there have been many additions,
and the list is now probably 20 times bigger,
so much so, I have split it into 5 easier to read and find sections.
Thanks therefore, not only to itdo,
but all the members who have contributed new titles.
Any discussion here:-
Duke's Book- Discussion (http://www.dukewayne.com/showthread.php?t=466)
Itdo's original list and posts are here, and as a tribute
now forms the basis of our discussion thread