Fort Apache (1948)

Director:

John Ford

Writers:

Frank S. Nugent (screenplay)
James Warner Bellah (story)

Release Date:

9 March 1948 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Plot:

In John Ford's sombre exploration mythologising of American heroes, he slowly reveals the character of Owen Thursday...

Plot Keywords:

Military | Last Stand | Fanaticism | Ambition | Cult Western

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

John Wayne	...	Capt. Kirby York
Henry Fonda	...	Lt. Col. Owen Thursday
Shirley Temple	...	Philadelphia Thursday
Pedro Armendáriz	...	Sgt. Beaufort (as Pedro Armendariz)
Ward Bond	...	Sgt. Maj. Michael O'Rourke
George O'Brien	...	Capt. Sam Collingwood
Victor McLaglen	...	Sgt. Festus Mulcahy
Anna Lee	...	Mrs. Emily Collingwood
Irene Rich	...	Mrs. Mary O'Rourke
Dick Foran	...	Sgt. Quincannon
Guy Kibbee	...	Capt. Dr. Wilkens
Grant Withers	...	Silas Meacham
Jack Pennick	...	Sgt. Daniel Schattuck
Ray Hyke	...	Lt. Gates (Adjutant)
Movita	...	Guadalupe (Col. Thursday's cook)
Miguel Inclán	...	Cochise (as Miguel Inclan)
Mary Gordon	...	Ma (barmaid)
Philip Kieffer	...	Cavalryman (as Philip Keiffer)
Mae Marsh	...	Mrs. Gates
Hank Worden	...	Southern recruit
John Agar	...	2nd Lt. Michael Shannon O'Rourke
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Cliff Clark	...	Stage driver (uncredited)
Frank Ferguson	...	Newspaperman (uncredited)
Francis Ford	...	Fen (stage guard) (uncredited)
William Forrest	...	Reporter (uncredited)
Fred Graham	...	Cavalryman (uncredited)
Frank McGrath	...	Cpl. Derice (bugler) (uncredited)
Mickey Simpson	...	NCO at dance (uncredited)
Harry Tenbrook	...	Tom O'Feeney (courier) (uncredited)
Archie Twitchell	...	Reporter (uncredited)

Directed by
John Ford

Writing credits
Frank S. Nugent		(screenplay)
James Warner Bellah		(story "Massacre")

Produced by
Merian C. Cooper	....	executive producer (uncredited)
John Ford	....	executive producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Richard Hageman

Cinematography by
Archie Stout
William H. Clothier		(uncredited)

Film Editing by
Jack Murray

Art Direction by
James Basevi

Makeup Department
Emile LaVigne	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Bernard McEveety	....	production manager (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Lowell J. Farrell	....	assistant director (as Lowell Farrell)
Cliff Lyons	....	second unit director (uncredited)
Frank Parmenter	....	second assistant director (uncredited)
Jack Pennick	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Jack Colconda	....	properties (as Jack Galconda)
Joseph Kish	....	set dresser

Sound Department
Joseph I. Kane	....	sound
Frank Webster	....	sound

Special Effects by
Dave Koehler	....	special effects

Stunts
Frank Baker	....	stunts (uncredited)
Fred Carson	....	stunts (uncredited)
John Epper	....	stunts (uncredited)
Richard Farnsworth	....	stunts (uncredited)
Fred Graham	....	stunts (uncredited)
John Hudkins	....	stunts (uncredited)
Ben Johnson	....	stunts (uncredited)
Walt La Rue	....	stunts (uncredited)
Cliff Lyons	....	stunts (uncredited)
Frank McGrath	....	stunts (uncredited)
Gil Perkins	....	stunts (uncredited)
Bob Rose	....	stunts (uncredited)
Danny Sands	....	stunts (uncredited)
Barlow Simpson	....	stunts (uncredited)
Jack Williams	....	stunts (uncredited)
Henry Wills	....	stunts (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
D.R.O. Hatswell	....	costume researcher
Michael Meyers	....	wardrobe: men's
Ann Peck	....	wardrobe: ladies'

Music Department
Lucien Cailliet	....	conductor
Lucien Cailliet	....	music arranger
George Cooper	....	lyrics
Morton Downey	....	playback singer

Other crew
Katherine Cliffton	....	research editor
Merian C. Cooper	....	presenter
John Ford	....	presenter
Philip Kieffer	....	technical advisor (as Major Philip Kieffer USA Rtd.)
Katharine Spaatz	....	technical advisor
Kenny Williams	....	dance sequences
Sid Davis	....	stand-in: John Wayne (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Argosy Pictures

Distributors

• RKO Radio Pictures (1948) (USA) (theatrical)
• RKO Radio Pictures (1953) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• RKO Radio Pictures (1953) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• C&C Television Corporation (1955) (USA) (TV)
• RKO Radio Pictures (1957) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Turner Classic Movies (TCM) (1994) (USA) (VHS)
• Image Entertainment (1995) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2000) (Germany) (DVD)
• ClassicLine (2004) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Astor-Filmi (1949) (Finland) (theatrical)
• RKO Radio Pictures (1948) (France) (theatrical) (as RKO Radio Films)
• Castle Video (1989) (Finland) (VHS)
• Continental Home Vídeo (19??) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Future Film (2003) (Finland) (DVD)
• Turner Home Video (video)
• Warner Home Video (2006) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

War Party

Runtime:

125 min | West Germany:84 min (cut version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Australia:G | Iceland:L | West Germany:6 (nf) | UK:U | USA:Approved (certificate #12819) | Canada:PG (video rating) | Norway:16 (1948) | Finland:S | Spain:T | South Korea:15 (DVD rating) (2002)

Filming Locations:

Arches National Park, Moab, Utah, USA

Company:

Argosy Pictures

Trivia:

The plot for this movie was loosely based on Custer's Last Stand with Thursday as Custer and substituting Apaches for the Sioux. The cover-up by the survivors and the military of Thursday's blunder is in line with the cover up of Custer's mistakes and deliberate disobedience of his orders at Little Big Horn.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Collingwood is replaced by Lt Gates as adjutant, Gates begins to take off his saber. Film cuts to Henry Fonda and back to Gates already seated at the desk.

Quotes:

[Yorke and Beaufort enter the dance after returning from their meeting with Cochise]
Captain Yorke: Cochise has crossed the river, sir. He's coming in with all his people; wants to talk peace.
Lt. Col. Thursday: He's returned to American soil?
Captain Yorke: Yes, sir. Now with the Colonel's permission, I'd like to shake some of this Mexican 'dobe dust and get back to the dance.
Lt. Col. Thursday: There'll be no time for that, Captain. The regiment moves out at dawn.
Captain Yorke: The regiment? Cochise says he'll meet with you and me and Meacham. We'll take a small detail and go unarmed. I've arranged a rendezvous this side of the drygoons.
Lt. Col. Thursday: [to RSM O'Rourke] Sergeant-Major, you'll stop the dance. Pass the word to the first sergeants to prepare their troops to march at dawn. Troop commanders will oblige me by meeting at headquarters at once.
Captain Yorke: Colonel, if you send out the regiment Cochise'll think I've tricked him!
Lt. Col. Thursday: Exactly. We have tricked him. Tricked him into returning to American soil and I intend to see that he stays here.
Captain Yorke: Colonel Thursday, I gave my word to Cochise. No man is gonna make a liar out of me, sir.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in Fonda on Fonda (1992) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Goodnight Ladies

Right at the top

I think that a list of John Wayne's five best pictures has to include Fort Apache. It's the first and best of the cavalry trilogy that he did with John Ford. Oddly enough he has less screen time here than in the other two, due to the fact that he was co-starring with another big Hollywood name in Henry Fonda.

It's first and foremost the story of a clash between two men who see the United States Army in very different terms. Fonda is a former general who's seen glory in the Civil War, but has been shunted aside. He wants to get back on top in the worst way. He's exiled to Fort Apache in the Arizona territory while the big headlines concerning the Indian wars are going to the campaign against the plains Indians which was true enough.

Wayne has also seen some glory in the Civil War. But he's a professional soldier and just wants to live long enough to retire. In fact Ward Bond who is the sergeant major at the post has also dropped down in rank, he was a major in the Civil War and a Medal of Honor winner. This was a common occurrence at the end of the Civil War. During the war, promotions came swiftly because of battlefield service. Something called a brevet rank was instituted a kind of temporary promotion. You could be a brevet brigadier general and have an actual rank of something like major. After the Civil War as the U.S. Army shrunk to its pre-war size, soldier reverted to previous ranks. This was something John Ford was keenly aware of when he made Fort Apache.

Ford's stock company was never better. Even minor bit parts are woven nicely into the whole story. And his photography of Monument Valley, it's beauty and vastness was never better even when he used color. Look at the scenes with John Agar and Shirley Temple riding and with Wayne and Pedro Armendariz on their way to parley with Cochise. Really great cinematography.

Ford had a couple of inside comments in the film. In a scene where Henry Fonda is getting an incomplete message from the post telegrapher, the telegrapher who might have strolled in from a Cagney-O'Brien film informs his commander that the message was interrupted "in the middle of the last woid." With both Irish and southern recruits in Fort Apache, a Brooklynese telegrapher would not have been out of place.

George O'Brien and Anna Lee, play Sam and Emily Collingwood who both knew Henry Fonda's Owen Thursday way back in the day. It's hinted that O'Brien had a drinking problem and that's why he's at Fort Apache, but he's looking for a transfer out. It comes as the regiment is moving out against Cochise.

Charles Collingwood was the second in command to Admiral Nelson at Trafalgar. Nelson became a British hero martyr, historians know about Charles Collingwood. When newspapermen at the end of Fort Apache remark about men like "Collingworth"not being remembered, it was John Ford making a statement about the worth of all the men who contribute their lives to defend their nations not just the leader heroes.

That remark by the way is the stage for one of John Wayne's finest acted scenes in his career. A soliloquy photographed through a cabin window about the life of the professional soldier, the camaraderie, the toughness, the bravery required of these men and how they deliver for their nation.

In a later film John Ford uses the line that in the west "when the legend becomes fact, print the legend." Henry Fonda's quest for martial glory was a blunder, but his story for the sake and tradition of his regiment is whitewashed and he becomes an inspiration.

Of course some of the lowbrow comedy that one expects from John Ford is here aplenty with the four drinking sergeants and their efforts to make soldiers out of the recruits. Led by Victor McLaglen, the quartet rounds out with Dick Foran, Jack Pennick, and Pedro Armendariz. See how they dispose of the contraband they are charged with destroying and its consequences.

Fort Apache also takes the side of the Indian here. Cochise played by an impassive Miguel Inclan is a figure of strength and dignity. Later on Jeff Chandler in another film brought speech to the dignity and that role launched his career. Cochise is the only true major figure in the film. He bedevilled the U.S. Cavalry for over a decade in Arizona Territory with guerrilla tactics Mao Tse Tung would have envied.

Fort Apache is a grand ensemble film and you will not be bored for one second in watching it.