Trivia and Other Fun Stuff on FORT APACHE

Although Fort Apache (1948) and the others in the Cavalry Trilogy are now considered important films, director John Ford once described them as "potboilers" made primarily for money.

The film won awards for Best Director and Best Cinematography Black & White (Archie Stout) at the Locarno (Italy) International Film Festival.

Producer Merian C. Cooper, Ford's partner in their independent Argosy Pictures company, had been making movies since 1925, and his career would continue for another 14 years after Fort Apache, often in collaboration with Ford. One of his most famous productions was King Kong (1933), a success he emulated at Argosy with another hit about a giant gorilla, Mighty Joe Young (1949).

Both Henry Fonda and John Wayne were long-time favorite actors of Ford. Fonda appeared in nine movies by the director and made his early mark in such notable Ford films as Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) and The Grapes of Wrath (1940), for which he received his first of three Academy Award nominations as Best Actor.

John Wayne is most often associated with Ford, with whom he made more than 30 pictures. While still just an extra, he appeared in several Ford silents. He became a bona fide star with Stagecoach (1939). Oddly, he never received an Oscar® nomination for any Ford film, although his performances in such films as She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), The Quiet Man (1952), and The Searchers (1956), are considered among his best.

Even Shirley Temple had worked with Ford before. He directed her in Wee Willie Winkie (1937) when she was only nine - and one of Hollywood's biggest stars. Fellow Fort Apache cast member Victor McLaglen also appeared in that earlier film.

Many of the supporting cast of Fort Apache appeared in several John Ford Westerns, enough to earn them recognition as his "stock company," and includes Ward Bond, Pedro Armendariz, Victor McLaglen, Anna Lee, Mae Marsh, Jack Pennick, and Grant Withers. John Agar and Guy Kibbee were also directed by Ford in other films.

McLaglen, who played in all three pictures of the Cavalry Trilogy and nine other Ford films, won a Best Actor Oscar® in the director's The Informer (1935).

Ben Johnson was a stunt double in this picture. He had acting roles in five other Ford films. Johnson won an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor in Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show (1971), a film whose imagery and themes strongly reflect Ford's cinematic contributions.

John Agar never forgot the generous and patient help Wayne gave him as an inexperienced young actor on this production. "I would go to hell and back for Duke," he later said. They worked on five more films together.

George O'Brien, an old friend of Ford's who had starred in his silent The Iron Horse (1924), came out of retirement to play the fort commander replaced by Fonda in this story. Perhaps his most famous role was the young husband with murderous intentions in F.W. Murnau's masterpiece Sunrise (1927). His last movie was Ford's Cheyenne Autumn (1964).

Mae Marsh made her film debut in 1910 and was a noted actress in silents, starring in D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916). She was directed by Ford 17 times, including her last film role in Cheyenne Autumn.

Anna Lee, who died in 2004, had more than 70 film roles between 1932 and 1994 but is probably best known as matriarch Lila Quartermaine in the TV soap opera General Hospital. Ford was godfather to two of her sons and gave her away at her third wedding in 1970.

Danny Borzage, who Ford liked to have around to play accordion on the set, appeared uncredited in dozens of the director's films. He was the brother of director Frank Borzage.

Degrees of separation: Movita (who plays Col. Thursday's cook Guadalupe) was the wife of Marlon Brando from 1960 to 1962. She played opposite Clark Gable in the earlier version of Mutiny on the Bounty (1935). That story was remade in 1962 with Brando in the Gable role. Brando subsequently married his co-star Tarita, who played the part originated by Movita.

First assistant cameraman William Clothier became Wayne's favorite cinematographer after Fort Apache. They worked on 17 films together.

James Warner Bellah, who wrote the short story on which Fort Apache was based, contributed stories and/or screenplays to nine Westerns, including the entire Cavalry trilogy and Ford's later film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).

by Rob Nixon

Famous Quotes from FORT APACHE

THURSDAY (Henry Fonda): Pour me a drink of that scripture.

YORK (John Wayne): The Sioux once raided into Apache territory. Old-timers told me you can follow the line of their retreat by the bones of their dead.

THURSDAY: I suggest the Apache had deteriorated since then, judging by a few of the specimens I have seen on the way out here.
YORK: Well, if you saw them, sir, they weren't Apaches.

RECRUIT: Yes sir. I had the honor of serving with General Nathan Bedford Forrest.
BEAUFORT: I would like to shake your hand. You are now an acting corporal. I hope you have the honor of buying me a drink on your next payday.

COLLINGWOOD (George O'Brien): Philadelphia, were you born in Philadelphia?
PHILADELPHIA (Shirley Temple): No, I was born in New York City. I was named after my mother.
COLLINGWOOD: Oh, then she was born in Philadelphia.
PHILADELPHIA: No, she was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. She was named after her mother; she was the first Philadelphia.
COLLINGWOOD: Oh, then she was...
PHILADELPHIA: No, Boston, Massachusetts.

SENTRY: Halt! Who goes there?
BEAUFORT: New commanding officer.
SENTRY: Holy Moses!
BEAUFORT: No, the new commanding officer.

YORK: They'll keep on living as long as the regiment lives. Their pay is thirteen dollars a month, and their diet is beans and hay. They'll fight over cards or rotgut whiskey, but they'll share the last drop in their canteens. Their names may change, and their faces, but they're the regiment. The regular army, now and fifty years from now. They're better men than they used to be. Thursday did that. He made it a command to be proud of.