John Ford’s Top 10 – FOLLOWING FILM

One person on this photo made a film that ended up on John Ford’s Top 10 list. Your guess is as good as mine…

John Ford with Dennis Hopper and John Huston, Palm Springs, September 13th, 1971. Photo: Victor Skrebneski — John Ford with Dennis Hopper and John Huston, ca. 1971

In 1963, John Ford submitted the following Top 10 to Cinema Magazine. John Huston and Dennis Hopper did not make the cut, but any list that includes two Henry King films is fine with me, although admittedly I’ve never seen the Capra or–alas!–the Walsh.

The Birth of a Nation (D.W. Griffith, 1915)
The Honor System (Raoul Walsh, 1917) [considered lost]
3 Godfathers (John Ford, 1948)
Ninotchka (Ernst Lubitsch, 1939)
The High and the Mighty (William A. Wellman, 1954)
Tol’able David (Henry King, 1921)
The Song of Bernadette (Henry King, 1943)
Lady for a Day (Frank Capra, 1933)
Going My Way (Leo McCarey, 1944)
The Alamo (John Wayne, 1960)

Still, one item remains deeply puzzling–The High and the Mighty of all Wellman films? Really???