The Long Career.(Arts)(John Ford)

Byline: Malcolm Jones

Westerns, comedies, dramas and silent filmsaa new box set proves John Ford mastered all at Fox.

Between 1920 and 1952, John Ford made more than 50 movies at Fox Studios (which became Twentieth Century Fox in the a30s). Some of those movies were among his best, and some were among the best movies anyone has ever made. He won two of his Oscars for Fox pictures: aHow Green Was My Valleya and aThe Grapes of Wrath.a There he also made the first epic Western, aThe Iron Horse,a and numerous others (including aMy Darling Clementinea), three wonderful comedies with Will Rogers, a Shirley Temple movie, several historical dramas and his first picture in color, aDrums Along the Mohawk.a Now Fox has given Ford the genius treatment: a box set of 24 films, complete with commentary tracks, a hardcover coffee-table book, a new documentary about the director and two facsimile programs that would have been distributed in the theaters showing the silent films they celebrate: aThe Iron Horsea and aFour Sons.a No director ever deserved it more.

Several films, especially the silents, come with one of those abest source materiala disclaimers, but donat worry. Whoever put this collection together did an excellent job of finding the finest possible prints of these movies (Iave never seen a decent print of aJudge Priesta before this). The supplemental material (commentaries, still galleries, etc.) is ample if not especially inspired. Best of all, you can buy everything here individually or as part of smaller, more affordable box sets (the comedy box, for example, contains all the Will Rogers movies).

Irascible and often downright cruel to his casts and technicians, Ford was no company man. He reserved his greatest scorn for producers and usually found ways to keep them off his sets. Despite that reputation, he worked well in the studio system. When he encountered a producer with brains, such as Darryl F. Zanuck, he often took advice, and the movies the two made together are among Fordas best. Zanuckas tinkering with aMy Darling Clementinea didnat add anything, and the collectionas producers admit as much by allowing us to see Fordas cut without Zanuckas editing and his reflexive habit of smearing music over scenes that donat need it.

As big as it is, the ...