"
The Invaders" is a 1912
American silent
Western film directed by
Francis Ford and
Thomas H. Ince.
Ince was an American silent film actor, director, screenwriter and producer of more than
100 films and pioneering studio mogul. Known as the "
Father of the
Western", he invented many mechanisms of professional movie production, introducing early
Hollywood to the "assembly line" system of film making. He wrote the screenplay for
The Italian (
1915), and directed
Civilization (
1916), both films selected for preservation by the
United States National Film Registry. He was a partner with
D.W. Griffith and
Mack Sennett in the
Triangle Motion Picture Company, and built his own studios in
Culver City, which later became the legendary home of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Ince is also known for his death aboard the yacht of
William Randolph Hearst; officially he died of heart trouble, but Hollywood rumor of the time suggested he had been shot by Hearst in a dispute over actress
Marion Davies.
Francis Ford (born
Francis Feeney, August 14, 1881 --
September 5,
1953) was a prolific film actor, writer, and director. He was the mentor and elder brother of film director
John Ford. He also appeared in many of John Ford's movies, including
Young Mr. Lincoln and
The Quiet Man.
Ford acted in over 400 films altogether, with many of his early credits poorly-documented and likely lost. Ambitious and prolific, in
Ford's early work he cast himself as
George Armstrong Custer,
Sherlock Holmes (with his younger brother as
Dr. Watson), and
Abraham Lincoln, a role which he specialized in. By 1912 Ford was directing alongside
Thomas Ince. It rapidly became clear that Ince was routinely taking credit for Ford's work, so Ford moved to
Universal in early 1913. His 1913
Lucille Love, Girl of Mystery was Universal's first serial, and the first of a string of very popular serials starring Ford's collaborator and lover
Grace Cunard. The 1915 serial
The Broken Coin was expanded from 15 to 22 episodes by popular demand, probably the height of Ford's career.
In
1917 Ford founded a short-lived independent company, Fordart Films, which released the
1918 Berlin via
America with
Phil Kelly, and briefly opened his own studio at
Sunset Boulevard and
Gower Street. At the same time Ford mentored his younger brother, collaborating frequently as writers, directors, and actors in each other's projects; but as early as 1917, it was clear that
John's star was on the rise.
Frank's directorial style remained suitable for serials, but failed to evolve. Ford's final known directoral credit is for the 1928
The Call of the
Heart, a 50-minute vehicle for "
Dynamite the
Devil Dog".
The Ford brothers were, at the best of times, critical of each other, and sometimes sharply antagonistic. Ford wrote an unpublished memoir in 1934 called "
Up and Down the
Ladder" which is "filled with bitter and sometimes heartrending complaints about how old-timers who had helped create the industry had been shunted aside by younger men." From the late
1920s, and for the next two decades, Ford sustained a career as a grizzled character actor and bit player. He is often uncredited, as in his appearance in
James Whale's 1931
Frankenstein. Among his most memorable roles was that of the demented old man in
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943).
Resources: wikipedia.org, archive.org, imdb.com
New soundtrack and dubbing: Cinemateca
Music:
Kevin MacLeod (incompetch.com) licensed under
Creative Commons licence:
Attribution 3.0 Unported (
CC BY 3.0).
- published: 08 Sep 2013
- views: 4534