You may know Francis Ford for his roles as an old drunk veteran or crusty barkeep in more than twenty of director John Ford’s films, but you may not know that between 1910 and 1920 Francis Ford was a silent film star and renowned director of westerns, cliffhanger serials, mystery thrillers, and dramas.
This release presents four of his silent films in new 2K digital restorations by Undercrank Productions featuring new musical scores by Ben Model.
In 1918, Francis Ford used his movie fortune to start an independent company and produced the five-reel feature The Craving. A drama of obsession and addiction, The Craving demonstrates Ford’s abiding interest in the use of special effects like double and triple exposures to make psychologically-tormented characters face their fears and obsessions. He incorporated footage from his lost 1915 short of the Indian rebellion, The Campbells Are Coming, as well as found footage from other Universal films to craft a sharp criticism of the needless slaughter of troops in the first World War.
Also included in this collection are three short films: Ford’s one-reel western comedy produced by Gaston Melies’ Star Films company, When the Tables Turned (1911) co-starring Edith Storey; the two-reeler The Post Telegrapher made for the Bison Film Company; and the jewel thief caper Unmasked (1917), originally released in 1913 as The Black Masks, with the actress and scenarist Grace Cunard, who starred in dozens of Universal films with Ford.
The Craving (1918) – 52 mins
Unmasked (1917) – 11 mins
The Post Telegrapher (1912) – 24 mins
When the Tables Turned (1911) – 11 mins
Screen Snapshots (1920) excerpt – 2 mins
Bonus Feature: Francis Ford, Film Pioneer (2023) – 9 mins
Format: Blu-ray / DVD
107 mins ● B&W/tinted ● Silent with score (stereo) ● 1:33:1 aspect ratio ● Not Rated ● Region ABC (all-regions) for Blu-ray ● NTSC Region free for DVD
An Undercrank Productions release. Produced for Home Video by Kathryn Fuller-Seeley and Ben Model.
Associate Producer: Crystal Kui.
Release date: July 2024
Pre-ordering available July 1 at:
Reviews
“Ben Model’s Undercrank Productions has once again sifted through the annals of film’s rich origins and, with producer and Ford scholar Kathryn Fuller-Seeley, worked to digitally restore and release a key Francis Ford feature as well as a grouping of shorts….”
—Jeremy Carr, Film International
“Thanks to this embarrassment of riches, we’re a little closer to a full appreciation of an important, and too nearly forgotten, pioneer of American film.”
—J.B. Kaufman
“A film like ‘The Post Telegrapher’ gives insight to brother John’s career. We can see how lyrical compositions like the romantic couple billing and cooing to one side as masses of soldiers array across the screen’s background would reverberate, for example, in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949). The later film is more coherent and successful, but Francis Ford’s impact on John becomes too clear to be overlooked.”
—Michael Barrett, PopMatters
“Mixing anti-war sentiment and a prohibition propaganda with flights of fancy and experimental special effects is an odd combination, but Francis Ford manages to pull it off and create the captivating and quite entertaining 1918 silent feature The Craving, newly released on Blu-ray from Undercrank Productions.”
—Phil Bailey, Ink19