John Ford's lesser known masterpiece, full of expressionist touches, The Fugitive might be an allegorical warning for communist rule and its story conclusion might be too predictive, nevertheless the film contains a great cinematography by legendary cinematographer, Gabriel Figueroa, excellent performances from all participating actors/actresses and the great sincerity in the manner, which the story is told. Henry Fonda is magnificent as always as cowardly priest, who wants to be a martyr, but has an irresistible impulse to stay alive, almost no matter what. He tries to avoid authority of unnamed Latin country, where the priests are executed and tries to escape by steamboat. A boy approaches him, calls "father" and asks him to follow. boy's mother is dying. Boy's words are muted by steamboat's whistle. The priest overcomes the impulse and follows him, but has no wine and goes out to get it. He purchases wine from bootleggers. The priest watches two men, while they're drinking the wine, which meant to be used for sacraments, while somewhere boy's mother vainly waits for her last communion. He suffers spiritually, because he can't tell who he is.Dolores del Rio, which was a silent movie's Latina beauty, plays an Indian woman, Maria Dolores. Despite the fact, that she's good-looking yet, Ford is not interested in her sexuality. While she dances before sergeant, in order to hide the priest, her dance is not seductive for us. Ford portrays the scene from low angle. Dolores' bare feet are visible (visibly, middle-aged woman's feet), but they don't belong to seductress, they belong to martyr, in a sort of way. At the story's end, Fonda's character overcomes his fear of death and calmly follows his executioners. The governor is satisfied. At last, they caught the last priest in the country, as he says. In the church, Women are praying for the priest, someone knocks on door, women turn their heads toward the source of noise. The door opens, enters the man and says: "I'm your new priest..." Ford had a Catholic upbringing and faith, which is obvious in his many films and in this one too. He tried to show, that man's faith is stronger, than even the fear of death. The movie contains religious symbolism, sometimes trivial, but essential to the story and the main character's development.In conclusion, I can say, that every admirer of John Ford and the cinema generally, should watch this beautifully staged and photographed drama.

In his interviews with such well-meaning young aesthetes as Peter Bogdanovich, John Ford always chose to play dumb --portraying himself as a tough no-nonsense, hard-drinking old Irishman who just happened to "make Westerns." That lovable wise man with his mono-syllabic answers to their solemn questions, the drink in hand, the patch over one eye, pretended to have no idea whatsoever what those intellectuals from film school and glossy magazines were talking about. But as this film demonstrates, under that gruff exterior old man Ford obviously had once had a hidden desire to do what all the kids were trying to do a generation later -–i.e. make Cinema Art with a capitol "C" and a capitol "A." This film made under the banner of his own Argosy Productions is, sad to say, not Ford at his best. It's too bad because at his best, at his greatest, he was a supremely gifted visual story-teller who rarely drew attention to himself and his effects. This ponderously paced film, aglow with the heavenly light created by the Mexican cinematographer, Gabriel Figueroa, and the syrupy old-fashioned symphonic score by Richard Hageman is always on the brink of sentimental piety and artistic pretension; often it falls flat on its face or over the edge. Figueroa who started as an Edward Tisse's assistant on Eisenstein's Mexican experiment "Che Viva Mexico" indulges in the same lined-faces of the noble peons style of photography that we see in that arty Russian film. How different then is the work of Ford's occasional collaborator, the great Greg Toland (said to have mentored Figueroa as well) who photographed "Long Voyage Home" and "Grapes of Wrath," as well as Welles' "Citizen Kane." In those films, the shadows and light serve the story, but in this one Figueroa's photography, however beautiful to see, simply overtakes the film by exaggerating all the absurd Sunday School symbolism.

RKO RADIO Pictures presents An ARGOSY PICTURES/PRODUCTA MEX DESCONCIDA Production, THE FUGITIVE, Directed by John Ford, Written by Dudley Nichols, Based on the Novel "The Power and the Glory" by Graham Greene. Produced by John Ford, Merrion C. Cooper & Emilio Fernandez. Starring Henry Fonda, Dolores Del Rio and Pedro Armendariz. With: J. Carroll Nash, Leo Carillo, Ward Bond, Robert Armstrong, John Qualen, Fortunio Bonanova, Chris-Pin Martin, Miguel Indclan, Fernando Fernandez, Rodolfo Acosta, Mel Ferrer, Jack Pennick, Jose Torvay.It's always a great experience to "find" a hereto for unknown film, that is a title that we know very little about, if even of it's existence. Somehow or other we had never come across it, then suddenly, SHAZAM!, it's there! Such a film is this John Ford production of THE FUGITIVE. It happened about a year or two ago. There was a full blown outbreak of Insomnia in our household. This had to be on the overnight time between Fri-Sat or Sat-Sun. During those two late night periods, our ABC TV Affiliate shows old movies under the banner of Late Night Movie and Insomniac Theatre. The vast majority of films have been in their library since about ca. 1958. The bulk are from 1930's to the early 1950's RKO RADIO Pictures output. They had been released to the Television market as a huge package deal. And they were assembled under the umbrella title of "Movietime USA". (A lot of stations must still be exhibiting these films, which usually have "Movietime USA Presents" title cards replacing the RKO Radio Pictures traditional opening with the Trade Mark broadcasting Radio Tower.)Well, this movie came on and made us glad that we couldn't sleep. From its very beginning, the beautiful B&W Cinematography of some of the most beautiful locations, just grabs you in keeps you interest, piquing it all the while that its story is unfolded. And the scenario is not an original, made for screen play, being an adaptation of the Graham Greene novel, "The Power and the Glory".In the novel, the locale is described as a mythical Latin American country. But, Mr. Greene, without being explicit, leaves no doubt that the real location is in Mexico. And the screen version follows the lead, and makes it everything that is Mexican, but without a name.The tense, ever tense story starts out with a unit of Mounted Police, entering a village of mostly peasants, in search of an outlawed Catholic Priest, believed to be in the area. This is set in a time when the Church was designated as an illegal, outlawed organization and was persecuted mercilessly. The commanding Police Lieutennant(Pedro Armendariz), seems particularly driven, even to the point of being fanatically determined to capture and see each and every Priest in his State* executed by the firing squad.The story, as one may expect, portrays the degradation and hardships that the unnamed Padre (Mr. Fonda) endures in order to evade capture, imprisonment and a certain terminal rendezvous with the firing squad. And everywhere, complications enter the picture; a treacherous stool pigeon (J. Carroll Nash), a desperate, but beautiful Indian Lady (Dolores Del Rio), a Yankee Desperado/un Ladrone Yanquis(Ward Bond) all get wrapped up in complicating the safety of the Priest.But, danger is part of the job, reasons the Priest, who returns to the scene of his "Crimes", in order to serve his congregation. The story begs the question to the Priest and, indeed to all of us; would we do the "right thing", if we were put into such a position.Truly, THE FUGITIVE presents us with a John Ford Film of the greatest magnitude. It has none of the humor of the human race as portrayed in THE QUIET MAN, RIO GRANDE, THE LAST HURRAH or even THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE. But it does give us a full view of Humanity from a most serious perspective, much in the manner of his 1935 Oscar winning THE INFORMER.It indeed is a one of a kind movie. We can not think of any movie to which this could be categorized or classified. The power of the scenes, the rapidity of scene shifting and the power of the acting all keep our interest beginning to end. As a matter of fact, the great scenes are so animated and unsubtly done, with such greater than life, even operatic style as to render it a candidate for a silent version. Just watch it and see super-animated scene after scene.And much like Mr. Charles Chaplin, Pappy Ford renders his tale even more universal by designated titles, rather than names. Other than James Calvert, aka 'el Gringo'(Ward Bond) and Father Sierra (Jose Ferrer), there are no names. And this, Schultz, qualifies this as being described as being "Chaplinesque."The film ends up by, at first, seemingly in tragedy; but there is a sudden about face with a hopeful (if not exactly totally happy) ending. This is a great example of Film being made with love, care, purpose and a Spiritual Wish for a brighter future for all.NOTE * The term of State is used here as in our United States of America; for in our own Western Hemisphere, we have 2 other countries' that use this "State" as we do. In South America we have The United States of Brazil and just below our Southern Border, we have The United States of Mexico. Honestly!

It's easy to see why THE FUGITIVE was a critical and commercial box-office failure. For some reason, none of Graham Greene's novels transfer well to the screen. The somber stories are all too melodramatic and heavy-handed, and this is no exception. Furthermore, in the role of the fugitive priest south of the border, HENRY FONDA looks decidedly uncomfortable throughout.This time John Ford struck out. The story is drab, downbeat and depressing--and both HENRY FONDA and DOLORES del RIO seem to be acting for the camera in a style that approaches silent screen acting in the worst possible way--especially during the opening scene. Del Rio is so artificial, she seems to be posing dramatically for every close-up.Even PEDRO ARMENDARIZ overdoes the villainous swagger and sneer and J. CARROL NAISH overacts in the role of an informant. Between acting styles and the extravagant use of symbolism, this is a film of many flaws, most of them in the direction and heavy-handed script.A critical failure at the time, it is in no way the masterpiece some are calling it among the user comments here.No Ford film would be complete without WARD BOND turning up as "El Gringo". At least he gives the film a touch of grim realism. The busy background score by Richard Hageman is no help at all and seems more appropriate for the score of a silent film.