F e b r u a r y / M a r c h 2 0 1 8 3 3 Legends ten by Arthur Miller) and The Searchers. I haven’t seen The Misfits in a long while, and don’t know if Huston or Miller had Ford’s film in mind, but both have an autumnal feel–the end of the wildness of the West (a theme Ford also explores in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence). The only things real- ly wild in The Misfits are the mustangs, and as I recall, there’s a feeling that the charac- ters are already all used up. Ethan Edwards, who represents that wildness in The Search- ers, is out of place and nearly out of time, as the West increasingly belongs to the home- steaders, the farmers, the ranchers. 3. That famous threshold image that opens and closes The Searchers… Yes, it’s a powerful and influen- tial image, seen most recently in the 2017 Western Hostiles–which I have yet to see, but in the trailer it shows a cowboy framed in just the same way. I suggest that Ford may have borrowed the image from Mi- chael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s wonderful 1945 film I Know Where I’m Going, where the heroine (Wendy Hill- er) is twice framed in doorways, signify- ing life-changing decisions. That’s purely speculation on my part, and come to think of it, we see a powerful threshold image in Stagecoach, released in 1939. 4. Regarding the echoes of work- ing-class Portland, my book was limited to the Ford-Wayne West- erns, so I don’t really explore How Green Was My Valley or The Quiet Man, but Ford once said that the Welsh setting for Val- ley could have stood in for any Irish town, and of course The Quiet Man reflects his fascination and pride in his Irish immi- grant roots. The protagonist, Sean Thorn- ton–a boxer!–played by John Wayne, is an alter ego for Ford (Sean being an Irish equivalent of John). Ford did love box- ers, and that’s part of the appeal of Vic- tor McLaglen, who won an Oscar for The Informer, and who then appeared in mostly comic roles in Ford’s cav- alry trio. Clearly, there was a love of the gusto and ca- maraderie in saloons–preferably frequent- ed by Irish and Irish immigrants, which he grew up with in Portland where his father owned a bar. unforgettable The disturbing shot of Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) framed in an open doorway at the end of The Searchers (above) became an enduring –and often copied– cinematic image. In an article entitled “The Doorway Shot,” The Huffington Post examines how Ford’s iconic frame has been echoed by a new generation of directors, citing scenes from Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill and Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. Right: YoucanrentTheFordHouseat33GreatPondRoadon PeaksIsland,withcinematicviewsof CascoBay,for$230 pernight.Ford’sfatherboughtthesummerhomein1902. Above:TheGemTheateronPeakswhereFordworkedasanusher. “I like the old masters, by which I mean John Ford, John Ford, and John Ford.” –Orson Welles