Abandoned by MGM at the time of its release, and mostly relegated to the second half of double bills, Ford’s last feature is one of the great “final” films and a significant departure. Based on Norah Lofts’ story about a Christian mission on the China-Mongolia border in the 1930s during a time of murderous conflict, Ford’s deeply interior, proto-feminist, radical and reactionary treatment caps the last phase of his career and its conscious revisioning of the themes of gender, race, colonialism, and American exceptionalism and myth. Its remarkable multi-generational cast features Anne Bancroft, Margaret Leighton, Sue Lyon, Flora Robson, Eddie Albert and Woody Strode.
About Melbourne Cinémathèque
Australia's longest-running film society, Melbourne Cinémathèque screens significant works of international cinema in the medium they were created, the way they would have originally screened.
Melbourne Cinémathèque is self-administered, volunteer-run, not-for-profit and membership-driven.
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