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The writer and film programmer Chris Cassingham returns to the podcast from Milwaukee to discuss one of John Ford’s greatest films, 1955’s The Long Gray Line, Ford’s only film shot in the CinemaScope format.

Starring Tyrone Power in one of his final films before his unexpected death at age 44, The Long Gray Line tells the true story of Marty Maher, a young Irish immigrant who arrived to the West Point military academy in the late 1800s and lived and worked there for 50 years, moving up from the kitchen to become a non-commissioned officer and athletic instructor and a beloved figure to generations of cadets. The film spans this half-century and the narrative evolves from a wacky comedy to a stark and tragic tale of loss, as Maher and his wife Mary (Maureen O’Hara) continue to age as the continuum of young cadets come and go, some to die in combat through the two World Wars. 

We talk about Ford’s innovations in the use of the then-new technology of CinemaScope, with his camera favouring the Z-axis (the depth of the widescreen image) to visually depict the theme of the film, life’s vanishing points, with a protagonist who slowly realizes the lack of control he has over his own life, a film certainly influential on Scorsese’s The Irishman, with Ford offering at once a tribute to West Point and a questioning of the futility of Maher’s task, a lifetime spent training young men to die for their country. 

Follow Chris Cassingham on Twitter and Bluesky and subscribe to his new substack Dark Optimism.

The Long Gray Line is currently available to watch for free (with ads) and in CinemaScope on YouTube and Tubi.

Trailer for The Long Gray Line (John Ford, 1955)