(For an explanation of the Forgotten Films project, go here.)
You’d think that John Ford’s final narrative film would have
greater visibility -- especially since a number of influential film writers consider
it to be one of the director’s finest. But it’s
very hard to see, with no DVD of it available. (TCM does show it from time to
time, and there was a widescreen laserdisc from MGM available back in the 90s.)
It was a financial disaster upon its release, relegated to the bottom half of a
double bill with The Money Trap -- this despite the fact that many influential
critics and filmmakers of the 1960s were at that moment naming Ford as one
of their greatest influences. Why, then, the widespread indifference to 7 Women?
Perhaps because it seems, on its surface, such a departure from the
prototypical Ford film.
