The Tornado (1917 film)

The Tornado
Directed byJohn Ford
Written byGrace Cunard
Francis Ford
John Ford
StarringJohn Ford
Production
company
Distributed byUniversal Film Manufacturing Company
Release date
  • March 3, 1917 (1917-03-03)
Running time
2 reels (approximately 25 minutes)[a]
CountryUnited States
LanguagesSilent
English intertitles

The Tornado is a 1917 American short film directed and co-written by John Ford, who at that time was credited as "Jack Ford".[1][2][3][4] Filmed in California, the two-reel Western starred Ford as well, with a supporting cast that included Jean Hathaway, John Duffy, Peter Gerald, Elsie Thornton, and Duke Worne.[5][6][7] This short is generally cited by film historians to be Ford's debut film as a director, although he had served as an assistant director in some earlier productions directed by his elder brother Francis Ford.[8][9] Produced by Bison Motion Pictures and distributed by Universal Pictures, this short is currently classified as a lost film.[7][10]


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  1. ^ Levy 1998, p. 8, "Biography".
  2. ^ Levy 1998, p. 42, "Chronology".
  3. ^ Leonard, Suzanne; Tasker, Yvonne (November 20, 2014). "Classical Hollywood". In Kelly, Christopher (ed.). Fifty Hollywood Directors. Routledge. p. 101. ISBN 9781317593942.
  4. ^ Frankel 2013, p. 393, "Quanah Texas June 2011".
  5. ^ Grant, Barry Keith (2003). "Filmography". John Ford's Stagecoach. Cambridge University Press. p. 185. ISBN 9780521797436.
  6. ^ Levy 1998, p. 64, "Filmography".
  7. ^ a b Bogdanovich, Peter (1967). "Fords' Career Filmography". John Ford. University of California Press. p. 111.
  8. ^ Hughes, Howard (October 24, 2007). "There's a Hundred More Tombstones". Stagecoach to Tombstone: The Filmgoers' Guide to the Great Westerns. I.B.Tauris. p. 304. ISBN 9780857730466.
  9. ^ "'THE TRAIL OF HATE'", The Moving Picture Weekly, April 21, 1917, p. 29. Internet Archive, San Francisco, California. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
  10. ^ "Progressive Silent Film List: The Tornado". Silent Era. Retrieved February 22, 2008.