Hooray, Filmoteca Canaria is back, and so I was able to see the last feature from John Ford retrospective, rescheduled from 17 March — now with safety/social distancing measures in a friendly, Big-Brotherly way. Such as: when you buy a ticket, they take your name and telephone; the usher takes you to the seat (between the seats available for, er, sitting, there are at least three empty ones) and notes down the QR code of your ticket; you can visit the bathroom (thank goodness!) but you must return back to your seat; once you are seated, you can remove your face mask. With all that, I think there were no more and no fewer people than usual, that is, less than a half of 52 seats (that is the current “limited capacity” of Teatro Guiniguada) were occupied.
Once again, the “main” characters, portrayed by that James Stewart, as the man who shot Liberty Valance, John Wayne, as the man who actually shot Liberty Valance, and even Lee Marvin, as Liberty Valance himself, left me largely indifferent. Once again, the real stars are the Ford’s recurring supporting actors: that Vera Miles (The Searchers), Andy Devine (Stagecoach), and John Carradine (Stagecoach, The Grapes of Wrath). Plus hitherto unknown to me and absolutely brilliant Edmond O’Brien as an alcoholic newspaper editor, Mr. Peabody, and Ken Murray as his fellow drunkard doctor; this latter demonstrates his diagnostics genius in what I think is the best scene of the film.
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