The Fugitive. 1947. Mexico/USA. Directed by John Ford. Screenplay by Dudley Nichols, based on the novel The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene. Cinematography by Gabriel Figueroa. With Henry Fonda, Dolores del Río, Pedro Armendáriz. 35mm. 104 min.
In 1946, John Ford effectively took over the crew of his friend and fellow spirit Fernández—including stars Dolores del Río, Pedro Armendáriz, and Miguel Inclán, and cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa—and, with Fernández acting as his “first lieutenant,” filmed this abstract, ambitious work on locations in Mexico and at the Churubusco Studios. Ostensibly an adaptation of Graham Greene’s unfilmably scandalous The Power and the Glory, it derives many of its plot points from Ford’s 1935 The Informer, though the film’s ultimate subject is the Mexican landscape, as explored in all of its compositional possibilities by the incomparable duo of Ford and Figueroa.