TSPDT

Key Production Country: USA
Key Genres: Drama, Film Noir, Adventure, Action, Psychological Thriller, War Drama, Crime Thriller
Key Collaborators: Eda Warren (Editor), Hans Dreier (Production Designer), Victor Young (Composer), Franz Bachelin (Production Designer), Jonathan Latimer (Screenwriter), Luis Van Rooten (Character Actor), William Bendix (Leading Actor), John F. Seitz (Cinematographer), Robert Mitchum (Leading Actor), Ray Milland (Leading Actor), Alan Ladd (Leading Actor), Brian Donlevy (Leading Actor)

"Farrow was educated in Australia and at Winchester. He was originally a writer: of stage plays and, from 1927, of movie scripts… He seems one of the more engaging, enterprising, and critically neglected of entertainment directors… The lack of authenticity or thrill in Botany Bay ill befits an Australian. But Two Years Before the Mast, Blaze of Noon, The Big Clock, Alias Nick Beal, Where Danger Lives, His Kind of Woman, Ride, Vaquero!, Hondo, and Back from Eternity are films that do not fit readily into any genre, and that are worth staying up late for. Farrow never scorned adventure movies, or missed a chance to add an extra imaginative character to them. The Big Clock and Alias Nick Beal are thrillers with a serious interest in evil. Hondo is a Western with rare emphasis on psychology and atmosphere." - David Thomson (The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, 2010)

"History has largely ignored John Farrow. Despite the Marrickville-born film-maker carving out a staggering body of work – directing about 50 features for major US studios and working with stars including John Wayne and Bette Davis – it’s as though he barely even existed, beyond his name appearing in credits. The story of cinema is punctuated by those who rise to fame while countless others are relegated to the ash heap of history… Many of Farrow’s films were well reviewed and he received two Oscar nominations: for best director (1942’s Wake Island) and best adapted screenplay (1956’s Around the World in 80 Days). The director belongs to a famous lineage, being the father of the actor Mia Farrow and the grandfather of Ronan and Dylan Farrow." - Luke Buckmaster (The Guardian, 2021)

"The pacing of a typical Farrow entry is sometimes enough to make it impotent, but the director did lense some stylish action dramas, where plot mixes well with atmosphere and detailed characterizaation." - William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978)

"Even in film circles, John Farrow is pretty much unknown in Australia. But almost 60 years after his death, the product of Marrickville in Sydney’s inner west remains easily the country’s most prolific filmmaker in Hollywood. He directed almost 50 movies, produced six and wrote more than 25 screenplays – winning an Oscar – before dying from a heart attack in 1963. Dynamic, driven and prone to telling spectacularly tall stories about his life, Farrow is part of a famous Hollywood family… Outside movies, Farrow wrote eight books, including a collection of poetry and a history of the Popes. He became a Commander in the Canadian Navy during World War II. He won an OBE and a Papal knighthood." - Garry Maddox (The Sydney Morning Herald, 2021)

"Though a minor film-maker usually restrained by B-movie budgets, John Villiers Farrow often made stylish, inventive films. In the late '40s and early '50s, few directors depicted evil so subtly… Farrow's talent has been sadly overshadowed by the fact that he was Maureen O'Sullivan's husband and Mia Farrow's father. His films reveal a dark wit, an ability to create genuinely sinister moods and a readiness to experiment with genre often lacking in better known directors. His inventiveness deserves reappraisal." - Geoff Andrew (The Film Handbook, 1989)