One of my fondest memories of growing up was hanging out with my brothers and Dad watching Advance to the Rear starring Glenn Ford. He made other movies I watched and enjoyed but for sly, understated, yet somehow still outrageous humor that one might be a quiet favorite. Certainly even now, probably over a decade since my last viewing, I still quote the stray line or two from it..."All I said was mount" being a particular favorite. Dad will still occasionally break loose with a head nodding, finger pointing gesture towards noplace in particular in reference to a memorable scene from the movie in which a soldier trying to explain felling the battlefield when a horse goes out of control just caught our funny bone. And the arsonist...bells ringing, lights flashing...one of the great depictions.
Of course, Ford did a serious role pretty well. Naturally he is more noticed for his roles in a couple of classic social justice films, the thought-provoking Blackboard Jungle and the Sidney Poitier power classic Heat of the Night. But for me the quintessential Ford role will always be the laconic cavalry man watching in bemused horror as his band of misfits is launched from their horses. Glenn Ford, rest in peace.
4 years ago
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