Here are the Film Facts for this film, from Clive Woollands (see this post for more information) -
Howdy folks, here we are again. Another Film Fact, this time for the
classic, Fort Apache. I hope you like it.
Producers: Merian C. Cooper, John Ford, Screenplay: Frank S. Nugent,
Cinematographer: Archie Stout, Art Director: Jack Murray,
Distribution: RKO Pictures, Location: Monument Valley, Cost of
Production: $2.5 million, Box office takings: $3 million, Date of
production: 1948.
Former child star Shirley Temple had worked with John Ford once before in 1937's Wee Willie Winkie. Pregnant during some of the filming, Fort Apache was one of her final films. Unable to successfully make the shift to a grown up acting career, she made
just four more films before retiring from the screen in 1950. That same year she divorced John Agar and married San Francisco businessman Charles Black. He claimed never to have seen any of her movies.
James Bellah, writer of the story `Massacre' that Fort Apache was based on, also wrote the stories that inspired She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande. He later wrote the screenplay for The Man who Shot Liberty Valence (1962).
Fans of the James Bond films might recognise Mexican actor Pedro Armendariz, who played Sgt Beaufort in Fort Apache. His final film role – shot while he was suffering from terminal cancer – was an MI6 agent Karim Bey in 1963's From Russia With Love.
Victor McLaglen, who plays Sgt Festus Mucahy, was actually a sergeant in the British Army in the 1920's.
Fort Apache was John Agar's first movie role. He went on to make six more films with John Wayne, including She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, the second film in Ford's Cavalry trilogy.
