JOHN FORD FREAK

I inherit some neat VHS tapes from people who upgrade to DVD. Someone I know recently handed me a box of store-bought "Abbott and Costello" TV shows! I'd never seen any of these treasures. (I grew up in the Philadelphia viewing area.) Joe Besser as Stinky is so bizarre and hilarious, words can't do it justice.

A friend I'll call John Ford Freak recently upgraded to DVD, and decided that I must inherit his Ford VHS's. "You'll love these," he insisted, although I've never really felt a connection with the Ford westerns. I always thought they were too old-fashioned. I think my Dad may have liked them. I did appreciate "The Lost Patrol" thanks to its manic Boris Karloff performance; I adore "The Informer" because it's a compelling drama; and I've always loved John Wayne, if not necessarily his westerns.

Anyway, John Ford Freak not only gave me this huge stack of Fords, he even told me the order in which to watch them. I've got three down so far, and of course, I'm in love. I've watched "The Searchers," "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" and "Rio Grande." Wayne is great, but he's no match for Victor McLaglen, who effortlessly steals every scene he's in. And Maureen O'Hara is, as the Duke astutely observes in "Rio Grande," a "fine figure of a woman." But this we knew from the Charles Laughton "Hunchback of Notre Dame" and especially "Miracle on 34th Street."