7 Women (1966)

Directed by John Ford. Starring Anne Bancroft, Margaret Leighton, Sue Lyon, Mildred Dunnock, Betty Field, Flora Robson, Anna Lee, Eddie Albert, Mike Mazurki, Jane Chang, Hans William Lee, Woody Strode.

John Ford’s final film isn’t one of his best, but still worthwhile, transposing many of his most common themes into a mission post in 1930s China that’s dominated by Christian women (Mongols also replace Indians as the chief outsider threat, and even exhibit similar behavior under his tutelage). Playing a free-thinking and strong-willed doctor who’s disdainful of religion, Bancroft butts heads with morally-uptight autocrat Leighton, head of the mission; the other five ladies are more feebly drawn, but have their moments, including a middle-aged woman (Field) dangerously carrying a child to term, and a young staff member (Lyon) who sees Leighton as a mother-figure, even though Leighton not-so-subtly sees Lyon as something else. Holds interest throughout, but second half is undoubtedly the weaker side (despite having the more exploitable sense of conflict and tension); boorish depiction of the enemy menace and the irrationality of Leighton’s puritanical neurosis make for laughable melodrama. Elmer Bernstein composed the film score.

68/100