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Reviews
Alcoa Premiere: Flashing Spikes (1962)
Other John Ford TV work
"Flashing Spikes" is a fine, rare John Ford-directed TV gem. Jimmy Stewart (soon to appear in Ford's "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance") gives a fine performance as a disgraced ex-baseball player who finds redemption after befriending a young protégé, played by Patrick Wayne. It is not, however, Ford's only TV work.
On the same DVD with "Flasing Spikes" that I acquired via EBay, there's a Ford-directed 30-minute anthology short story from 1955 called "Rookie of the Year." John Wayne, Pat Wayne (again), Ward Bond, Vera Miles & other Ford Stock Co. types are in the cast. Good, although "Flashing Spikes" is better.
IMDb.com also lists Ford directing a Jane Wyman-hosted anthology show episode, of which I'm not familiar. Poignantly, Ford also directed an episode of "Wagon Train" from 1960 with his old friend Bond. Bond died of a heart attack on Nov. 5, 1960, and the Wagon Train episode aired on NBC apx. 2 weeks after Bond's death. Hopefully that episode is available somewhere.
Again, EBay has the DVD of the two baseball stories available on a regular basis. Not top-shelf material like "Stagecoach" or "The Searchers," and they don't have to be. Good TV's worthy of Ford's "second shelf," trust me. :-)