John Ford connections with Australia

Just finished Scott Eyman’s biography of John Ford, though I’d do a top ten. My top ten of films probably too obvious so here’s a top ten of John Ford connections with Australia

1) He directed Rod Taylor in Young Cassidy (1965), before falling ill and being replaced by Jack Cardiff - Ford and Taylor got along very well and I wish Taylor had hired Ford to make Chuka, Taylor’s attempt at producing
2) Ford was BFFs with Frank Baker, an Aussie in Hollywood (brother of Snowy Baker) - he worked for Ford for a number of years as an assistant and actor
3) Aussie John Farrow directed Hondo (1953) but star John Wayne disliked his work and got in Ford to shoot some extra footage
4) Donovan’s Reef (1963) - Ford directed South Sea shenanigans features some Australian sailors all played by Americans
5) They Were Expendable (1945) - tale of the US defeat in the Philippines includes a sequence where General MacArthur is taken off the island and sent to Australia

6) Before and during Maureen O'Hara was making Kangaroo (1952) in Australia, she says Ford sent her a series of very inappropriate love letters which O'Hara put down in part to the fact he was envisioning her in The Quiet Man (O'Hara later claims she busted Ford making out with a male actor so anyway...)

7) In the late 1940s Ford explored making a Western style film set in Australia Stingaree based on the novel of the same name

8) The Long Voyage Home (1940) had for some reason censorship troubles in Australia (https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/167432598?searchTerm=%22john%20ford%22%20director%20australia)

9) Prisoner of Shark Island has two Aussies in the cast - JP McGowan and OP Heggie

10) Australian doco Kokoda Front Line won the Oscar for Best Documentary - but had to share it with Ford's Battle of Midway (and Moscow Strikes Back and Prelude to War - they couldn't make up their mind)