Which John Ford film was his last directorial feature?

John Ford’s last directorial feature was 7 Women, released in 1966. Set at a Christian mission in China during a period of political and military unrest, the drama centers on the women whose survival depends on the arrival of Dr. D. R. Cartwright, played by Anne Bancroft.

The film was based on Norah Lofts’s short story “Chinese Finale” and was produced by Ford and Bernard Smith. Its production was difficult: Patricia Neal was originally cast as the doctor but suffered a stroke after three days of filming, and Bancroft replaced her. Ford completed the picture as his final feature after a directing career spanning more than five decades.

7 Women is often overlooked beside Ford’s better-known Westerns and Irish dramas, but it is a striking late work with a tense, bleak tone. Cheyenne Autumn, Donovan’s Reef, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance were earlier Ford films, not his last. Ford did not make another theatrical feature after 7 Women.