Legend has it that John Ford only became aware that his elder brother Francis was working in movies when he accidentally saw him in a Western showing at a local cinema. Whatever the truth of the matter, the younger Ford was in California in 1914 working for Francis, who by that time had his own production unit at Universal. The younger Ford would work in a number of capacities for both Francis and other directors, Allan Dwan among them, at Universal for the next three years, and he would later credit his elder brother as being the greatest of influences on his own directorial career. During this period, it is believed that John Ford acted in at least thirteen films, all of which were directed by Francis (when John himself turned director, in 1917,
he also acted in the first three of his films). With Francis as the titular bandit, and Grace Cunard as the heroine whom he promises to kiss, A Bandit’s Wager is possibly the only one of these films to survive (John appears as Cunard’s brother).

John Oliver