Week of the Duke
Posted: April 24th, 2014, 5:42 pm
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I'm loving this week with John Wayne. Although I have the DVD of all the early 1930's movies, it was still fun to watch them earlier this week. That crazy music they play during traveling scenes makes me laugh every time. It is catchy though because I find myself humming it later. Boy those were really baaaaddd movies, but good training ground I guess. It's where JW formulated his unique walk, talk, and levels of emotions, be it anger, happy, love, or funny. In some ways those early films are like early Gene Autry except Gene's were a bit more professionally filmed and directed, as well as his leading ladies who were generally Ann Rutherford, and Ann Davis with an occasional Ann Sheridan thrown in (I guess the person in charge of casting liked the name Ann). As for the Duke however, who would ever believe that stiff, uncomfortable guy would work up to being America's favorite cowboy wo was able to seem like he wasn't acting at all.
I missed a lot of the 40's due to doctor visits and a bit of shopping, but I did catch Reunion in France with Joan Crawford which I saw a while ago but only in bits and pieces. This time I saw the whole thing and was able to finally catch up on what was actually going on. Never being a big Crawford fan, I would have preferred someone else in the part. After all she was supposed to be a French woman, so why not someone like Ingrid Bergman who had an accent at least, and was more likely to have two men fall in love with her.
Well, late tonight is Reap the Wild Wind, one of my favorites where JW is not a cowboy but with two more of my faves - Ray Milland, and Paulette Goddard, the only problem with this one is JW dies in the end. Another I like a lot is Shepherd of the Hills, also recording tonight, so some time over the weekend, I'll have a couple of the Dukes movies to relax with.
How have the rest of you enjoyed or disliked this week? Have you had any favorites playing?
.
I'm loving this week with John Wayne. Although I have the DVD of all the early 1930's movies, it was still fun to watch them earlier this week. That crazy music they play during traveling scenes makes me laugh every time. It is catchy though because I find myself humming it later. Boy those were really baaaaddd movies, but good training ground I guess. It's where JW formulated his unique walk, talk, and levels of emotions, be it anger, happy, love, or funny. In some ways those early films are like early Gene Autry except Gene's were a bit more professionally filmed and directed, as well as his leading ladies who were generally Ann Rutherford, and Ann Davis with an occasional Ann Sheridan thrown in (I guess the person in charge of casting liked the name Ann). As for the Duke however, who would ever believe that stiff, uncomfortable guy would work up to being America's favorite cowboy wo was able to seem like he wasn't acting at all.
I missed a lot of the 40's due to doctor visits and a bit of shopping, but I did catch Reunion in France with Joan Crawford which I saw a while ago but only in bits and pieces. This time I saw the whole thing and was able to finally catch up on what was actually going on. Never being a big Crawford fan, I would have preferred someone else in the part. After all she was supposed to be a French woman, so why not someone like Ingrid Bergman who had an accent at least, and was more likely to have two men fall in love with her.
Well, late tonight is Reap the Wild Wind, one of my favorites where JW is not a cowboy but with two more of my faves - Ray Milland, and Paulette Goddard, the only problem with this one is JW dies in the end. Another I like a lot is Shepherd of the Hills, also recording tonight, so some time over the weekend, I'll have a couple of the Dukes movies to relax with.
How have the rest of you enjoyed or disliked this week? Have you had any favorites playing?
.