Tribute to John Wayne

[mrsl]

Now that it's nearly over, I have to give some acknowledgement to the Western Channel for their tribute to the Duke. There was a lot of repeat showings of the movies they chose, but that gave everyone a chance to see at their own leisure. I thoroughly enjoyed Chisum and The Searchers, as well as Angel and the Badman. I watched all of them several times, because of course, my VCR chose this week to break down on me.

In any case, they showed several vintage 1930-1937 Republic films starring a very young and handsome John Wayne, trim almost to the point of disbelief since most of us are used to the gruff and gnarled JW of Rio Bravo, and El Diablo.

In between movies they had several stories relayed by co-actors, and directors telling of practical jokes and secrets to his speech pattern and parental values. Aissa Wayne (the little blond girl from The Alamo) told a sweet story of how she could never cross his path without having to give him a kiss and/or hug, and if he caught her trying to get away without doing it . . she heard 'that voice', saying "get over here". His kid's memories were told with a simple honest truth, that showed in their eyes that they had fond memories of him and none of the rancor you see from the Fonda children.

He must have been a fine man and although I disagree with some of the things he did during the HUAC hearings - his goal was actually to rid H'wood of communism, not its' talent, and I believe in retrospect, in his quieter, soul-searching moments, he probably rued the methods used by the organizers of that period. Chris Mitchum (Bob's son) was also on explaining that although JW disapproved of the Vietnam War, he still felt our soldiers should be supported, much as I'm sure, he would be saying today.

I, for one will always love his movies, and the man himself, and since (as was pointed out) 27 years after his death, he was still on the top 10 favorite movie actors, I guess a lot of people feel the same way I do.

Anne

[jdb1]

Yes, Anne, I especially enjoyed seeing bits of the older films as I surfed around the various Wayne tributes.

I'm not an unqualified admirer of The Duke, but I do appreciate what he meant to Hollywood and to America. He really deserves the epithet "icon." His screen presence was so reassuring - it was a pleasure to see him vanquishing evil in so many disparate situations. And boy, howdy, he sure did make a whole big passel of movies, didn't he? The man certainly had a lot of energy.

[vallo]

While I don't get The Western Channel. I did watch a few of "The Dukes" films between TCM and AMC Channels. I also watched on Saturday night on PBS in New York ,"Red River" one of my favories westerns.
I enjoyed "The Shepherd of the Hills" . It was the first time I saw it. with Betty Field , Harry Carey and ( a fav) Beulah Bondi.

vallo

[inglis]

Hi People !
I really enjoyed watching the movies this past weekend and I felt all in all it was a great movie tribute to The Duke. There was one show on the history channel that I missed and just caught the tail end of it ,it had something to do with the films that were being made in the Nevada Desert during the nuclear testing . It was said that many stars got cancer and was thought to be that later on these cancers were caused by the radiation that they were exposed to during that time . John Wayne was mentioned Susan Hayward Maureen O'Hara as well as others . Did any body else see this documentary?

[movieman1957]

I didn't see that documentary but it has been well known that those that were on the set of "The Conqueror" by and large became ill with cancer from shooting on a former nuclear test site.

While Maureen O'Hara was not on that movie set people like Pedro Armanderiz and director Dick Powell were there. They both also died of cancer.

[Dewey1960]

Had a chance to watch a few of the very early Wayne westerns courtesy of the Western Channel. The one I enjoyed most was THE STAR PACKER; good action sequences which helped the film move along nicely. A few of the others were somewhat less satisfying (THE TRAIL BEYOND and DESERT TRAIL) but fun nonetheless in their own unpretentious way.

I suppose I appreciate Wayne the most in his films beginning with STAGECOACH (1939) and running (roughly) through THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (1962). Much of his later work suffers from pedantic filmmaking (with some notable exceptions, like THE SHOOTIST) rather than anything inherently wrong with his performances. All in all, one of Hollywood's and America's premiere icons.

[Lzcutter]

Carol,

I have not seen the documentary but there is a book titled The Day We Bombed Utah that talks about the devastating effects of being downwind in Southern Utah during the above ground testing at the Nevada Test Site.

There's an entire chapter devoted to The Conqueror shoot. When they were done shooting on location, the studio ordered the red dirt shipped back to the studio via truck so that it could be spread on the sound stage floor for the studio shooting that still needed to be done.

[inglis]

Carol,

I have not seen the documentary but there is a book titled The Day We Bombed Utah that talks about the devastating effects of being downwind in Southern Utah during the above ground testing at the Nevada Test Site.

There's an entire chapter devoted to The Conqueror shoot. When they were done shooting on location, the studio ordered the red dirt shipped back to the studio via truck so that it could be spread on the sound stage floor for the studio shooting that still needed to be done.

Thanks for this info Lynn .They showed some of the filming from that movie you mentioned .I would very much like to read that book.Thanks again Carol

[inglis]

I didn't see that documentary but it has been well known that those that were on the set of "The Conqueror" by and large became ill with cancer from shooting on a former nuclear test site.

While Maureen O'Hara was not on that movie set people like Pedro Armanderiz and director Dick Powell were there. They both also died of cancer.

.Well that is really sad I still can't believe how such a serious threat such as radiation could just be thrown to the wind so to speak . Thanks Chris for you input on this . sorry I had to edit as I spelled 2 words wrong here .

[MissGoddess]

I once again wish I had Encore's Western Channel just to have seen those tributes. Especially Aissa's. However, I think I'm going to order her book about her Dad which should be a nice read.

One regret: I stupidly set my vcr for the wrong time and recorded Big Jim McClain instead of Trouble Along the Way, which I've never seen. Dern it! Well, I'll just have to rent it on Netflix and if I really like it I may buy the set it comes in.

Miss G

[MissGoddess]

[mrsl]

Hey Miss Goddess (or should I say 'Blondie'):

I hope you can Netflix Trouble Along the Way, it's a little outlandish, but fun in it's way, and will endear you to JW more so.

I watched all of the JW movies on The Western Channel several times over because all of them become better with each viewing, especially the ones from the 50's and 60's. One that stood out (and I'm going to ask my kids to think about it at Christmas time for me), is Chisum.

For those of you who haven't seen it, JW plays Chisum. The movie starts and ends with the same scene. JW on a horse, on a hill, under a beautiful Oak tree, just looking over his ranch and it's land. Ben Johnson knows why he sits there, and joins him because they were together, getting there; building the ranch, fighting Indians, building the herd of both horses and cattle, and this final fight with a proposed land grabber. There is a lot of comedy relief with Ben talking under his breath, and JW saying 'What?', and Ben saying 'Oh nothin', then going on again. The point made is that they fought hard, and gained a lot, and did it all legally, now someone is going to try to take it away, yet JW continues to try to keep it legal, until the end when JW has had enough and says "I'm going to do what I would have done 25 years ago", in answer to the question "What's your plan?"

Through it all however, you learn of his regret that 'he left the girl behind', because the country was too rough for a woman, and now he has nobody to leave it to. But 'the girl' had a daughter, and during the movie, the grown up daughter comes to live with him, so now he has someone. Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett are played into the story as strangers who meet, and they handle most of the fighting, while JW tries to hold his temper even through the killing of his friend, and rustling of his horses, etc. The showdown at the end is great involving gunfights, a cattle stampede, and everybody gets his due.

I had never seen Chisum before (I don't know how not) but it has fast become a favorite after Librerty, and Stagecoach. I agree that Stagecoach was the true start of his career, but his previous 55 minute movies are fun and a kick to watch, not to mention how good looking JW was when they were made.

John Wayne was a movie star in every sense of the word, and deserves his 'icon' status for the hundreds of hours of enjoyment he gave us. I also have to say when The Western Channel give a tribute, they do it up right. Today they're running non stop Clint Eastwood for his 77th birthday.

Anne

[MissGoddess]

Hi Anne!

Believe it or not I have never seen CHISUM either! You make it sound like a movie I know I will like.

I know what you mean about how appealing he was in his youth---my breath was taken away at his beauty in The Big Trail. I could scarcely credit this was the same man. Not that I don't find him attractive in maturity.

I have attempted to make up for my past oversights by having added both Trouble Along the Way and Chisum to my Netflix queue.

Dare I confess I have also not seen BIG JAKE? What do you think of that one?

Cheers,

"Blondie"

[mrsl]

Okay, MISS GODDESS:

I'll behave from now on. To be honest, I haven't seen Big Jake in a long time, so I had to pull it up on imdB to refresh my memory. But as soon as I saw the name of Jake McCandles, I remembered and yes I did like it a lot! It's typical JW but with the added attraction of Miss O'Hara which many folks tend to forget when discussing the Wayne/O'Hara teamings. Now that you've reminded me, I always knew there was something there at the back of my mind niggling at me when talking about McClintock, and Big Jake is it. I preferred their reunion much more in BJ than MC. It's another JW rip roarin', rootin', tootin' example and I'm sure if you add it to your Netflix, you can count on a terrific John Wayne weekend.



Anne

[movieman1957]

If I may cut in.... Big Jake is very much in the style of Chisum. Duke playing Duke. Even though Maureen O'Hara is in Big Jake it amounts to little more than a cameo. She's in early and that's about it.

It does have the fun of "Name that Relative." Several of Wayne's children are in it. Chris Mitchum (Robert's son) is there. Richard Boone plays a perfectly nasty man. There are some familiar names in the cast. It's set in 1909 so there is a little modern (for 1909) technology thrown in. Enough fun to keep it going. It's an enjoyable film. If you like Chisum I think you would like this movie.