Duke's Movie Screen Deaths.

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  • There is actually one more movie that I know about. When duke was really young he was cast a a corpse for Columbia( im not sure of the title) duke was so annoyed at the disgusting way he was treated at columbia that he never worked for them again which shows what a real man he is even though he had to turn down some big roles. I dont know if this film counts or not as one in which he dies in but I thought I'd let you know!!!



    The last movie Duke was in with Columbia pictures was Two-Fisted Law released August 30, 1932. I don't know anything about the picture that tells me if Duke was a corpse or not . . .



    I have "Two-Fisted Law" and he doesn't die in this one.



    Here is the answer you were looking for. The movie was THE DECEIVER (1931) - Ian Keith played Thorp in this film and John Wayne took over when this character became a corpse.



    Here's a little more information to clarify this situation.

    According to Fred Landesman's The John Wayne Filmography , The Deceiver is the film in which John Wayne appeared only as a corpse, as Hondo stated above. Here's what Fred says, in the "Notes" section -

    Quote

    Wayne's only role in this film was to appear as a coprse. He suffered the indignity of lying on the floor, replacing actor Ian Keith. Despite pleading from the studio, Wayne would never again appear in a Columbia film.



    But he was most definitely in Two-Fisted Law (1932), right? Well, Two-Fisted Law may not have been released until August 30, 1932, but it was filmed a year earlier. Again, quoting Fred Landesman -

    Quote

    Filmed in one week, during the late summer of 1931, at a negative cost of $20,000, this modest Western ended up on the tail-end of double-bills in many theaters.



    The Deceiver was released in November 1931, but presumably was filmed AFTER Two-Fisted Law, making Wayne's threat to never work for them again real.

    Thanks again to Fred Landesman's book!

    Mrs. C :angel1:

  • As we already had in the Movie Reviews a more recent larger
    'sticky' thread on this subject
    For continuity I have copied and merged the relevant
    old and new posts together, here in the dedicated thread


    Here is our review on
    The Deceiver


    He was certainly alive in
    Two Fisted Law


    and although our filmography
    has the Columbia films in this order


    1931.THE DECEIVER
    1931. RANGE FEUD- (Columbia)
    1931. MAKER OF MEN- (Columbia)
    1932. TEXAS CYCLONE- (Columbia)
    1932. THAT'S MY BOY- (Columbia)
    1932. TWO FISTED LAW- (Columbia)


    They are indeed release dates and certainly
    one can bet The Deceiver was his last!!

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

    Edited 5 times, last by ethanedwards ().

  • For me the cowboys is the saddest death of john wayne.i first saw the film when i was 12 and i was so made that i wanted to shoot bruce dern in the back to.i still cant watch the cowboys to this day without getting mad.i hate the sight of bruce dern i would not watch him in anything only the war wagon when he getts shot.

  • For me the cowboys is the saddest death of john wayne.i first saw the film when i was 12 and i was so made that i wanted to shoot bruce dern in the back to.i still cant watch the cowboys to this day without getting mad.i hate the sight of bruce dern i would not watch him in anything only the war wagon when he getts shot.



    When The Cowboys was shown two years ago in Winterset besides having Robert Carradine there they asked Brue Dern. He politely declined saying that Duke fans will only boo him and that people to this day still hate him.
    All I can say is only a good actor can make people hate him for not really killing someone.

    ''baby sister i was born game and intend to go out that way.''

  • Please people, Bruce Dern is an actor, get over it. Someone had to play the part and he played it well. It did have an effect on people, and that is what a good movie does. I hated the part he played but he did it so well.

    I am not a big Bruce Dern fan myself, but he is a fine actor. I find you all a little savage over this man's role. It wasn't Bruce Dern who killed John Wayne, it was Long Hair who killed Will Andersen.

    Cheers :cool:



    Quote

    "When you come slam bang up against trouble, it never looks half as bad if you face up to it"

    - John Wayne quote

  • its the manner in the way he killed him.i know it was long hair that killed will anderson but its john wayne that you see.

  • The Shootist. The film is both profoundly moving and almost unbearably painful to watch. The smile Duke gives to Ron Howard right before he dies is a both a moment of triumph and a moment of heartbreak.


    It did mirror his life, his dignity, and his death. I only wish he'd been able to die as cleanly as he did in the film instead of the agonizing death he suffered.


    Goodbye, Duke. I love you.

  • I'm Sorry but i think the saddest death was in the cowboys. It was a unexspected, unprovoked attack by a low life creature named Bruce Dern. In the Shootist, death was inevitable. It was either that or face death by cancer.

  • Hi Bill, according to ALL EXPERTS on the net, this is what I found:


    John Wayne died in 8 films for definite, and a further two, depending on how you want to look at it.


    "Central Airport"
    "Reap the Wild Wind"
    "The Fighting Seabees"
    "Wake of the Red Witch"
    "The Sands of Iwo Jima"
    "The Alamo"
    "The Cowboys"
    "The Shootist"


    He was already dead at the start of "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", and most of the film is a flashback to when he was alive. It is just stated that he died, but there is no actual death scene.


    In "The Sea Chase" it is left to the audience to decide whether or not he died. The romantic among us like to think that he and Lana Turner were able to escape from the sinking ship at the end of the film, but it is not made clear.


    So, one way to look at it is that he died in 10. I had NO IDEA. I have never seen the Sea Chase. Will have to try to find it on one of the "watch it " sites. Peter is going to upload some movies to me, I have tons of storage. I may get to see some of the ones I haven't and don't have access to KPKEITH

    God, she reminds me of me! DUKE




  • If you're going to have Central Airport on the list wouldn't you have to add Noah's Ark. I've read somewhere that he was given a job as an extra in it because he was a good swimmer. And if you had to swim in that scenario you weren't around for the dove to bring the olive branch. :wink_smile:

  • Have to agree with you there Bill. In fact, I was afraid in The Shootist that he had won and was going to survive....Books didn't want that. He DID WIN....killed all the bad guys. He just never counted on the bartender. If it hadn't been for him, he would have survived his wounds and had the agonizing death our Duke had. You are right about the Cowboys. But, for me, probably what made The Cowboys worse was the fact that he MADE those little boys "men", and they proved to him they could do the job. They loved him for it. And they had to watch him die while they could do nothing to help him. THAT, to me, was the saddest part of all. And boy, did I actually CHEER out loud when the boys and Mr. Nightlinger avenged his death. We all did. And when they drove the herd in, seeing little, tiny Clay and all of them swinging their ropes and "talking" those cows in same as any trail savy cowboys would......well, it is just pretty hard to beat a saga like that! KPKEITH Dang it! Made me cry again! WOMEN!


    I'm Sorry but i think the saddest death was in the cowboys. It was a unexspected, unprovoked attack by a low life creature named Bruce Dern. In the Shootist, death was inevitable. It was either that or face death by cancer.

    God, she reminds me of me! DUKE

  • "The Cowboys" and "Sands of Iwo Jima" have little in common on the surface except that Duke's character dies in both. However, Duke has done essentially the same thing in both films: taken young boys and turned them into men. What eases the tragedy is that Duke has completed his central task.


    Thanks to him, the men can carry on without him.

  • Very true there Nordy. I still cried in both and wished that they didn't have to kill him off. Guess neither would have made such an impact if they didn't, though! KPKEITH

    God, she reminds me of me! DUKE

  • Very true there Nordy. I still cried in both and wished that they didn't have to kill him off. Guess neither would have made such an impact if they didn't, though! KPKEITH


    I've done my share of weeping too. But if the deaths are tragedies, they are not tragedies without meaning.