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  • I saw the Alamo when it was first released (long version) as a young lad of thirteen. This film so imspired me to learn about the true history of the Alamo, that and the history of our great country to the point at times my friends and family tell me i,am a walking history leason.
    I now own every film I know made about the Alamo (three silent versions) etc. and many books about the real Alamo.
    Of all the films Dukes is the most enjoyable.
    I think Duke made this film not as a history lesson but as an inspiration to all people about the price of freedom.
    if thats bad film making I say I only wished he made more.

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

  • Well I think really he should have let John Ford direct all of it rather than just a bit. Aside from being overlong, the main reason The Alamo was bad was because of Duke's ponderous direction. Laurence Harvey was badly miscast but Richard Widmark was good as Bowie.

  • Charlton Heston was offered two different roles in the film, Jim Bowie and Colonel William Travis. But Heston did not want to be directed by Wayne because he feared critical response to a right-wing movie (According to Heston, Wayne had intended the epic to be an allegory for America's Cold War with the Soviet Union). Heston (along with Clark Gable, who was offered a role and turned it down) in later years said they were sorry for not accepting the roles they were offered.
    http://www.thedigitalbits.com/…tsiegel/siegel040609.html

  • Fine, I don't know whether that's really true. In Michael Munn's biography of Wayne, Heston is quoted as saying there seemed to be pretty good reasons for him not to make the movie. He then agrees that the fact that Wayne was directing was one of them.

    Perhaps heston could have played Colonel Travis, I mean at least he couldn't have done a worse job than Laurence Harvey.

  • Well, Ya know what they say about opinions. Anyway, back to Arness, I think he would have been great as Houston (or Bowie).

  • Well, Ya know what they say about opinions. Anyway, back to Arness, I think he would have been great as Houston (or Bowie).



    Remember Arness did play Bowie years later in a bad tv version of the of the Alamo. This was also filmed at Alamo Village.
    Ethan Wayne had a small part playing one of the defenders.
    He wore the same type coonskin hat as his father.

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

  • Harvey's accent didn't bother me. I thought it gave him a nice edge when confronting the other characters and acting arrogant. Plus he was a good enough actor to be able to overcome some of dialog and still sound somewhat natural.

  • I was excited when I first heard of The Alamo, 13 Days of Glory being made. But after seeing it, I was pretty disappointed. Julia was a great Santa Anna, Baldwin was fine as Travis, Arness was a bit too old for Bowie and Keith's Crockett WAY too old (plus no coonskin cap!). The budget was far too low-they counted on using Duke's stock footage for the battle and couldn't afford it. But the producer bragged that it was going to be the most accurate version, then ignored the input of his Alamo advisors.

  • I am a printer by trade, and where I work, we are printing a magazine titled "Undying Monsters", a fan magazine for monster movie lovers. In one article about the film, "The Thing", it states that Disney went to a screening of the film to take a look at Arness to possibly play Davey Crocket. But they took a liking to Fess Parker, the crazy Texan pilot, instead. Interesting tidbit, I think. Can you picture Arness as Davey Crocket?

    Mark

    "I couldn't go to sleep at night if the director didn't call 'cut'. "