Posts from JohnWayneFan4Life in thread „James Arness“

I quite liked a version I saw with Sterling Hayden. The Man from the Alamo with Glenn Ford was a bit poor though.

Did you really think Harvey did a good job with that awful English "Texan" accent?

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 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.

When did Heston say he wished he had done the movie?

Bill, I think he knew it would be bad because Duke was directing the movie. That was also why Charlton Heston didn't want to play Bowie.

Apparently John Wayne wanted Arness to appear in The Alamo but Arness, realizing the movie would be bad, didn't even bother to turn up, which made Wayne very angry. It would be interesting to hear an explanation from Arness but I doubt he will give more interviews now due to his age and infirmity.

I was sad to read that they weren't friends in real life.