Posts from Kain424 in thread „Are There Any Good Duke B Movies?“

Quote from Hondo Duke Lane

I don't consider Pittsburgh a "B" movie. When you have Randolph Scott and Marlene Dietrich as stars and of course John Wayne. And I did like the movie. If you want to see a great all-time fight, see Seven Sinners with the same cast. Yes, I am off topic, but just had to comment on what was said. Please get back to the topic (for me to do).

Cheers Hondo

Sorry, wasn't trying to say Pittsburgh was a B movie. Just saying that Wayne's B movies started me on to waiting for THE BIG FIGHT scene in all his subsequent pictures. So I was saying that when watching something that was ultimately more of a propaganda piece like Pittsburgh, I was still waiting for the fight scene and it delivered.

One side effect watching his 30s B movies had on me was that they instilled a strange sort of patience with me for his later films. I would end up waiting for that fight scene that would inevitably come and I was rarely disappointed. Even in something like Pittsburgh, which I didn't particularly care for, there was an amazing battle between him and Randolph Scott.

It's interesting to look at it from the perspective of people who got to see these films in their initial run. That must have been something!

Me, I'm an action movie fan first and foremost. And those early B-movies, while often using little variation on the same scenarios time and again, did NOT disappoint in the Action department.

In fact, the highlights of each one was Duke inevitably catching up with the bad guys and beating the consciousness right out of them of shooting them dead. Kinda sounds a bit dark to put it like that, but I thought they did it in a way that emphasized the innate justice of the action rather than violence for violence's sake... most of the time. Also worth watching these early films for: the stunts. Before CGI and wires ruined everything amazing about the term, these guys did some truly incredible stuff with their own bodies.

On the other side of that, Wayne would sometimes play with his image and explored some of his dark side in films like the surprisingly excellent Born To The West (a.k.a. Hell Town). He's his usual do-right character who gets roped into gambling his boss's money away and he plays it grim and good for a decent chunk of the altogether short film. I would definitely recommend you check that out.