Posts from arthurarnell in thread „Films You Wish John Wayne Hadn't Made“

Hi

Its amazing how one little question brought about such a brilliant topic of conversation. It just goes to show what a fabulous board this is.

Regards

Arthur

Hi Hondo

I write to regularly to a friend in Canada who is a relative of Rod Cameron and he sends me various bits and pieces on John Wayne.

I don't know how old this is or even if it is still extant but here goes.

One of the items sent was a page from an AMC magazine and it shows an advertisment and order form for a number of Critics Choice Videos under video classics these are:

HONDO KKMP10007021 $19.95
McLINTOCK KKMP1006022 $19.95
THE SHEPHERD OF THE HILLS KKCMA000101 $19.95
HANGMANS HOUSE KKTMC004022 $19.95
THE ALAMO KKMGM305395 $24.95
THE QUIET MAN (40th Anniversary Edition) KKRPC003361 $19.95

The address is Critics Choice Video, PO Box 749, Dept 60171, Itasca IL 60143-0749

Sorry no email address.

If the Quiet Man is a 40th Anniversary Edition I guess this paper was printed sometime in the mid 90's but it might be worth checking out

Regards

Arthur

Hi

Many fans and critics tend to agree that if it wasn't for the bad scheduling by the studio John Wayne should have been at least nominated for an Academy Award for the Shootist and perhaps won it. Considering his age, his health and the problems encountered in making the picture I consider the Shootist was one of his greatest roles.

Regards
Arthur

Hi again

On the subject of slant eyes.

After John Wayne completed the Conqueror it was reported in one of our movie magazines that as a reslt of him having his eyes continually taped up to give him the mongol look, he was confined to his house for several weeks with severe eye strain

Regards

Arthur

Hi everyone
On a facetious note can you imagine a slant eyed Marlon Brando saying to Rod Steiger in his best method acting

"I COULDA BEEN A CONQUEROR"

Regards

Arthur

Hi
It was also said that personally Wayne was very uncomfortable with the Cowboys because of the blooding up. But at the end accepted it as a sign of the violent times that films were going through in the sixties and seventies.

Regards
Arthur

Hi

With regard to 'The Conqueror'. Apparently it was originally written for Marlon Brando but at the last minute 20th Century Fox refused to lease him to RKO.

The script writer had originally made the script with Brando in mind and written in almost old english.

I thought that on a visit to a studio John Wayne had seen a small part of the script lying in a wastepaper bin and after reading it decided that he had to make the film. Other versions say that he picked it up off a desk.

Apparently with his ability to learn lines very quickly he didn't read the complete script until the night before shooting began and was horrified.

But when it came down to it was a western set in Mongolia rather than Arizona with Wayne playing Temajun rather than Stoney Brooke.

Of the location shooting 'John Wayne American' Quotes

Quote

out of the 220 people Dick Powell brought to St George Utah, in 1954, 91 came down with cancer later in their lives...... Duke survived Lung cancer in 1964 but later succumbed to stomach cancer. Pedro Armendariz came down with Kidney cancer in 1959 and then committed suicide in 1963 when diagnosed with cancer of the larynx. Dick Powell fell victim to lung cancer, Agnes Moorhead would die of uterine cancer, and (Susan) Hayward ended up with cancers of the skin, breast, uterus, and brain.

It was also a contributary factor that most of the cancer victims were also heavy smokers.

Another small co-incidence especially in view of films John Wayne might have done. In 1953 the government exploded two bombs which were particularly harmful one went off on April 25 and the other on May 19th.

The name of the second bomb was 'Dirty Harry'
The name of a film that Duke was later offered and turned down, and later turned Clint Eastwood into a star.

However the bottom line says that although the critics lampooned it it was very popular with the public in general.

Regards

Arthur

Hi Hondo,

As an amusing aside to the Cowboys

Bruce Dern's daughter Laura used to tell how whenever she went to college her fellow students would pick her out a say that her dad shot John Wayne in the back.
She said it took years for her to live it down.

Best regards

Arthur

Hi.

We have had the best John Wayne pictures. The worst, the Best Cowboys and the Worst
I would like to start a new topic

Films you wish John Wayne Hadn't Made - r even films he didn't make but you wish he had.

In another posting I got on to the subject of minor actors in The Longest Day[I] in which numerous well known and not so well known faces are visible.

Making pen pictures of all the people who acted in John Wayne films I can honestly say that as good as his roles were in

'The Longest Day' 'The Greatest Story Ever Told' and 'How the West was Won'[I]

Fom a purely selfish point of view there is a cast list of about 117 people in the Longest Day most of whom like Richard Burton, Sean Connery, Harry Fowler and Norman Rossington were people that you wouldn't normally associate with John Wayne and that is only the Brits, add to that the German and French actors and it gets really complicated.

It probably approaching the same number in TGSET

And quite a large number in HTWWW

So in a controversial manner I can say that these were three films I wish John Wayne hadn't made.