John Wayne
10 Classic John Wayne Movies That Are Not Westerns
John Wayne is a Hollywood legend who is best known for his iconic Westerns such as The Searchers, True Grit and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. After losing his football scholarship, Wayne started working for 20th Century Fox as a prop boy before his breakthrough role in John Ford‘s Stagecoach. While Wayne may have made his film footprint in the Old West, the Duke starred in a dozen non-Western movies throughout his career that are often overlooked.
Along with his Westerns, Wayne was featured in dozens of war films including The Green Berets as well as romantic comedies and dramas like A Lady Takes a Chance and The Wings of the Eagles.From The Longest Day to Donovan’s Reef,these are several among Wayne’s best classic movies that aren’t Westerns.
‘In Harm’s Way’ (1965)
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Captain Torrey managed to keep his ship afloat, but he’s demoted when his ship is damaged. When he returns to shore, he attempts to reconnect with his estranged son and falls in love with a nurse (Patricia Neal) before he is assigned to a dangerous mission.
Directed by Otto Preminger, In Harm’s Way was one of the last epic World War II movies to be filmed in black-and-white and features a star-studded cast of Henry Fonda, Kirk Douglas, Dana Andrews, Carroll O’Connor and Burgess Meredith.The movie was written by Navy veteran Wendell Mayes and is considered to be an authentic view into the Navy during the war.
‘Back to Bataan’ (1945)
As the U.S. struggles to defend Bataan against the Japanese, Colonel Madden recruits resistance fighters to help keep a hold of the city. While he’s away, Bataan is captured along with Madden’s men including the grandson of a national war hero, Captain Andrés Bonifacio (Anthony Quinn). Refusing to give up, Madden and the resistance fighters form a plan to save Bonifacio as well as Bataan.
RELATED:The Tragic History Of Lost Films, From A Hitchcock Feature To A John Wayne Western
Back to Bataan is based on the real-life Battle of Bataan and takes place during the most intense phase of the Japanese invasion of the Philippines during World War II. According to John Wayne: American by Randy Roberts and James S. Olson, Wayne insisted on doing his own stunts for the movie. One scene involved Wayne entering an icy pond and remaining underwater while using a reed to breathe.
‘Hatari!’ (1962)
Sean Mercer and his men capture wild African animals to sell to American zoos, but the job’s interrupted by a reporter who intends to expose them and their exploits. As they continue to clash with the reporter, her tough and strong will begin to wear them down and even rethink their career choice.
Hatari! is directed by the legendary filmmaker Howard Hawks and is the only non-Western Hawks and Wayne made together. The movie was filmed on location in East Africa and according to The Cinema of Howard Hawks, by Peter Bogdanovich, Hawks had planned on Clark Gable co-starring with Wayne in the movie but Gable’s death in 1960 ruled that option out.
‘They Were Expendable’ (1945)
Naval officers, Rusty and Brick (Robert Montgomery) present a group of PT boats to their superior officer who is unimpressed and dismisses them. When they receive word about the attack on Pearl Harbor, Rusty and Brick are sent into battle with their PT boats and end up becoming America’s secret weapon.
While the movie’s fictional, They Were Expendable is based on events surrounding a PT boat squadron that defended the Philippines during World War II. The movie is co-directed by John Ford as well as Montgomery and features It’s a Wonderful Life stars, Donna Reed and Ward Bond. Bond and Wayne would work together again several years later on another Ford film, The Searchers.
‘Reap the Wild Wind’ (1942)
After a massive shipwreck, Loxi (Paulette Goddard), the owner of a marine salvaging business, and her men race to the wreckage sites to collect the cargo and end up saving one of the ship’s captains, Jack Stuart. After Jack finds a job with another shipping line, rumors surface that his shipwreck was planned by dangerous salvagers.
Directed by Cecil B. DeMille, Reap the Wild Wind is a romantic adventure with a supporting cast of Ray Milland, Susan Hayward and actor-turned-gossip columnist, Hedda Hopper. The movie’s viewed as one of Wayne’s most unusual roles as he plays a character who has a dark and sinister side to him that audiences rarely see the Duke portray.
‘The Longest Day’ (1962)
U.S. and allied troops are planning to invade Normandy, France and despite bad weather, are given the go-ahead by General Eisenhower. The troops storm the Normandy beach and venture into French territory catching the German troops completely off guard.
The Longest Day is a classic war film about the events leading up to one of the most infamous battles of World War II, D-Day. The cast is packed with stars including Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda, Sean Connery, Richard Burton and Peter Lawford. The movie contains actual archive footage and according to Five Came Back by Mark Harris, was partially filmed by John Ford and inspired scenes in Steven Spielberg‘sSaving Private Ryan.
‘Blood Alley’ (1955)
Tom Wilder’s an American sailor who is asked by a group of villagers to help them escape from Chinese Communists. Wilder agrees to take them to a British port but as they embark on the dangerous journey, they are followed by a Chinese gunboat and fighter threatening to destroy their entire plan.
Blood Alley is a Cold War drama featuring Hollywood legend Lauren Bacall, who plays Wayne’s love interest. Wayne promoted the movie during his guest appearance on an episode of the hit sitcom, I Love Lucy,where Lucy and Ethel steal Wayne’s cement footprints from the front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater the night before the movie’s premiere.
‘Sands of Iwo Jima’ (1949)
During World War II, Marine sergeant, John Stryker is resented by his troops for his strict rules and intense training methods. The men start to appreciate Stryker and his war strategies as they try to survive what would end up becoming one of the war’s bloodiest battles, the Battle of Iwo Jima
Sands of Iwo Jima is directed by silent film director Allan Dwan who successfully transitioned into the Talkies directing several films featuring child-star Shirley Temple. The war movie co-stars John Agar, Forrest Tucker and Richard Jaeckel who all joined Wayne again in the Western, Chisum. Agar also co-starred with Wayne in Fort Apache alongside Temple who married the young actor in 1945.
‘The Quiet Man’ (1952)
Sean Thornton’s a former boxer who moves to Ireland and purchases his family’s old home with the intention of living in peace. He meets and marries Mary Kate (Maureen O’Hara) but when her brother refuses to give them her dowry, Sean’s forced to enter the ring for one final fight.
The Quiet Man is directed by John Ford and is one of Wayne’s best performances alongside frequent co-star, Maureen O’Hara. Wayne and O’Hara co-starred together in a total of five films including another Ford film, McLintock! and off-screen, the two were great friends all the way up until Wayne’s death in 1979. The movie earned Ford his fourth Academy Award for Best Director and still holds the record as the director to win the most Oscars.
‘Donovan’s Reef’ (1963)
At the end of World War II, Navy veterans, Donovan, Gilhooley (Lee Marvin) and Doc Dedham, remain on a French Polynesian island where they rebuild the local town. Back in Boston, Dedham’s daughter finds out her father’s still alive and travels to the island in an attempt to collect his share of stocks in their family’s company.
Donovan’s Reef is another John Ford film but due to the director’s declining health at the time, Wayne directed a majority of the film himself. While the movie is a light-hearted comedy, it still manages to address serious issues such as racial discrimination, greed and bigotry. Donovan’s Reef reunited Wayne and Ford in what would become their final film together.
John Wayne
John Wayne ‘s roles on television are not recognized , but he is proud when he mentions .
When John Wayne showed up on television, he was usually playing himself in a showbiz cameo, like his “I Love Lucy” guest appearance. As one of the century’s biggest movie stars, he didn’t exactly need exposure.
But Ward Bond, Wayne’s co-star in many of legendary director John Ford’s movies, struggled over whether or not he should make a move to television. When Ford discussed it with Bond, he got blunt. According to Joseph McBride’s book “Searching for John Ford,” the director called his friend a “dumb Irishman” and asked, “Don’t you act for a living?”
Bond listened, and took a leading role in “Wagon Train,” a major TV western of the ’50s and ’60s. The show was once the highest-rated western on television, even beating out its regular competition, “Gunsmoke.” And Bond was far from the only movie star to appear in it.
The show began in 1958, and owed a great deal to John Ford’s vision of the American West. Every one of its many episodes focused on a unique character, either somebody in the wagon train or somebody the wagon train encountered, which made the show particularly supple ground for guest stars.
When Ford directed an episode of the show, 1960’s “The Colter Craven Story,” the ostensible star was Carleton Young, another Ford stock actor, who played the part of Colter Craven. But dig into the credits and you’ll find another name: Michael Morris … who was actually John Wayne, perhaps the biggest star to appear on the program. And he did it in near secret.
As televisions became more commercially available in the 1950’s, the TV western became one of its most ubiquitous genres, lovingly homaged in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” There were so many western TV shows that only a few are still widely remembered today, regardless of their contemporaneous popularity (shows like “Gunsmoke” and “Bonanza” remain cultural milestones even as others vanished). Like many film westerns, these shows took place a couple of years after the Civil War, using national scars and the rocky terrain of the country’s westward expansion as raw material.
“Wagon Train” was one of those shows. It didn’t just incorporate the communal warmth and actors of John Ford’s westerns — it borrowed story beats from his 1950 film “Wagon Master,” about 19th century Mormon pioneers. When Ford came on to direct his episode, he even used the movie’s location photography to give the episode a grandeur that differentiated it from the other westerns on television, according to Joseph McBride’s “Searching for John Ford.”
Where the initial movie was more concerned with the historic transport of pacifistic Mormons across the wilderness, the TV show became more secular by cutting out the Mormon element. The premise needed to carry the show through 284 hour-long episodes. All that mattered was that the wagon train kept moving.
John Wayne
The scene could completely change the way fans see Bruce Dern who is known as “The Man Who Killed John Wayne.”
By 1972, Bruce Dern’s career was off to a great start. Like many actors who started in the sixties, Dern cut his teeth on small TV parts. He was on hit westerns like Rawhide and Bonanza. Dern also holds film roles in movies like Hang ‘Em High and They Shoot horses Don’t They. However, the role that had the most impact on his carer was Longhair in The Cowboys. In that film, he starred alongside John Wayne. That role almost killed his career.
Bruce Dern turned in a stellar performance in The Cowboys. That wasn’t what made it hard for him to get work. In fact, he had no control over the aspect of the role that nearly tanked his acting aspirations. After that movie came out, fans branded him “The Man Who Killed John Wayne.” He was one of the most hated men in Hollywood.
As a matter of fact, Dern’s performance alongside John Wayne may have made things worse. He is such a believable villain in the scene that you can’t help but hate him just a little bit. Fans may have forgotten a lesser actor with or a weaker performance. Bruce Dern, however, was all in. Check out the fateful scene below.
There is no denying that John Wayne and Bruce Dern both turn it all t he way up for this scene. They have an epic fight. Then, after Duke’s Wil Anderson bests Dern’s Longhair, things go south fast. Longhair pulls a pistol from his partner’s holster. After a little trash talk, he shoots Anderson in the back of his arm. Then, he puts one in the cowboy’s gut. When Anderson goes down, the villain puts another slug in him for good measure. At the same time, Dern was shooting down several future prospects.
John Wayne warned Bruce Dern that there would be consequences for taking the role. About this, Dern once said that when he showed up to the set, the Duke had already been drinking. He walked up to Dern, leaned in close, and said, “Oh, how they’re going to hate you for this.”
John Wayne was telling the truth. After The Cowboys hit screens, fans hated Bruce Dern. People would come up to him on the street and cuss him out for killing the Duke. At the same time, studios didn’t want to hire him because people hated him so much.
On one hand, that is a testament to John Wayne’s popularity. If just about anyone else died in a movie it was no big deal. It really didn’t matter who did the killing, either. However, Wayne’s characters never died. At the same time, he was a national treasure. So, his death was a little different. On the other hand, it shows how good of an actor Bruce Dern is. The goal of any kind of art, acting included, is to make the audience feel something. Dern succeeded. The emotion just happened to be rage.
John Wayne
The reason why fans can’t see the “face-to-face” between John Wayne and Kirk Douglas.
John Wayne and Kirk Douglas starred together in The War Wagon. Kirk was not the first choice to play Lomax in the film but the director ended up giving up half his salary to secure Kirk for the movie. Turns out that the two big stars had very different political views and butted heads a few times during filming.
During production, Kirk was late one day because he had been filming a commercial to endorse Edmund G Brown, a Democrat, as Governor of California. Of course, John was a lifelong conservative and republican who had just filmed an endorsement for Ronald Reagan.
John Wayne and Kirk Douglas often fought about politics : With their extremely different political views, they would often bicker. However, their respect for each other never wavered.
Kirk once shared on The Dick Cavett Show, “I don’t want to get involved in a conversation about John Wayne. I’ve made quite a few pictures with John Wayne and, by the way, I’ve always called him John. Everybody calls him Duke. We have never seen eye-to-eye on a lot of things.”
He added that John was “one of the most professional actors I’ve ever worked with. We get along well, we never discuss politics. But he’s the first guy on the set, the hardest worker I’ve ever worked with, and I think he’s quite a character.”
Dick then joked that of course, they wouldn’t see eye to eye because John was a tall 6’4″ while Kirk was only around 5’9″ then. During filming, Kirk would have to wear lifts in his shoes so that they would appear to be around the same height.
John Wayne ‘s roles on television are not recognized , but he is proud when he mentions .
Film Trailer for Ennio Morricone Documentary Features Interviews with Clint Eastwood, Quentin Tarantino, & Bruce Springsteen
The scene could completely change the way fans see Bruce Dern who is known as “The Man Who Killed John Wayne.”
-
Entertainment7 months agoJohn Wayne’s son speaks on military service, Hollywood life and his dad, ‘The Duke’ – My Blog
-
Entertainment7 months ago
40 Legendary John Wayne Quotes – My Blog
-
Entertainment8 months ago
New biography reveals the real John Wayne – My Blog
-
Entertainment9 months agoWhy one POPULAR ACTOR was FIRED from THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER and lost his career as a result! – Old western – My Blog
-
Entertainment7 months ago
How Maureen O’Hara Broke Her Hand During Iconic Scene With John Wayne – My Blog
-
Entertainment8 months ago
Rio Lobo (1970) marked the last collaboration between John Wayne and Howard Hawks. – My Blog
-
Entertainment7 months ago
Did John Wayne really have a good time filming 1972’s The Cowboys? – My Blog
-
Entertainment7 months ago
John Wayne and the ‘Bonanza’ Cast Appeared in This Epic Coors Light Commercial – My Blog
