John Wayne
Angel And The Badman’s Box Office Failure Changed The Way John Wayne Approached Acting
Though John Wayne’s legacy will be forever entwined with that of his most frequent and beloved director, John Ford, the two really didn’t start collaborating in earnest until well into Wayne’s career. By 1947, Wayne had already appeared in over 100 films. True, eight of those were directed by Ford, but Wayne only starred in one of them: 1939’s “Stagecoach,” which turned him into a star.
The 1940s were a turbulent decade for Wayne. He began it on a high note, celebrating the critical and commercial love for “Stagecoach” at the Academy Awards. But as the ’40s wore on, Wayne began to have serious doubts over what kind of star he wanted to be: did he want to write, produce, even direct, or just act? With World War II underway, Wayne starred in war picture after war picture — would he ever return to the Western that proved so successful with audiences?
It was the matter of war, specifically Wayne’s timid refusal to join the service, that drove the wedge between Ford and Wayne that prevented them from working together at all for the first half of the decade. According to the PBS series “The Pappy and the Duke,” “Throughout the war, Ford urged the young actor ‘to get in it,’ and each time Wayne would beg off until he finished ‘just one more picture.’” Driven by the desire to see his star rise after so many years of toiling, Wayne never joined the war effort. It was a decision that would “haunt him for the rest of his life.”
Before his career turned around in 1948 with the back-to-back release of “Red River” and “Fort Apache,” Wayne had to suffer even more. The Western “Angel And The Badman” was one of the biggest bombs of Wayne’s career, but it taught him a valuable lesson about acting.
Action, not reaction
“Angel and the Badman” is a sweet, syrupy film about a renegade gunslinger (Wayne) who is nursed back to health after a firefight by a delicate Quaker woman (Gail Russell). The gunman, Quirt Evans, is eventually influenced by the
gentle nature and compassionate humanity of the Quaker family, and he undergoes a “conversion” of sorts, unlearning all his rough and tumble ways. “Badman” no more.
The film is the sole directorial effort of James Edward Grant, who was introduced to Wayne shortly before production began. Though Grant would go on to write many films for Wayne, “Angel and the Badman” was such a flop commercially and with critics that it effectively barred him from ever taking the helm again. Some attributed the film’s failure to launch to its initial runtime of almost two and a half hours (though it was quickly cut to a merciful 95). Some attributed it to Grant’s inexpertise with dialogue. The New York Post remarked that “the dialogue in this picture frequently sounds as if it had been written by someone who couldn’t think of what to say next.”
Wayne heaped the blame upon himself. Before Howard Hawks could seize upon Wayne’s chivalrous hero archetype and twist it into something malign, exposing all the rich layers underneath in “Red River,” Wayne was at a loss how to properly convey feeling. He was even more at sea acting in a fundamentally romantic story opposite a leading lady as reactive as Gail Russell. So the Duke surmised, as Maurice Zolotow’s “John Wayne: Shooting Star” put it, that “he would try to eschew introspection and the subtleties of facial suggestion, all those qualities of symbolism which he connoted by the term ‘reaction.’”
As soon as Wayne dispensed with “the vagaries of subtle dialogue” and embraced enigmatic silence, his star began its truly majestic rise.
John Wayne
The Legend Lives On: John Wayne is Still Alive!
John Wayne
Why John Wayne Turned Down the Chance to Work With Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood and John Wayne are the two biggest legends in the history of Western movies, however, they never worked together. The duo did have the opportunity to work together once in the 1970s. Here’s why the film never came to fruition.
How John Wayne responded when Clint Eastwood tried to work with him
Firstly, a little background. According to the book John Wayne: The Life and Legend, it all starts with Larry Cohen. Though Cohen is not a widely known director like Steven Spielberg or Quentin Tarantino, he’s a huge name to fans of B movies. He directed famous B movies like The Stuff, Q: The Winged Serpent, It’s Alive, and God Told Me To. He also wrote a script called The Hostiles shortly after Eastwood released his classic High Plains Drifter.
The Hostiles was about a gambler who wins half of an estate of an older man. The gambler and the older man have to work together despite the fact that they don’t like each other. Eastwood optioned the screenplay with the intent of playing the gambler alongside Wayne as the older man.
Eastwood sent a copy of the script of The Hostiles to Wayne. Although Eastwood felt the script was imperfect, he saw its potential. However, Wayne was not interested. Eastwood pitched the film to Wayne a second time and Wayne responded with a letter. Wayne’s letter complained about High Plains Drifter. Wayne was offended by the film and its portrayal of the Old West as a cruel, violent place.
John Wayne
Ann-Margret Refused to Call John Wayne ‘Duke’ While Introducing 1 of His Movies
Ann-Margret once starred in one of John Wayne’s lesser-known movies. However, she refused to call him by his popular moniker Duke. Here’s a look at the film they made together — and why she declined to call him by a nickname.
The one time Ann-Margret and John Wayne made a movie together
Ann-Margret is probably most known for her work in musicals, specifically Bye Bye Birdie, Viva Las Vegas, and The Who’s Tommy. However, she also dabbled in the Western genre. She starred alongside Wayne in the mostly forgotten movie The Train Robbers.
Wayne was also known as The Duke or just Duke. According to USA Today, the nickname was derived from his childhood dog. It stuck with him for many years. It continues to be used today — even on the box covers of the DVDs for his movies.
John Wayne | Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images
During an interview with Interview Magazine, Ann-Margret explained why she didn’t refer to the Rio Bravo star by this famous name. “When I came to this country, first of all, mother and I didn’t know English,” she said. “I would curtsey, then say, ‘Thank you,’ and then when I was leaving, curtsey. For example, we went to Dallas to introduce a film I did with John Wayne. And I never called him Duke. I just couldn’t. That’s the way I was raised. When you meet someone, you say either Mr. or Mrs. or Miss. You stand up.”
Ann-Margret revealed she treated other famous people in much the same way. For example, she worked with director George Sidney on Bye Bye Birdie and Viva Las Vegas. She always called him Mr. Sidney.
What Ann-Margret thought about John Wayne
Ann-Margret refused to use Wayne’s most famous moniker. However, she had a positive view of the actor. During an interview with Fox News, she was asked what she expected when she met Wayne. “Oh, I didn’t know what to expect,” she revealed. “But when he hugged me, it’s like the world was hugging me. He was so big and wide with that booming voice.
“We were shooting in Durango, Mexico and my parents came down to visit me,” she added. “He was so great with my parents. So absolutely welcoming and gentle with them. And anybody who was great to my parents was on a throne in my eyes.”
How the world reacted to ‘The Train Robbers’
Wayne starred in many classic Westerns, including The Searchers, Stagecoach, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. However, The Train Robbers is mostly forgotten. It didn’t gain a cult following like Once Upon a Time in the West or Dead Man. It wasn’t a critical success either, garnering a 33% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. However, Ann-Margret had some fond memories of making the film — even if she refused to call Wayne by his famous nickname.
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