Saddle up, pilgrims! The INSP cable network augmented 2020’s quarantine Christmas with a marathon sampling nine of John Wayne’s best Westerns distributed between 1944 and 1972. Within an astounding 167-film canon, the American institution appeared somewhere in the neighborhood of 87 Westerns in his workaholic 50-year career on the silver screen.
Affectionately known as the Duke by his army of aficionados, the late action star’s cultural impact is still felt over three decades after his death from the ravages of stomach cancer. Believe it or not, Wayne regularly places in the Top Five on the annual Harris Poll of America’s favorite living or deceased actors. He is the only actor to remain firmly ensconced on the list every year since the poll originated in 1994. No other major entertainment personality of the era comes close except Elvis Presley.
In chronological order, the Wayne films consumed during the holiday weekend were Tall in the Saddle [the alluring Ella Raines more than matches Wayne’s swagger], The Fighting Kentuckian [a rare chance to catch the rotund Oliver Hardy of iconic comedy duo Laurel and Hardy in a solo outing], Hondo [John Wayne: The Life and Legend biographer Scott Eyman places it among the actor’s 15 all-time greatest films], the Taming of the Shrew homage McLintock!
Howard Hawks’ successful reimagining of Rio Bravo into El Dorado with drunken sheriff Robert Mitchum, an Oscar-winning performance as the over the hill but always gets his man Marshal Reuben J. Cogburn in True Grit, the sprawling Lincoln County War-rendered Chisum, the revenge-fueled, brutal Big Jake, and the coming-of-age, unsettling The Cowboys [On Golden Pond director Mark Rydell’s sole Western].
In an exclusive interview with Wayne’s eldest surviving son, actor Patrick Wayne reveals, “I’d have to say Big Jake was really the most fun I had working with my dad. My younger brother Ethan Wayne was in the film, and my older brother Michael was producing it via Batjac. It was a little family affair. We were on location in a remote part of Mexico — Durango and Zacatecas — and your family influences to get closer when you don’t have a lot of distractions like television or whatever.”
Late character actor Gregg Palmer left an indelible impact on my psyche growing up. Wielding a vicious-looking machete in Big Jake, Palmer fondly remembered the taut Western two years before his 2015 passing at the ripe old age of 88.“I still get comments when I go to film festivals,” said Palmer. “I’ll be signing a picture and I’ll hear a voice say, ‘That’s the man that killed John Wayne’s dog, son.’ Of course, forty-plus years ago I was 6’4” and nearly 300 pounds, so hopefully I’m not as intimidating today [laughs].