The Duke: John Wayne

Next up is "Legend of the Lost (1957)" and "The Barbarian and the Geisha(1958)".

Legend of the Lost (1957) is a 1957 Italy/U.S. adventure movie starring John Wayne and Sophia Loren.

Plot

Legend of the Lost portrays Wayne, as good-for-nothing Joe January, he helps a Saharan treasure hunting expedition that includes Rossano Brazzi (Paul) as a crazed religious man with a penchant for treasures and Sophia Loren (Dita)as a disreputable woman along for the tough dry ride. Loren's youthful assets, navigational skills in the desert and translation of writings carved on Roman ruins adds a small touch of credibility to her character. Wayne is the usual tough guy he plays in most of his movies. Loren finds the real bad guy the hard way and manages to dispatch him as only she could.

Cast and crew

Legend of the Lost was directed by Henry Hathaway. Wayne and Hathaway worked together nine times, beginning with The Shepherd of the Hills (1941) and ending with Wayne's Oscar-winning role in True Grit (1969). Co-author Ben Hecht, nearing the end of his career at this time, was one of Hollywood's most successful screenwriters. None of this talent managed to keep Legend of the Lost from being harshly reviewed by critics.

Wayne liked the location work in Rome and North Africa. The plot is vaguely similar to another of Wayne?s movies crossing the Mojave desert.

Main details

* Director/Producer: Henry Hathaway
* Screenplay: Robert Presnell Jr., Ben Hecht
* Main cast: John Wayne (Joe January), Sophia Loren (Dita), Rossano Brazzi (Paul Bonnard)
* Run time: 109 min.

The Barbarian and the Geisha (1958) is a 1958 film directed by John Huston and starring John Wayne.

Plot

Townsend Harris (Wayne) is sent by President Pierce to Japan to serve as the first U.S. Consul-General to that country. Harris discovers enormous hostility to foreigners, as well as the love of a young geisha.

Based on the true story of American diplomat Townsend Harris, his time in Japan in the 1850s and 60s, and his romance with a 17-year-old geisha named Kichi. Their story is one of the most well-known folk tales in Japan. The real Harris died in New York in 1878, and the real Kichi committed suicide in Shimoda in 1892.

Trivia

At one point during filming, John Wayne became so infuriated with director John Huston, who was something of a tough guy himself and almost as tall as the Duke but not nearly as massive, that Wayne lost his temper and punched Huston, knocking him out cold. Exactly what Huston did to make the Duke that angry is unknown, but Huston was known to have a mean streak when it came to handling actors.

Discuss.

 

I haven't seen either of these films, though I expect they will come up on TCM sometime...

 

Next up are "The Horse Soldiers" (1959) and "North To Alaska" (1960).

(from wiki)

The Horse Soldiers (1959).

The Horse Soldiers is a 1959 film directed by John Ford, set in the American Civil War. It is about a Union Cavalry detachment, lead by Colonel John Marlowe (John Wayne), which is sent behind the Confederate enemy lines in strength to destroy a railroad and supply depot (Newton Station). Col. Marlowe was a railroad designer before the war, so who better to tap to capture one? With them is a new doctor (regimental surgeon), Major Henry Kendall (William Holden) who seems to be constantly at odds with Col. Marlowe. Maj. Kendall is torn between the "duty of war" and the "horror of war", and the moral questions that war brings with it. He does not see any glory from his operating table. This internal stress spills over into conflicts that Col. Marlowe must try to deal with, while at the same time worry about his men and his assignment. Then to complicate matters even more, after the unit stops at the Greenbriar Plantation, Miss Hannah Hunter (Constance Towers), the plantation's "southern belle" overhears the details of the pending raid. So to protect the mission Col. Marlowe drags her along with the troop for the rest of the movie. This of course gives Col. Marlowe and Maj. Kendall one more thing to fight about, Miss Hannah's affections.

The movie was filmed on location in Louisiana.

The film's climactic battle scene ending was cut short when Fred Kennedy, a veteran stuntman and bit player, was killed in a horse fall. John Ford was so upset he closed the set and had to film the rest of the scene later in the San Fernando Valley. The scene with the fall remains in the film.

The movie is based on the true story of Grierson's Raid led by Colonel Benjamin Grierson who is sent from northern Mississippi, several hundred miles behind enemy lines in April of 1863, along with 1700 men, to cut the railroad between Newton Station and Vicksburg (Vicksburg, Mississippi). Grierson's raid is part of the Union's larger plan to assault Battle of Vicksburg. The raid was as successful as it was daring, and remarkably bloodless, by attacking the Confederate (Confederate States of America) controlled railroad it upset the plans of Confederate General John C. Pemberton and his troop deployments.

Cast

* John Wayne as Col. John Marlowe
* William Holden as Maj. Henry 'Hank' Kendall (regimental surgeon)
* Constance Towers as Miss Hannah Hunter of Greenbriar
* Althea Gibson as "Lukey" (Hannah Hunter's maid)
* Judson Pratt as Sgt. Maj. Kirby
* Hoot Gibson as Sgt. Brown
* Ken Curtis as Cpl. Wilkie
* Willis Bouchey as Col. Phil Secord
* Bing Russell as Dunker
* O.Z. Whitehead as Otis "Hoppy" Hopkins
* Hank Worden as Deacon Clump
* Denver Pyle as Jackie Jo
* Strother Martin as Virgil

North To Alaska (1960).

North to Alaska is a 1960 comedic western directed by Henry Hathaway and starring John Wayne and Stewart Granger. The film is based on Ladislas Fodor play Birthday Gift. The film featured the hit Johnny Horton song of the same name, which topped Billboard Magazine's Country Singles chart and reached #4 on the Pop Singles chart.

Plot

After striking gold in Alaska, George Pratt (Stewart Granger) sends partner Sam McCord (John Wayne) to Seattle to bring back his fiancée. Finding that George's girl had already married another man, Sam brings back prostitute "Angel" (Capucine) as a substitute. There is a misunderstanding: she thinks Sam wants her for himself and begins to fall in love with him on the boat trip back.

George rejects the girl, though his young brother Billy (Fabian) is very interested. Meanwhile, con man Frankie Canon (Ernie Kovacs) tries to steal their claim.
Spoilers end here.

Cast

John Wayne Sam McCord
Stewart Granger George Pratt
Ernie Kovacs Frankie Canon
Fabian Billy P

 

"The Horse Soldiers" is lesser Ford, IMO, but "North to Alaska" is an enjoyable adventure movie.

 

Next up are "The Comancheros" (1961) and "Hatari!" (1962).

The Comancheros (1961).

(from wiki)

The Comancheros is a 1961 western film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring John Wayne and Stuart Whitman. When health troubles prevented Curtiz from finishing the film, Wayne directed the remainder of the movie, though his role remained uncredited. Curtiz died shortly after the film was completed. Featured are western film veterans Bob Steele, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, and Harry Carey, Jr. in uncredited supporting roles.

Plot

Roguish gambler Paul Regret (Stuart Whitman) escapes a death penalty after winning a duel with the son of a Louisiana judge. When captured by Texas Ranger Jake Cutter (John Wayne), he manages to escape, but is soon recaptured after a chance encounter with Cutter in a saloon. In the process of returning Regret to Louisiana, Cutter is forced to join forces with the condemned to fight the "Comancheros;" white men who smuggle guns and whisky to the Comanche indians and incite violence.

Cast

John Wayne Capt. Jake Cutter
Stuart Whitman Paul Regret
Ina Balin Pilar Graile
Nehemiah Persoff Graile
Lee Marvin Tully Crow
Michael Ansara Amelung
Bruce Cabot Maj. Henry
Joan O'Brien Melinda Marshall
Jack Elam Horseface
Edgar Buchanan Judge Thaddeus Jackson Breen
Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams Ed McBain (gunrunner)

Trivia

* Although set in 1843 Texas, the characters all use Winchester lever action rifles, which were not available until 1866.

* Stuart Whitman later played Marshal Jim Crown in the single-season but lavish western television series Cimarron Strip (1967), a ninety-minute weekly show from the producers of Gunsmoke, as well as the romantic lead in the aerial adventure comedy Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965).

* Lee Marvin later won an Oscar for Cat Ballou (1965) and played the lead in The Dirty Dozen (1967).

Hatari! (1962).

Hatari! is a 1962 American film directed by Howard Hawks and starring John Wayne.

The plot involves a group of trappers catching wild animals in Africa and selling them to zoos. A female wildlife photographer arrives to take photos of the captures for the zoo which will be buying the bulk of that season's captures, and in the process becomes known as Momma Tambo (Mother of Elephants) due to some baby elephants that she takes care of.

The film gathers its several characters from different parts of the world: Sean Mercer (John Wayne), Anna Maria 'Dallas' D'Allesandro (Elsa Martinelli), Kurt Mueller (Hardy Krüger), Charles 'Chips' Maurey (Gerard Blain), Luis Francisco Garcia Lopez (Valentin De Vargas) are, respectively, from USA, Italy, Germany, France and Mexico. The title means "danger" in Swahili, which was mentioned in the film as well.


Hatari! has a very loose script and, like many other major works of Hawks, is principally structured on the relationships between the characters. It does have exciting scenes with the trappers chasing animals in jeeps across the African plains. The chased animals are also all live, wild, and untrained, something that would never be allowed today.

The script, indeed, was written by Hawks' favorite writer, Leigh Brackett, after the group returned from Africa with the hunting scenes. Although the movie is not the most intense it rightly belongs among her better works, like Rio Bravo and Red River.

Hatari! introduced the memorable Henry Mancini tune Baby Elephant Walk.

Discuss.

 

Leigh Brackett also wrote ESB.

I've heard "Baby Elephant Walk", but not seen either of those movies.

 

Next up are "The Longest Day" (1962) and "How the West Was Won" (1962).

(from wiki)

The Longest Day (1962).

The Longest Day is a 3-hour-long 1962 war film with a very large cast, based on the 1959 book The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan, about "D-Day", the invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944, during World War II.

Background

The movie was adapted by Romain Gary, James Jones, David Pursall, Cornelius Ryan and Jack Seddon from the Ryan book. It was directed by Ken Annakin (British exteriors), Andrew Marton (American exteriors), Gerd Oswald (parachute drop scene), Bernhard Wicki (German scenes) and Darryl F. Zanuck (uncredited).

Many of the military consultants and advisors who helped with the film's production were actual participants in the action on D-Day, and are portrayed in the film. The producers drew them from both sides. Among them are Günther Blumentritt (a former German general), James M. Gavin (an American general), Philippe Kieffer (who led his men in the assault on Ouistreham), Max Pemsel (a German general), Werner Pluskat (the major who was the first German officer to see the invasion fleet), and Josef "Pips" Priller (the hot-headed pilot).

One thing that sets the film apart from most films set in the Second World War is that all characters speak in their own languages, with subtitles in English wherever the characters speak either French or German. The usual Nazi stereotypes are avoided, and most German characters are portrayed as human beings. The words "Sieg, heil!", for instance, are not uttered even once in The Longest Day, although they are seen written on a bunker wall in Ouistreham.

Awards

It won Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White and Best Effects, Special Effects, and was nominated for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White, Best Film Editing and Best Picture.

Theme lyrics

The music is also the authorized march of Le Régiment de la Chaudière, the Canadian Parachute Centre, and the former Canadian Airborne Regiment of the Canadian Forces.

Another song, "The Longest Day" produced by the Heavy Metal band Iron Maiden has been released on the album "A Matter of Life and Death".

Casting

* Sergeant Kaffeekanne's last name is from the German for "coffee pot", which he always carries.
* Bill Millin, the piper who accompanies Lord Lovat to Normandy with his bagpipes, played himself in the film.
* In Sainte-Mère-Église, Private John Steele from the 82nd Airborne (played by Red Buttons) has been memorialized by the local population with a dummy hanging from a parachute from the church tower on which he accidentally landed.
* Richard Todd, who plays the leader of the British Airborne unit that lands at Pegasus Bridge, took part in the real bridge assault on D-Day.
* Curd Jürgens, who plays the German General Blumentritt who muses on the incompetence of his superiors, was actually imprisoned by the Nazis in his youth.
* As well as featuring 007 himself (Sean Connery), this film boasts two James Bond villains: Curd Jürgens played the lunatic industrialist Karl Stromberg in "The Spy Who Loved Me" while Gert Fröbe played Auric Goldfinger in "Goldfinger".
* Former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was considered for the role of himself in the film, and he indicated his willingness. However, it was decided that makeup artists couldn't make him appear young enough to play his WWII self.
* The role of Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin H. Vandervoort was actively sought by Charlton Heston but the last-minute decision of John Wayne to take a role in the film prevented Heston from participating.
* Acclaimed British actor Christopher Lee auditioned for a role but was turned down as he did not look like a military man. However, he served in the RAF during World War II.

Filming

* During the filming of the landings at Omaha Beach, the American soldiers appearing as extras didn't want to jump off the landing craft into the water because the

 

These movies make a good pair because Wayne's role in both is basically a cameo. "The Longest Day" isn't bad, if you can ignore Red Buttons. Which is a big if.

 

i haven't watched The Longest Day in a while. maybe i'll pick it up sometime. great movie. anyone know if there's a DVD out for it?

 

It is available on amazon.com at The Longest Day.

 

Is there a soundtrack out?

 

How the West Was Won is actually one of Wayne's finest moments; his scene with Harry Morgan in that movie is about the best in the whole movie.

 

Didn't he play Sherman?

 

Yup. Harry Morgan is Grant. It's a great scene; refreshingly dignified and free of excess, unlike much of the movie.

 

Next up are "Donovan's Reef" (1963) and "Circus World" (1964).

(from wiki)

Donovan's Reef (1963).

Donovan's Reef is a 1963 American action/comedy motion picture from director John Ford, about a "proper" young woman (Elizabeth Allen) from Boston who comes to a South Pacific isle in search of her missing father and encounters a pair of old sailors. It was the last pairing of Ford and actor John Wayne.

It also starred Dorothy Lamour, Lee Marvin, Cesar Romero, and Jack Warden.

Location

Donovan's Reef takes place on Haleakaloa which seems to be a play on the name of a volcano in Maui, Hawaii named Haleakalā. The movie was filmed on Kauai another of the Hawaiian islands.

Circus World (1964).

Circus World, also known as Samuel Bronston's Circus World, is a 1964 drama film made by the independent production company Bronson and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Henry Hathaway and produced by Samuel Bronston, with Michal Waszynski as executive producer. The screenplay was by Ben Hecht, Julian Halevy and James Edward Grant, from a story by Philip Yordan and Nicholas Ray. The music score was by Dimitri Tiomkin and the cinematography by Jack Hildyard. The film was made in Super Technirama 70 and shown at some venues in Cinerama.

It starred John Wayne, Claudia Cardinale and Rita Hayworth with Lloyd Nolan, John Smith and Richard Conte.

Plot

At the turn of the twentieth century, circus owner Matt Masters (John Wayne) takes his circus on a tour to Europe in search of his long-lost love, Lili Alfredo (Rita Hayworth). With him are Lili's daughter, Toni (Claudia Cardinale) whom she abandoned years earlier and whom he has raised as his own, and his faithful friend, Cap Carson (Lloyd Nolan). The circus is lost in a sinking ship, but Masters manages to salvage part of it and with the help of some European acts puts together a new show. He finds Lili and mother and daughter are reunited.

The film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Song for Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington (lyrics), and Rita Hayworth was nominated for the Best Actress award.

Trivia

* David Niven was originally cast as Cap Carson, but withdrew from the film.

Discuss.

 

"Donovan's Reef" is reasonably entertaining, but not a great film.

"Circus World" I saw a long time ago, and remember almost nothing about.

 

Next up is The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).

(from wiki)

The Greatest Story Ever Told is a 1965 United Artists film about the life of Jesus, directed by George Stevens (some scenes by Jean Negulesco and David Lean). Max von Sydow stars as Christ, and it features a number of other top Hollywood stars at the time, such as Charlton Heston as John the Baptist, and Telly Savalas as Pontius Pilate.

The Greatest Story Ever Told held its world premiere on February 15, 1965 at the Warner Cinerama Theatre in New York City. It was filmed in Ultra Panavision 70, and exhibited in larger cities in 70 mm Cinerama.

The music was composed and conducted by Alfred Newman (who wrote the music for How the West was Won, as well as the 20th Century Fox theme), and supplemented (at the request of the director) with the Hallelujah chorus and the Verdi Requiem, (both adapted and conducted by Newman associate Ken Darby).

Awards

The film was nominated for five Academy Awards: Best Musical Score, Best Cinematography (color), Art Direction (color), Costume Design (color), and Special Visual Effects (Joseph McMillan Johnson).

Inaccuracies

* The Last Supper Table. This is shown as a copy of Da Vinci's Last Supper.
* Judas commits suicide by throwing himself into the altar fire, when, in the Gospel accounts, he hanged himself.

Cast
Actor Role
Max von Sydow Jesus
Dorothy McGuire The Virgin Mary
Robert Loggia Joseph
Charlton Heston John the Baptist
Disciples
Gary Raymond Peter
David McCallum Judas Iscariot
Roddy McDowall Matthew
Michael Anderson, Jr. James the Younger
Robert Blake Simon the Zealot
John Considine John
Tom Reese Thomas
David Hedison Philip
Jamie Farr Thaddaeus
Burt Brinckerhoff Andrew
David Sheiner James the Elder

The large and notable cast also includes Claude Rains, José Ferrer, Donald Pleasence, Martin Landau, Michael Tolan, Ed Wynn, Harold Stone, Michael Ansara, Shelley Winters, Sidney Poitier, Van Heflin, Sal Mineo, Joseph Schildkraut, Frank Silvera, Cyril Delevanti, Mark Lenard, Abraham Sofaer, Nehemiah Persoff, John Wayne, Carroll Baker, Ina Balin, Rodolfo Acosta, Frank DeKova, Marian Seldes, Joseph Sirola, Angela Lansbury, John Abbott, Russell Johnson, Pat Boone and Richard Conte. It should be noted that most of these stars play extremely short cameos. This was a criticism labeled at the film at the time, particularly John Wayne as the Centurion that supervises Christ's execution.

The movie was one of only nine feature films to be shot entirely in Ultra Panavision 70.

Impact

The Greatest Story Ever Told marked the end of the big budget theatrical Biblical/religious spectacle, until arguably The Passion of The Christ. It was Director George Stevens' first flop. The film cost an estimated $20,000,000 and made back $12,000,000 worldwide.

Trivia

* Cinematographer William C. Mellor suffered a heart attack, collapsed and died on the set.
* During filming, the first snowstorm to strike Arizona in decades buried the whole Jerusalem set. Several hundred cast and crew members, including director George Stevens, went out with snow shovels, wheelbarrows, bulldozers, and butane flame throwers to clear the snow from the set. Just as they were done, it snowed again, even harder than before?forcing the production to close and move to Desilu Studios in Hollywood.
* This movie features three actors who went on to play supervillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in James Bond movies: Donald Pleasence (Satan) in You Only Live Twice (1967), Telly Savalas (Pontius Pilate) in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), and Max Von Sydow (Jesus Christ) in Never Say Never Again (1983).
* In his dissatisfaction with how his music was heavily edited (multiple times), moved to scenes for which they were not written or replaced by the works of Giuseppe Verdi and Georg Friedrich Handel, composer Alfred Newman attempted to have his name removed from the credits of this picture. Reference: Darby, Ken.

 

Towards the end of his career, Stevens got the big project disease extremely badly (he had been a quite lively director until then). This was the result. A lot of people complained that the famous people doing cameos made it hard to concentrate on the story.

 

Next up are "In Harm's Way" (1965) and "The Sons of Katie Elder" (1965).

(from wiki)

In Harm's Way (1965).

n Harm's Way is a 1965 film starring John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, and Henry Fonda, produced and directed by Otto Preminger, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was written by Wendell Mayes based on the novel by James Bassett. It dramatically recounts the lives of some naval officers and their wives based out of Hawaii as World War II begins.

Plot

John Wayne stars as a Captain who is removed from command for "throwing away the book" when pursuing the enemy after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but is later promoted to Admiral and given a crucial mission requiring the same sort of guts and gallantry. The role is one of Wayne's best non-Western parts. Though it makes use of the same heroic persona that Wayne displayed in his Westerns, this persona is very much restrained under Otto Preminger's direction. We learn more of the character's human qualities: his estrangement from his son, a junior officer in the navy (played by Brandon De Wilde), and his romance with a nurse (played by Patricia Neal) which brings out his yearning for a stable emotional anchor in his life. The Wayne?Neal relationship forms the emotional crux of the movie, and the two stars give sensitive performances.

There are sub-plots involving characters played by Kirk Douglas and Tom Tryon, who offer differing portraits of two naval officers associated with Wayne's command ? the former a wayward sort because of an unhappy marriage and the latter a conventional type with a characteristic Navy wife (played by Paula Prentiss) who is ever solicitous and faithful.

The film presents an unglorified and realistic picture of the American Navy and its officers, and its sprawling narrative is typical of Preminger's cycle of works in which he examined institutions and the people who run them (such as the American Congress and the Presidency in Advise and Consent, the Catholic Church in The Cardinal, and the British Intelligence Service in The Human Factor).

The title of the movie comes from a quote from John Paul Jones: "I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way."

Background/Production

Many believe Wayne's underplayed performance was due to the fact that he was seriously ill with lung cancer when the film was made. Shortly after filming ended in August 1964 he was diagnosed with the disease, and a month later underwent surgery to remove his entire left lung and two ribs.

The film was splendidly shot in black-and-white by Loyal Griggs, who composed his scenes in the scope format often using deep focus (Griggs was nominated for a Best Cinematographer Academy Award for his work). Jerry Goldsmith's score is also notable, as is the work of Saul Bass in the credit titles sequence (this sequence actually comes at the very end of the film, an interesting departure from the norm in a major Hollywood production at the time).

The film received extensive cooperation from the US Navy. This included the use of the USS St Paul in the role of the straw bottom cruiser referred to only as the "the old swayback" and an accompanying destroyer that took on the role USS Cassidy. The climactic battle with the Japanese fleet was staged mostly with model ships.

Cast

* John Wayne as Captain Rockwell W. "Rock" Torrey USN, CO of Old Swayback; afterwards Rear Admiral Rockwell W. Torrey USN, "operational commander" of "Operation Skyhook."
* Kirk Douglas as Commander Paul Eddington, USN, executive officer of Old Swayback; afterwards Captain Paul Eddington, Admiral Torrey's first chief-of-staff
* Barbara Bouchet as Liz Eddington, his faithless wife (who is killed in an automobile accident while fleeing a strafing run by Japanese planes in the attack on Pearl Harbor)
* Patricia Neal as Lieutenant Maggie Haines USN, a Navy nurse and Rock Torrey's love interest
* Jill Haworth as Ensign Annalee Dohrn

 

Haven't seen "In Harm's Way". "The Sons of Katie Elder" is cheese, but not unentertaining.

 

Next up are "El Dorado (1966) and "The War Wagon (1967).

El Dorado(1966).

(from Wiki)

El Dorado is a 1966 western movie starring John Wayne and Robert Mitchum, released by Paramount Pictures, directed by Howard Hawks, and written by Leigh Brackett based on the novel The Stars in Their Courses by Harry Brown. Nelson Riddle wrote the musical score. The film was shot in Technicolor and lasted 126 minutes.

It was the second film in a trilogy directed by Hawks varying the idea of a sheriff defending his office against belligerent outlaw elements in the town: the other two films were Rio Bravo (1959) and Rio Lobo (1970), all starring John Wayne.

The variation of El Dorado is that Mitchum plays the sheriff who becomes a drunk, while Wayne is a gunman who falls in with Mitchum and his deputy, defending a rancher and his family against a corrupt cattle baron (Ed Asner). Though Wayne is the center of the film, Mitchum essentially steals the film through his performance as the drunken sheriff. Mitchum's versatility as an actor is proven by the shifts in moods he displays throughout -- as a serious sober sheriff, as a drunkard, and then as a man trying to recover his lost dignity and prowess as a gunfighter. A young James Caan provides good support to the two stars as a knife-thrower who can't handle a gun. Mitchum inserts humour and irony into the movie. In one scene, he asks Caan for his full name and when Caan replies, "Alan Bourdillion Traherne", Mitchum dryly comments, "Well, no wonder he carries a knife!"

El Dorado is also notable for being primarily a nocturnal piece, a chamber Western that takes place mostly at night, adding to the film's sense of wonder and excitement. It was the first on-screen pairing of Wayne and Mitchum.

Trivia

The similarity between Rio Bravo and El Dorado gave rise to an amusing exchange in the 1995 movie, Get Shorty. In this scene, LA drug dealer, Bo Catlett (Delroy Lindo) breaks into the apartment of B movie and horror movie actress, Karen Flores (Rene Russo) in order to steal a valuable movie script. He accidentally touches the TV remote and switches on a cable channel, which is showing Rio Bravo. This awakens Flores and her boyfriend, mafia enforcer, Chili Palmer (John Travolta). The pair confront Catlett and in an attempt to talk his way out of the situation, Catlett confuses details about the respective casts of Rio Bravo and El Dorado. Palmer, a film-buff and would-be movie producer, is appalled at this lack of knowledge and proceeds to give the bemused Catlett, a tongue-in-cheek lecture setting the facts straight.

Cast

In El Dorado, Wayne (Cole Thornton) is joined in the cast by Robert Mitchum (Sheriff J.P. Harrah), James Caan (Mississippi), Arthur Hunnicutt (Bull Harris), Charlene Holt (Maudie), Michele Carey (Josephine 'Joey' MacDonald), Ed Asner (Bart Jason), Christopher George (Nelse McLeod), R. G. Armstrong (Kevin MacDonald), Paul Fix (Dr. Miller), and Jim Davis.

The War Wagon (1967).

The War Wagon is a 1967 western film directed by Burt Kennedy and adapted by Clair Huffaker from her own novel. The film, which featured John Wayne in one of his few roles as a "bad guy," received generally positive reviews.

Plot

Jackson (John Wayne) and Lomax (Kirk Douglas) ally against Frank Pierce (Bruce Cabot), a man who stole from both men to become wealthy and powerful. Together, they plot to steal a shipment of gold being transported in a "war wagon," a heavily armored stagecoach armed with a deadly gatling gun in a top-mounted steerable turret.

Cast

* John Wayne as Taw Jackson
* Kirk Douglas as Lomax
* Howard Keel as Levi Walking Bear
* Robert Walker Jr. as Billy Hyatt
* Keenan Wynn as Wes Fletcher
* Bruce Cabot as Frank Pierce
* Joanna Barnes as Lola
* Valora Noland as Kate Fletcher
* Bruce Dern as Hammond

Discuss.

 

"El Dorado" is just about a straight remake of another Hawks/Wayne film "Rio Bravo". Of the the two, "Rio Bravo" is far better.

"The War Wagon" I've seen, but I didn't like it much.

 

El Dorado is more lightweight (accent on the comedy) than Rio Bravo, but it is fun and has its own charms. Mitchum is the standout, but everyone is good. And you don't get that embarrassing musical sing-along with Ricky Nelson and Dean Martin from Bravo, either.

 

Next up are "Hellfighters (1968) and "True Grit" (1969).

Hellfighters (1968).

(from IMDb)

Hellfighters tells the adventures of oil well fire specialist Chance Buckman (based on real-life Red Adair), who extinguishes massive fires in oil fields around the world.

Cast overview, first billed only:

John Wayne .... Chance Buckman

Vera Miles .... Madelyn Buckman

Katharine Ross .... Tish Buckman
Jim Hutton .... Greg Parker
Jay C. Flippen .... Jack Lomax
Bruce Cabot .... Joe Horn
Edward Faulkner .... George Harris
Barbara Stuart .... Irene Foster
Edmund Hashim .... Col. Valdez
Valentin de Vargas .... Amal Bokru
Frances Fong .... Madame Loo
Alberto Morin .... General López
Alan Caillou .... Harry York
Laraine Stephens .... Helen Meadows
John Alderson .... Jim Hatch

This is a very entertaining film ... co-staring Jim Hutton, Katherine Ross & Vera Miles. Some of the acting of Hutton & Ross may have been less than one would expect. But the film should be seen keeping mind that this was years before the disaster films of the early seventies like The Poseidon Adventure & The Towering Inferno. It is a fun watch as Buckman's crew travels the world putting out oil well fires while kindling a few fires of their own in the local women. It is fun to watch many of the fire-fighting scenes today and wonder how they pulled this off thirty years ago. It is very John Wayne as can be seen as some of his regulars turn up here, such as Bruce Cabot, Edward Faulkner who were part of his stable. Watch it and enjoy.

True Grit (1969).

(from wiki)

True Grit by Charles Portis first appeared as a 1968 short story in The Saturday Evening Post. Portis subsequently re-issued the story in book form with a somewhat changed storyline. In 1969, True Grit was adapted for a screenplay as an American Western film starring John Wayne.

Story

Portis? novel is narrated in the first person by Mattie Ross, a thrifty, churchgoing spinster distinguished by a rare independence and strength of mind. As an old woman in the year 1928, she tells the story of her adventures many years earlier, in 1873, when, at the age of fourteen, she undertook a quest to avenge her father?s death at the hands of a drifter named Tom Chaney.

As Mattie's tale begins, Chaney is employed on the Ross? family farm in west central Arkansas, near the town of Dardanelle in Yell County. Chaney isn't much use as a farmhand and Mattie has only scorn for him, referring to him as "trash." She says her father, a good, kind man, only hired him out of pity. One day, Frank Ross and Chaney go to Fort Smith to buy some horses. Ross takes along $150 to pay for the horses, along with his gun and two gold pieces he always carried. When Ross tries to intervene in a barroom confrontation, Chaney kills him, robs the body, and flees into Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma) on his horse.

Hearing that Chaney has joined an outlaw gang led by the infamous "Lucky" Ned Pepper, most of the local marshals refuse to give chase. Mattie means to track down the killer, and upon arriving at Fort Smith she looks for the toughest deputy Marshal in the district. That man turns out to be Reuben J. ?Rooster? Cogburn, and although he is an aging, one-eyed, overweight, trigger-happy slob who never seems to miss a drink of whiskey, he also has ?grit.? Mattie decides she's found her man.

Playing on Cogburn's need for whiskey money, Mattie finally persuades him to take on the job, insisting that, as part of the bargain, she must go along. During the negotiations a Texas Ranger named La Boeuf appears. He, too, is tracking Chaney for killing a senator in Texas, and is out for glory, and a big cash reward. Cogburn and La Boeuf don't much like each other, but, after some haggling, they agree to join forces in the hunt. The two men try hard to leave Mattie behind, but she proves more tenacious and resourceful than they'd expected and eventually she becomes

 

Never seen "The Hellfighters".

"True Grit" however, is a very entertaining film from a very good book (Portis is really brilliant). The script changes things a bit, and I think, in cinematic terms, for the better. The last scene changes, but the respect between Mattie and Rooster stays.

Roberts also kills off a major character, and since it is played by Glen Campbell, we all cheer. For those fools who say John Wayne is not an actor, watch this film, and you will see a *real* not-actor. Campbell nearly ruins it.

Great scenes:

Mattie's encounters with Col. Stoneman; he's as self-righteous as she is, but bested all the same.

The Sheriff's description of Rooster: "a pitiless man, double-tough, fear don't enter into his thinking."

Mattie forces her way onto the expedition: Rooster: "By God! She reminds me of me!" (Great line!)

Rooster interrogates the two captured outlaws.

Rooster tells Mattie about his past (they're right, a great scene).

Rooster faces Lucky Ned Pepper (very well played by Robert Duvall) and his gang.

Rooster and Mattie at the end.

Wayne won a well-deserved Oscar. This film is now rather obscure, but it shouldn't be.