Why I like John Wayne.

Hi Bill, quite welcome and thank you for the nice comments. As for me being superior in knowledge of older movies-well, at least half of the credit for my knowledge on classics-lies with hanging around the Duke Wayne forums for about the last 4 or so years ;-)) The rest lies with watching the classics over and over again in place of regular televised programs-which im not a fan of most of what's shown ;-))

I'd love to converse with your wife about classic movies sometime. I bet that I would learn a lot that I never knew about. ;-)) Heh heh, normally I stay away from hollywood trivia-except in the cases of wanting to know as much as I can about my favorite actors and the movies they were in. As for those of today, ask my any question about any of them-and I couldn't give you an answer. I know almost nothing about the new guard.

I would bet my last Dollar, that your assessment is correct about Ted Turner and his cheaper way of protecting the movies in his library. One movie I have marveled at for years because of somehting that is easily spotable in it-which has never been fixed correctly-is a short scene from Fort Apache. Just after Fonda and Company arrive at Meechams place-you see a flag was lowerd to half-mast and an empty Whiskey bottle sits next to the flagpole. Well, Col Thursday orders his Bugler to go fit it and you see the film is badly spliced together when the trooper is shown raising the flag and kicking the empty bottle away. There are a few other things I noticed through the film that isn't as it should be but just can't think of them right now. Anyway, I too believe that Turner took the cheap way out) in preserving his films.

I don't know why at the time that he didn't use the film archives at the UCLA film library? I'd almost bet that then again, it had to do with how much money he'd have to pay. One thing that is fact about the UCLA film library, is that it's the most complete film library in the world. Those folks are to be applauded for their hard work in preserving films. I didn't like it either when Sony got the rights to Columbias archives. At least they are spending the money to preserve what they can as fast as possible. I collect those Three Stooges DvDs-and the restoration on their 2-reelers is fantastic. When they used to show these on TV after school-when I was much younger, you could hear the scratches in the audio-and see flaws in the reels themselves.

PS, Angel and the Badman was on again today on the Encore Westerns channel. It was great to finally get to see this fine film from beginning to ending. You know what this movie reminds me of? it reminds me of his movie: The Quiet Man. They both have several simularities.

 

Just watched Hondo again and heard another good line.
Someone said, as they brought a shot up young Lieutenant back from a fight,
"I'm worried about this boy's judgment,"
reply "Yah, but I'm not worried about his character, the bullet holes are all in the front."

 

Hey Carl, i got Angel and the Badman on my planner will have to watch it and see what you mean ref Quiet Man i said it before i will say it again classic Duke and any Duke film with VM and WB in is a winner every time agreeing with the point you made on Fort Apache especially.all the best.Jason

 

Been a mixed week on the Duke front having missed two of Gordons above mentioned duke films i set my sky planner to record the rest, well it had other ideas it recorded War of the wildcats decided it would not record wake of the red witch,the son of a bitch and then managed after cocking up everything else i had in my planner to record the Sands of iwo jima, which i just watched gotta love the scene in this where the duke does the dancing bayonet lesson a classic in every sense of the word,and yesterday i watched Flame of the barbary coast, and the Duke plays Duke question for Carl on this where have i seen the guy who plays the tito character before? another Duke film or something else.Hatari on DVD on the way to my door shortly

 

Hi mate-you will not regret enjoying that movie. I used to have it on VHS but rarely watched it for some reason-which I don't know what is? Anyway, Victor McLaglen is great in all of his Duke films. In Fort APache-he's just plain--a riot. I love that scene where you see him in the Guardhouse-after he and the other three Sgts drank up all that ""bad"" Whiskey at the Trading Post. The look on his face is hilarious to say the least. ;-))

The Quiet Man is a good film, and I like the fact that it was filmed in Ireland. Having Victor McLaglen as his chief rival-was a masterstroke of pure genious on John Fords part. Also having Maureen O'Hara as Dukes love interest-made that movie all the more better. Hah ha, I also like the fact that Ward Bond is a Priest ;-))

There was a Duke movie on last night, but I didn't get to it in time to watch it. I hope tonight I will have control of the TV remote so I can check both Encore Westerns Channels to see if Duke is on either of them?

I did get lucky last night, and cought the tail end of a good Audie Murphy western which also had Star Treks Dr. McCoy (DeForrest Kelley) as his usual western bad guy role. AUdie wound up giving him a .45 calibre punch-which made him a K.I.A. kind of guy ;-D

 

Hi Mate-well, at least you got to see some of them-which is better than not seeing any. I haven't seen "War of the Wildcats" in probably 25 or so years. If i'm not mistaken-I think Duke struck Oil? or did something like that? I THINK this one is available on DvD. I'm not 100% positive, but will have to check for info about it sometime this coming week.

I still haven't seen "Wake of the Red Witch" all the way through yet. I plan on ordering it and a few other Duke titles before the end of the year ;-)) "Sands of Iwo Jima" is a great movie. That's another of many of Dukes movies i'll never get tired of. Also, it was the first Duke DvD that I bought a few years before I even had a DvD player. As for "Flame of the Barbery Coast," I still haven't seen it yet-but that's another Duke movie I plan to have and see before the end of the year. I THINK I know who you are talking about though, and not having and refenrances with actors in his movies handy, I would almost bet that the man your thinking of-could be either Stewart Grainger-who was in I think both North To Alaska-and Legends of the Lost? Th3e other guy i'm thinking of that he could be-is Robert Preston-but not sure on him as im not sure if he and Duke ever made a film together? If they did-it would have to be Preston in "Wake of the Red WItch."

I'll try to remember to check the IMIDB site to confirm or to correct who I mentioned above.

 

I like a lot of John Wayne films but my favourite by far was Rio Bravo. Walter Brennan was excellent!

 

I'll any fan of Dukes.

By the way, I don't know if Ireland had had the bad misfortune or not of having Wal-Mart invade its shores yet but, if so, they have a delux edition of Rio Bravo for sale that includes an extra DvD, as well as several high glossy color cast and crew cards included with the movie-and Wal-Mart was selling it here locally, for only $5 bucks.

Best regards-C.

 

oh we do get John Wayne films cheap but they dont tend to be the more well known titles!! Another of his I liked was "The Longest Day" and also McQ, for some strange reason!

 

I know what you mean ;-)) I see a lot of his older lesser known stuff for sale. Some of these are his early 1930's Westerns which many are public domaine-which means not restored before being released for sale-which is a shame.

The Longest Day is one of my alltime most favorites and McQ is a good movie. Did you know that Duke was considered for the role of Dirty Harry-instead of Clint Eastwood? Their reasoning for that was not only because Duke being popular-but the Dirty Harry character was supposed to be older than Clint was at the time.

 

Hmmm... would John Wayne make a better Dirty Harry than Clint? The movies were basically Westerns placed in the 20th Century.
I like John Wayne a lot but I don't think he could play a character with a dark streak as well as Clint Eastwood.
Still, I am fairly sure that if John Wayne did play Dirty Harry, he would do as any good actor can, play the role as he understands the character and mold it to conform to the spirit of the script and vision of the director.
Definitely, this is something that I'll have to think about long and hard.

 

Hi FalconJ/ I have to agree wiht you here. I think Clint was the best choice for Dirty Harry-and having seen all of the five movies many times-I could never imagine anyone else playing him. BTW, Frank Sinatra was also offered the role of Dirty Harry-but couldn't take it thanks to other committments. As they say-the rest is history ;-))

Duke was great enough but, nobody could be great in everything they did. Dukes most embarassing role-was when he was playing Genghis Kahn in: The Conquerer. I have been able to sit through that movie only once. I might try to again as it's been about 20 years since I last saw it. It might have improved more with age. And besides-it also had Paul Fix and I think Pedro Armendariez in it-and both are also favorites of mine ;-))

 

Carl, don't bother trying to watch Ghengis Khan. It didn't improve with age!

Did you know (and somehow I expect that since it involves John Wayne you do!) that it was filmed near the site of Atomic bomb testing and that many of those involved with the film later had cancer, including sadly "The Duke" andSusan Hayward. I remember reading about it in a book but just googled and found this http://www.straightdope.com/columns...e-of-cancer-caused-by-a-radioactive-movie-set which gives more detail.

 

Thank you on all accounts Michelle. Your right though, I did know that movie was shot on a testing range. I heard that over 95 people associated with that movie-have died from a type of Cancer. I know that I think it was in 1964 or so? that Mexican Actor-and one of my fave-Pedro Armendariez had I think it was bone cancer?-not 100% sure? and he was in the hospital where a family member smuggeled into it-a pistol he owned-that he used to commit suicide. :-( He couldn't stand the pain. The world lost a great actor-plus so many other great people-thanks to that darned disease.

One thing about Duke though, was that he was well known to be a 3 packs of Cigarrettes a day-smoker. He also mainly smoked Marlboro Reds Boxed. Duke also like Cigars and Pipes, but rerely enjoyed them.

I always liked Susan Hayward. Not only was she talented, but she was a very beautiful woman. I compare her to the likes of Maureen O'Hara-both firey redheads.

Thank you for the link, I will check it out as I don't think i've seen that site before?

Take care and best regards-Carl.

 

Hi Michelle and Jeff, both of you gave some sound advice. I think i'll skip the movie. At least he has 166 other movies that all were much better-even his "Singin' Sandy" days. ;-))

Heh heh, the last time I was kinda inebriated-was when my Brother got married in Dec 1999. I had a bottle of Cinnamon Schnapps with me. I had two swigs from it-and never knew I was 'over-the-edge' and was surprised that I made it back to my Hotel room ;-)) Anyway, perhaps that's the way to go-when a known BOMB is going to be shown ;-))

Also, everytime History of the World, had been shown on TV-I have never-not once-even have seen it all the way through-nor have I ever seen it's beginning. I always seem to catch it at about the same time as any other viewing-which is when Mel Brooks is trying to get the roman version of unemployed workers benefits. I too never thought the film -what parts i saw-was funny. I think I got a chuckle or two thanks to Sid Caesar-or I thik it might have been Carl Ballentine-of McHales Navy fame.

 

Had my usual weekend fix of the duke today we had Angel And The Badman never seen this but what a great film these forties films the duke did were IMHO as good in some ways as his classics still to come now having seen a few of these forties films i want more cmon Carl, chuck a few out for me.

 

The actor in Flame Of The Barbary Coast was Joseph Schildkraut.

 

Film 15 for my Duke collection arrived in the post yesterday Hatari could be tomorrows sunday afternoon viewing.

 

Heh heh, the 40s he did have some great movies did he not? A few that come to mind are:

Dark Command, Fort Apache, Sands of Iwo Jima, They Were Expendable, Operation Pacific, The Flying Tigers and Reunion in France. ;-))

How'r those for starters? ;-))

Joseph Schildkraut is a very familiar name-I just can't place his image-but I know I have probably enjoyed his acting many times.

Your catching up to me with your film collection. I need to get busy and get some more ;-))

BTW, did I mention that The Horse Soldiers was shown on the ENcore Westerns Channel about 2-3 nights ago. I didn't know it was on and missed the first half of it :-( h well, I have it on DvD as well which is with most of them in Houston. I think it'll be the first Duke movie-rather THE first movie I will watch-when I get back there sometime this coming Friday.