Why I like John Wayne.

For those of you who haven't seen it, The Shootist:

YouTube - John Wayne Is The Last Shootist

Just the trailer but it is an awesome film. And She Wore a Yellow Ribbon:

YouTube - John Wayne - U.S. CAVALRY - She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (USA 1949)

 

Have to fully agree there. The Shootest is an awsome film and epitomises John Wayne and his film carreer as well as real life healthe experiances. No movie could have been more "Tailor-made" for anyone-even though he was not the first choice for the lead role. I can't remember who was first choice but think it was either Robert Mitchum, Kirk Douglas or James Stewart.

 

I agree with you Carl, The Shootist is my all time fave of the Wayne films. Others are (in no real order), The Quite Man, The Cowboys, The Searchers, and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.

And as an aside I believe it was offered to Kirk Douglas, but that is a dim memory and could be wrong.

 

James Stewart is excellent as the doctor too, I particularly like the 'if I were as brave as you I wouldn't die like that' bit.

Another classic Wayne, this is an amazing scene even if isn't really Wayne doing the acting:
YouTube - The Searchers - Best Scene

"Watch that knife!"
YouTube - That'll Be The Day

 

Hi Clint-those are excellent choices. The Cowboys is another favorite of mine and especially as seeing that I met one of "the Cowboys" many years ago at a Rodeo he was in that was held at the Bandera Downs Horse racing track in Bandera Texas. Gary Grimes is his name but I met him and never thought to ask for his autograph. I met him about 20 minutes or so before he was to preform-and since we were also near the Refreshments stand-we bought each other a Coca Cola. ;-))

 

James Stewart indeed was excellent as the Doctor. I think he only signed onto the film because Duke got the leading role.

 

who called Duke?

 

Heh heh, I wish you had an inmage of him in El Dorado-just after they force-fed the Robert Mitchum character-that concoction that "Mississippi" (James Caan) gave to him. The looks on Duke, Mississippi and Arthur Hunnicutts faces as they were running out of the jail cell they placed Mitchum in-was exactly like something youwould see The Three Stooges do. :lol: :lol:

 

Channel 4 have a mini-John Wayne season this week, Monday to Wednesday: Rio Grande(Monday 13.25), The Quiet Man (Tuesday 1300) and The Man who shot Liberty Vallance (Wednesday 1305).

 

All great films none the less with Rio Grande my favorite of the three.

 

Forgot to get back with you and answer your question. What little I am in charge of is doing fine....

 

Thats definately no problem. After all, we all do have a life outside of this website--------I think?

 

Well, some of us do....sometimes....

 

The last two days I have lived on the computer-trying to catch up on things

on other sites im on. I spent most of today snagging a collection of 20 Gebirgsjager photos taken by the 79th GebJgr Arty Regiments photographer. I have a few shots including GebJgr Generals, some action stuff, and other great shots. Oh and, I also ended up with an Regimentstagesbefehl for September 6th 1942. :-D Needless to say-I am a happy camper with this batch of stuff. Along with this is coming a total of twenty photographs of men of the79th Geb Arty Rgmt-which was part of the first Geb Div. Some good shots in Russia including PWs and Russians helping this GJ unit. Oh and at least one pic of GebJgr RKT Major Salminger and I think two pics showing Rumanian GJ Offz and men.

 

This week i bought In Harms Way, put it on last night and what more could you ask for the Duke, Kirk Douglas, Henry Fonda, Burgess Meridith and others in a good old black and white Duke war film plus I either saw this many, many years ago or not at all as I dont really remember seeing it

 

Funny you should mention that Mate-im going to go to the nearest Barnes and Nobles bookstore by the weekend and see if I can get than new 4 movie DvD set that TCM put out that has four of Dukes War movies on them. There is another with four of his Westerns on them as well. Though I already have all eight of the movies TCM released-I want to get those two sets just so I can have em ;-))

In Harms Way is good-I always enjopyed watching it even if a bit long ;-))

PS, if i remember correctly? Hugh O'Brien is in it. He is better known as TV's Wyatt Earp.

 

Hi Carl, not sure how you will take this but as your a Big John Wayne Fan here is an article I came across in one of our tabloid newspapers.

Daily Express links are not what I call reliable so I post the full article and link at the bottom.

 

Hi Richard, and thanks for this.

This gives another opportunity to set the record clear of bad mistakes and errors that are purposedly made. Apparently this news hound did not do his homework when writing this mostly negative piece on Duke. One of the few things this writer got that is correct about Duke, was the fact that almost 1/2 of the Crew who worked on the Conquours movie set-did indeed die from Cancer (never proven but always assumed) by said Nuclear weapons having been tested there. The other thing this writer got that was correct-was Duke DID blame his Cancer due to smoking three packs of Marlboro Reds-per day-which was the norm for people in Hollywood back in those days. Samething with heavy drinking and eating lots of delicious red meat and potatos.

Now for clearing up some of this Jackasses intentional dis-information.

1) Duke did indeed try to enlist-but the Military refused his enlistment saying that Duke would be of better usage in making movies and doing the rounds to help boost up Americans morale-which is EXACTLY what Duke did during the war. Also, there were at least three other reasons why the military refused to allow Duke into service. A) Because he was already over 40 yars ol, B) because he already had at least three children and were their only means of support, and C) he had medical reasons that would have kept him out of service had those other two conditions not already existed-which was that he had a Perferated Eardrum. I have never heard of a man being allowed to serve in the military at that time-who had the same condition. Now im sure a few slipped through the cracks and probably did serve-but they would have been rare exceptions to the case. As for Duke trying to enlist-I have seen photo-copies of the enlistment form that he filled out and turned in. This form can be found shown and fully explained by the person who posted it-whom I THINK was Mr William Brooks (aka) Chili Bill-over on the JWMB and John Wayne websites. Mr Brooks BTW-made several movies with Duke as well as James Stewart, and also is a Fighter Pilot/Korean War Veteran and longtime friend of Duke.

Duke was totally correct and had every right to support the anti-communistic feelings of the time-same as I feel now. If I were in Dukes shoes then-i'd have done the exact same thing. Also, Neil-forgot to mention that the Committee that started this commie witch hunt to begin with, practically begged Duke to appear and make a speech for Americans to hear. Duke supported McCarthys idea in that Americans should be loyal to their Country-instead of being an agitator as communists were known to be.

A for hiw womanizing-its not as widespread as that articles Author wants it to be. He did cheat one one wife-and he only had a very good friendship with marlene Dietrich-never a Cupic-like full-blown romance with her. They were good friends just like he was good friends with Maureen O'Hara and also Marilyn Monroe. In fact, I visited and ate at an establishment in Heidelberg, Germany-where Duke and Marilyn both stayed and partied at-along with John F. Kennedy among others ;-)) The place is called: Zum Rothen Ochsen (SP?) which means: The Red Ox-in Deutsch. BTW, if you ever go there-you have to eat there as the food was excellent ;-))

The thing about him having a "feminine" name is rubbish. He was indeed at birth, Marion Michael Morrison but-the name Marion was changed and his younger Brother had that moniker. Marion was a "family" name in his Mothers side of the family-and it was not an unusual thing for a man to be given a feminine name as part of his name. Even with being ill from Cancer-Duke could easily beat the ship out of this articles author.

The garbage that Neil said that Duke preferred to stay at home and make more movies of course-is BS-and already explained above ;-)

Gene Autry never made such a comment about Duke. Autry would never have made that comment even to his own worst enemy-IF he ever had one? Gene Autry was one of few people in that business that were truely Genuine people. Duke and others like Roy Rogers, Charlton Heston, Richard Widmark and such-well-they were in this catagory: WYSIWYG "what you see is what you get." ;-))

It is true that stalin did indeed try to have Duke assassinated-I don't know the full story but-it didn't happen as Neil wrote. They never had a mock execution but the FBI did indeed find the two Russian agents and arrested them.

The only way Dukes image gets tarnished is when an egotistical a$$hole of a writer gets an assignment and is told how the artical has to be written.

This guy Neil, should go over to the Globe or to the National Inquirer, to go work at, Heck, even the National Inquirer-at the time of Dukes battle with cancer as well as at the time of his death and afterwards-even THEY didn't say anything or try to post false crap about him-they had that much respect for him-which is why I don't totally hate any and everything to do with that fabricated news rag.

In closing, one thing that NOBODY could ever say that Duke did-was to make a profit off of visiting the troops in the field-something much unlike what can be said about Bob HO-Ho-Ho Hope. Bob Hope only visited the troops in the field-if he was paid to do so. Ill bet that most folks didn't know that tidbit of history ;-) Duke however, spent his own money in order to pay troops a visit.

I know a gent over at JW.com who has photographs he took of Duke during one of his visits to our guys in Nam. This person being a member over on JW.com-had ben a Sergeant in the Army at that time and happened to catch one of Dukes visits along with appearances by several Female starlets (I can't remember their names but can possibly get their names if wanted? if I have to ask Mr Brooks about them?)

Did Bob Hope ever do a movie, get paid and then give all the monies he made from that movie-to a charaty? The answer to that is a resounding--Nope. Duke did, he made The Longest Day, and told the Directors and Producers he wantd $200,000-or he wasn't going to make that movie. They paid him that $200,000-and Duke donated every penny of it to a charity. This is a fact that is well-known and should be easily found mentioned on the internet.

Now the above about Bob Hope might sound as if I dislike him-nope-he was and still is, one of my all-time most favorite comedians. His skits with Jerry Colona-were hilarious to say the least.

 

Carl

I must admit I treated the article as suspect but as I'm not well up on the Duke like your good self I could not make any real comment.

Bloody gutter press.

Thanks for putting the truthful side of the story across Carl.

Send that a plonker a strongly worded letter and put him in his place.

 

Hi Mate, that treating it with suspect only means that you have a good head on your shoulders and can think correctly ;-)) Duke has a great fan following in England (UK) and Germany and Russia as well as elsewhere but especially in those listed countries.

What stymies me is that there is a huge John Wayne fan club in England-but not one here. I heard it through the Grapevine-that Ethan Wayne is thinking of creating one-which will be "open" for anyone anywhere to join.