Henry Hathaway learnt his craft during the silent era, working as an assistant director on the 1925 version of “Ben-Hur”. Turning to directing in the early 1930s he went on to work mainly within the Western and gangster genres throughout most of his career, although his first box-office hit was with “The Lives of a … Read more John Wayne Movies Directed by Henry Hathaway
I originally posted an article on my favourite top 10 John Wayne Movie Westerns that I caught at the cinema at the time they were released. Bearing in mind that I was 4 years old when my parents took me to see The Searchers this means there’s a whole bunch of Westerns Wayne made before … Read more The Ultimate Top 20 John Wayne Movie Westerns – IMHO
The idea originally was to see if we could match all of JWs “three good companions” – his weaponry, the horse he rode in on and the hat he wore – for the majority of his big-name Westerns. There is so much information out there to work with but trying to collate and match that … Read more John Wayne – His Rifle, Pony and Hat
It’s ten minutes into the final assault in “The Alamo”, and Dimitri Tiomkin’s superlative score heralds the beginning of the end for Davy Crockett. He makes his way towards the door of the mission, torch in hand, rifle in the other, turning as he runs and throwing the weapon in the face of an advancing … Read more How Many Times Was John Wayne Stuck with a Lance for His Death Scene in “The Alamo”?
…and slightly beyond.Like a lot of people who grew up in the 50s and 60s – mostly boys I have to admit – John Wayne was the ultimate hero and John Wayne Westerns were the best movie experience. He kicked arse like no one else onscreen. You could say he was an equal opportunities arse … Read more The 10 Best John Wayne Westerns from My Childhood…
Dealing specifically with John Wayne Westerns only, here’s my list of the most darndest, lowdown, back-shooting hornswaggling varmints that ever graced the screen in a Duke cowboy movie. All of the following apart from one don’t make it to the end of their respective films alive. Just in case you’re not sure I’ll provide the … Read more 9 Worst Baddies From John Wayne Westerns
At the risk of sounding as if I’m stating the obvious, we all watch a John Wayne movie to see him in action, whether that be a John Wayne western, one of his war films or any other genre. You wait in anticipation for Duke to make an entrance because you know that once he’s … Read more The Best John Wayne Western Movie Intros
Another 1930s western movie where John Wayne as Jerry Mason, comes back from college. College? What did he study? Riding shotgun? “Gabby” Hayes plays a character called “Grandy” Benson. The Lucky Texan (1934) Lone Star, Dir: Robert N. Bradbury, b/w, 54m Cast: John Wayne, Barbara Sheldon, Lloyd Whitlock, George ‘Gabby’ Hayes, Yakima Canutt, Eddie Parker … Read more John Wayne’s 1930s Western Movie Reviews – The Lucky Texan
John Wayne Western Shootouts – My Top 10 I’ve been writing about Westerns and John Wayne in particular for a couple of years now, covering JWs leading ladies, co-stars, punch-ups etc., so it comes as a bit of a surprise, even to me, that I’ve yet to take a look at my favourite shootout sequences … Read more Top 10 John Wayne Western Shootouts
In the preface to a book dedicated solely to a collection of essays on The Searchers (The Searchers: Essays and Reflections on John Ford’s Classic Western, edited by Eckstein and Lehman) one of the editor’s mentions a video installation set up in the desert a few miles to the east of Los Angeles back in … Read more A Must For All Lovers of Film But Why “The Searchers”?