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
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
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
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 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
John Wayne Western Movies of The 1930s – The Wilderness Years (Part 1) Having checked out all of the full-length feature films that John Wayne appeared in from Stagecoach to The Shootist, I thought I’d take a look at JWs wilderness years, before he became a fully fledged star in John Ford’s 1939 classic Western. … Read more
I’m sure we’ve all got our own favorite lines from John Wayne movies, and hopefully, I’ve included a few of them in this list of 20 John Wayne’s movie quotes. For an appreciation of John Wayne quotes this time, not from the movies but said in his own words about actors, directors etc. there is … Read more
Having covered John Wayne Western Theme tunes, I thought I’d give consideration to the best orchestral themes as well. Just like the previous article, I’m hoping this one will initiate a debate between the readers of MostlyWesterns regarding their own favourite JW theme. For the purpose of this article JW theme music is defined as … Read more
John Wayne Western Movie Theme Songs This is a list in ascending order of some of my favorite John Wayne western movie theme songs and tunes which I hope is going to stir a debate or two amongst JW fans out there. There’s one feature that I nearly always mention in passing when writing a … Read more
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