Welcome to the second part of our article on the films John Wayne starred in for celebrated director John Ford. You can catch up with Part I of John Wayne & John Ford movies. They Were Expendable (1946) Despite John … Read more
John Wayne and director John Ford forged a screen partnership that produced a body of work almost unparalleled in Hollywood history. If either of them had never made any other films they would both still be lauded for having produced … Read more
If this John Wayne 1936 Republic oater isn’t one of those “JW in disguise sent by the Governor to sort out local corruption” scenarios, we’ll eat our horse and try a couple of spurs for dessert. The Lonely Trail (1936) … Read more
Howard Hawks was more of a “genre-hopper” as opposed to a director known for working in one specific type of movie. He made screwball comedies (“Bringing Up Baby”, “His Girl Friday”), gangster and crime thrillers (“Scarface”, “ The Big Sleep”) … Read more
Here’s another John Wayne Western in which Yakima Canutt plays the bad guy again, this time around a character called Henchman Pete. Don’t those outlaws ever have a surname? King of the Pecos (1936) Republic, Dir: Joseph Kane, b/w, 55m … Read more
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 … Read more
The next review should have been for “The Oregon Trail” but it seems to have gone missing somewhere along the way which is a shame as it may have turned out to be one of the best of all the … Read more
This is the first in a series of articles in which we take a look at some of the directors John Wayne worked with on more than a number of occasions, starting with Andrew V. McLaglen. Son of actor Victor, … Read more
John Wayne strums his way through this whilst miming to the questionable vocal talents of Glenn Strange, an actor who went on to play the Frankenstein monster a few years later. You have been warned. Lawless Range (1935) Republic, Dir: … Read more
We thought we’d revisit one of our most popular articles which took a look at the subject of John Wayne’s female co-stars. This time around we’ve put together a top ten list based upon the number of appearances the lucky … Read more
“The New Frontier” should not be confused with the later 1939 John Wayne / Republic vehicle “New Frontier”, which was retitled “Frontier Horizon”. Glad we can clear that one up. Read on, pardners. The New Frontier (1935) Republic, Dir: Carl … Read more
The Desert Trail (1935) Lone Star, Dir: Cullen Lewis, b/w, 54mCast: John Wayne, Mary Kornman, Paul Fix, Eddy Chandler, Carmen LaRoux, Lafe McKee The opening sequence in this film is actually quite entertaining. Wayne, as rodeo rider John Scott, is … 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 … 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 … Read more
Rainbow Valley (1935) Lone Star, Dir: Robert N. Bradbury, b/w, 52mCast: John Wayne, Lucille Brown, George Hayes, Leroy Mason, Lloyd Ingraham, Buffalo Bill Jr. On the way to Rainbow Valley JW, as John Martin, encounters the proper “Gabby”, the one … Read more
Texas Terror (1935) Lone Star, Dir: Robert N. Bradbury, b/w, 51mCast: John Wayne, Lucille Brown, Leroy Mason, Fern Emmett, George Hayes, Buffalo Bill Jr. When the film starts, John Wayne as John Higgins is – unusually – the local sheriff … Read more
As with our previous article on John Wayne’s top 20 box-office Western movies we’ve decided to consider only the domestic take. This time around though, we didn’t restrict the titles to those films that earned $4 million or above. We … Read more
