“Stagecoach” – The First John Wayne / John Ford Film?

Early John Wayne Films Directed by John Ford

There is a suggestion in a number of Wayne filmographies that his first appearance in a John Ford film was as an extra in the silent Mother Machree, released in 1928.

The film, however, was actually shot in 1926 but held back for release until 1928 whilst the studio, the Fox Corporation, added sound effects to incorporate the new requirement for sound. According to a number of biographies on both Wayne and John Ford, the young actor did actually appear in the film, but only by accident when working as a prop man, he wandered in front of the camera whilst sweeping the studio floor.

As only about 30 minutes of footage at the most still survives from Mother Machree it’s hard to determine if Wayne is featured as an extra so I guess the jury is still out on that one.

His next acting credit in a Ford film is Four Sons, which was released in 1928, also featuring sound effects and a small line of dialogue.

Again, there is some dispute as to whether Wayne featured in the film itself as he was apparently still working in the props department. The first definitive appearance of a young John Wayne in a Ford film is in Hangman’s House, also released in 1928, indicating how prolific Ford was back in the early days.

Wayne actually gets to appear twice in this film. He can be seen quite clearly as a condemned man swinging from a noose in a flashback sequence.

His second appearance is as a rather over-enthusiastic horse racing fan who tears down a fence when cheering on the winning horse. One filmography also claims he appears in Ford’s The Black Watch, the director’s first full-sound film but again there doesn’t appear to be any photographic evidence to back that claim up.

Wayne_Salute

His first speaking part in a John Ford film is as a bullying naval cadet in Salute, released in 1929. A year later Wayne appears in what was interestingly the only sequel Ford ever made, Men Without Women, a submarine drama featuring characters from the earlier Salute, although there’s no evidence Wayne plays the same role in both films as he is not actually credited in the cast list for any of these early Ford films. This also applies to his work as an extra in Born Reckless, directed by Ford and released in 1930.

It would not be until 1939 that John Wayne received an official acting credit in any Ford film, in this case, the awesome classic western Stagecoach.
The rest, as they say, is history.
 

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Steve is a film scholar of note, gaining both an MA in film studies and a Ph.D. for his thesis on the silent films of John Ford. Steve, a scriptwriter and published novelist, provides much of the content you see here and is a dedicated aficionado and longtime fan of John Wayne, John Ford and Western films in general.

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