I first made contact with Harry Carey Jr., or ‘Dobe’; as he came to be known, back in 1998. I’d met up with the film director Andrew McLaglen at Pinewood studios to discuss a script I’d written about the making … Read more
I thought I’d share some background information and a behind the scenes look at the making of The Quiet Man, bearing in mind the number of people I have met and spoken to over the years who were actually involved in … Read more
John Ford is obviously mainly known for directing Westerns, some of the most acclaimed of them starring John Wayne. Wayne appeared in 8 of the 14 Westerns John Ford directed in the sound period, with Ford directing his last Western, … Read more
I’m only reviewing the following movie simply because it’s a Western and it has John Wayne in it, although he probably only appears for about two minutes in a film that runs for approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes. So what’s … Read more
Operation Pacific (1951) Now. What’s not to like about Operation Pacific? It’s John Wayne’s first WWII movie of the 1950s AND it’s a submarine movie as well and I just love submarine films. Whilst not exactly in the same league as Das … Read more
The eagle-eyed among you will note that this website is called MostlyWesterns.com and the John Wayne fans will acknowledge that The Quiet Man movie isn’t actually a Western. The Quiet Man – A Western Movie I wanted to write about … Read more
At the end of The Searchers, John Wayne famously stands in the doorway as the family he has helped to reunite disappear into the darkness of the cabin in front of him. Before turning away into the four winds that … Read more
By my reckoning the first film John Wayne appeared in that touched upon the subject of the second World War was John Ford’s rather melancholy The Long Voyage Home, released in 1940. The boat on which Wayne serves as a … Read more
Back in the early 90s I was reading a book by the now-deceased British film director Lindsay Anderson (he directed If, O Lucky Man and Britannia Hospital among others) when I came across the mention of a meeting Anderson had … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more