# John Wayne movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 26, 2005, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-movies/337201 "2005-12-26T00:43:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-movies/337201/21 "2005-12-27T02:52:33Z")
> [@Swede Hollow](#): > > You could easily be right, but I assumed **RealityChuck** meant public domain by the context. Hmm. Well, all the public-domain dollar DVDs in my local dollar stores are displayed in POP units up by the register, so that’s where I was goin with that. ---
**Author:** ![Kaotic\_Newtral](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@Kaotic\_Newtral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaotic_Newtral)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-movies/337201/22 "2005-12-27T02:58:08Z")
While I realize I might piss everyone off here at the SD…John Wayne was a hack. I’ve never seen a movie of his that I could stomach. I’ve had numerous arguments with friends that Clint Eastwood is the greatest film cowboy ever…they’ve tried to throw the John Wayne angle at me…it’s not even close. John Wayne was the pussboy that ‘The man with no name’ would let live…to tell the whores that it wasn’t nice to cut 'em…and, he’d be back! ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-movies/337201/23 "2005-12-27T07:53:32Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > We know Stagecoach is good. Was that the movie that made him a bona fide star? Or was he a big name before that? John Wayne started out doing uncredited bit parts in 1926 while he was a student at USC, then was made the star of a big budget western _The Big Trail_ (in early widescreen, no less) in 1930. He spent the rest of the 1930s doing small parts at the major studios and starring in B and C budget westerns at the minor studios, until John Ford cast him in the lead of _Stagecoach_ (1939), making him an A-list star. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-movies/337201/24 "2005-12-27T09:43:46Z")
> [@Kaotic Newtral](#): > > While I realize I might piss everyone off here at the SD…John Wayne was a hack. I’ve never seen a movie of his that I could stomach. I’ve had numerous arguments with friends that Clint Eastwood is the greatest film cowboy ever…they’ve tried to throw the John Wayne angle at me…it’s not even close. John Wayne was the pussboy that ‘The man with no name’ would let live…to tell the whores that it wasn’t nice to cut 'em…and, he’d be back! Watch **The Searchers** , **True Grit** or the previously mentioned **Stagecoach** or **Liberty Valance** and then get back to me. **AuntiePam** , watch **Cat Ballou** again: Lee Marvin steals that movie from _everybody_. “I’d be more scared of the man who bit it off.” ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-movies/337201/25 "2005-12-27T10:09:36Z")
> [@Kaotic Newtral](#): > > While I realize I might piss everyone off here at the SD…John Wayne was a hack. I’ve never seen a movie of his that I could stomach. I’ve had numerous arguments with friends that Clint Eastwood is the greatest film cowboy ever…they’ve tried to throw the John Wayne angle at me…it’s not even close. John Wayne was the pussboy that ‘The man with no name’ would let live…to tell the whores that it wasn’t nice to cut 'em…and, he’d be back! 90% of everything is crap. John Wayne movies are no exception. Luckily, he was guided through his mediocre talent into some masterpieces by the greatest American director who ever lived, John Ford. Their chemistry was almost unique in movies, and there’s no question that John Wayne really shined like he did in John Ford’s movies. Well, OK, he shined in his Howard Hawks movies too. But even though 90% of his movies are crap, he made a lot of movies, so there’s around an even dozen that will kick your ass, Kaotic. Case Sensitive isn’t wrong, but I’d probably give you _The Quiet Man_, or _Rio Bravo_, or _They Were Expendable_ first, if my goal was to win you over. Although it sounds like your mind is made up. I should tell you, though, that until I saw \*Rio Bravo \*for the first time a few years ago, I’d’ve said pretty much what you’ve said. ---
**Author:** ![Cerri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3bc359/32.png) [@Cerri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerri)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-movies/337201/26 "2005-12-27T10:47:53Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > Here is a list of the movies: > > Blue Steel > Star Packer > The Trail Beyond > Texas Terror > Lawless Range > Hell Town > Angel and the Badman > Paradise Canyon > West of the Divide > Sagebrush Trail > Winds of the Wasteland > Rand Rides Alone > 'Neath Arizona Skies > McClintock > > There are also a couple of documentaries at the end. So far, seems like typical Grade B Westerns, although they’re enjoyable. Very much what I’d watch at 2 in the AM. I’m really not much of a John Wayne fan (I loathe Westerns in general), but I always loved McClintock. _Quite_ un-PC (there’s quite a few racial sterotypes, physical violence, spanking of women, etc.) hilarity ala Taming of the Shrew. The big mudfight scene never fails to crack me up. The Quiet Man is another fave of mine, but that one was set in Ireland, so wasn’t a Western. ---
**Author:** ![mamboman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mamboman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamboman)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-movies/337201/27 "2005-12-27T11:26:02Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > Yeah, John Ford made John Wayne a star with _Stagecoach_. John Ford discovered Wayne (along with Wayne’s football teammate, Ward Bond), and used him in small parts in like half a dozen movies in the 1920s. No doubt John Ford made Wayne a star, but it was [King Vidor](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0016627/) who discovered him. As the story goes, Wayne (or Marion Morrison as he then was) was moving furniture across a movie lot when he caught Vidor’s eye. mm ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-movies/337201/28 "2005-12-27T22:24:59Z")
> [@mamboman](#): > > As the story goes, Wayne (or Marion Morrison as he then was) was moving furniture across a movie lot when he caught Vidor’s eye. It being football season, I have to give a shameless shout-out to my alma mater. In the 1920’s the football powerhouse on the west coast was the University of California (Berkeley); and its biggest star was named Duke Morrison. So if you’re a wannabe football player, and you’re also named Morrison…your nickname is obvious. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-movies/337201/29 "2005-12-27T22:27:05Z")
> [@mamboman](#): > > No doubt John Ford made Wayne a star, but it was [King Vidor](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0016627/) who discovered him. As the story goes, Wayne (or Marion Morrison as he then was) was moving furniture across a movie lot when he caught Vidor’s eye. > > mm I’ll have to look it up again, but I swear the Ford biographies I’ve read say otherwise. Though I’m almost as big a fan of Vidor, so either way’s cool with me. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-movies/337201/30 "2005-12-27T22:29:23Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > It being football season, I have to give a shameless shout-out to my alma mater. In the 1920’s the football powerhouse on the west coast was the University of California (Berkeley); and its biggest star was named Duke Morrison. So if you’re a wannabe football player, and you’re also named Morrison…your nickname is obvious. Any chance that WAS John Wayne? Early on he was credited as “Duke Morrison,” and my recollection from the Ford bios I’ve read is that he was a star football player when he was discovered. Unless the biographer conflated the two incorrectly. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-movies/337201/31 "2005-12-27T22:32:06Z")
For whatever it’s worth, Vidor is not mentioned in his IMDB bio; neither is Duke Morrison as a source for his nickname. I don’t know the biographer (Ed Stephan), but he’s written 145 bios for IMDB. I haven’t looked any further than this though, so I dont’ think that’s necessarily conclusive. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-movies/337201/32 "2005-12-27T22:37:36Z")
Wikipedia (so still not conclusive) concurs. Also reminds me that “Duke” was closer to his “real” name than “John.” He’d been called Duke, in preference to Marion, since he was a kid. He was named “John Wayne” by Raoul Walsh, for _The Big Trail._ Before that he’d either been uncredited, or credited as “Duke Morrison.” ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-movies/337201/33 "2005-12-27T22:45:49Z")
It’s not a western, but it is a John Ford/John Wayne/Lee Marvin movie, and I love it: _Donovan’s Reef_. It’s filmed in Kaua’i and includes plenty of location shots, which is a good enough reason to watch it right there. It also has a couple of lovely barroom brawls involving John Wayne and Lee Marvin (and Mike Mazurki - sort of), and they’re some of my favorite movie fight scenes. It’s also replete with racism and sexisim, but it’s a John Ford flick, after all. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-movies/337201/34 "2005-12-27T23:07:34Z")
> [@teela brown](#): > > It’s also replete with racism and sexisim, but it’s a John Ford flick, after all. Ouch. Haven’t seen many John Ford movies, I take it. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-movies/337201/35 "2005-12-27T23:29:13Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > Any chance that WAS John Wayne? Early on he was credited as “Duke Morrison,” and my recollection from the Ford bios I’ve read is that he was a star football player when he was discovered. Unless the biographer conflated the two incorrectly. I’m able to confirm that Jesse “Duke” Morrison played for Cal from 1920-1922. More to come, when I get my hands on hard-copy sources. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-wayne-movies/337201.md?page=1)