The filmmaker who instantly made an enemy of John Wayne: “We don’t advertise socialists on my set”
In 1960, an 18-year-old future screenwriting legend was fresh out of Yale and working on his first movie set. He’d landed a gig as a third assistant director on The Comancheros, a western starring “The Duke” himself, John Wayne. He was excited to work with the iconic star, but to his surprise, he instantly found himself on Wayne’s bad side when he saw something the young man was wearing on set. In fact, the famously conservative actor dressed him down in such a devastating manner that he still remembered it nearly 30 years later.
The young filmmaker in question was Tom Mankiewicz, and he suggested that his title of “third assistant director” may have been a bit generous. In 1987, he admitted to the Los Angeles Times that he was truthfully little more than a gofer who fetched things for more important people and did the odd jobs around the set that others didn’t want to be bothered with. He smiled, “I can still remember all of my lines. I’d say, ‘Yes, sir.’ ‘I’ll get that right away, sir.’ ‘And I’ll get that, too. Right away, sir.'”
Mankiewicz hailed from Hollywood royalty, so it was perhaps inevitable that he’d wind up in the family business. His father was Joseph L Mankiewicz, the Academy Award-winning writer/director of films like All About Eve, A Letter to Three Wives, and Cleopatra. In addition, his uncle Herman Mankiewicz co-wrote Citizen Kane with Orson Welles and became the subject of David Fincher’s biopic Mank, which starred Gary Oldman.
Mankiewicz was determined to follow his father and uncle into the business of screenwriting, and he would go on to experience huge success in his own right. He wrote the James Bond picture Live and Let Die, as well as The Eagle Has Landed and Ladyhawke. He also plied his trade as a script doctor, which landed him the “Creative Consultant” credit on Superman: The Movie and Superman II. On top of that, he was responsible for writing the initial 1983 draft of Batman, which got that movie into production.
In 1960, though, Mankiewicz was simply using his summer vacation to get some experience on a movie set. That was the summer of the presidential election that pitted John F Kennedy against Richard Nixon, though, and Mankiewicz wanted to show his support for the socialist candidate. So, he wore a “JFK” button on the Comancheros set – and Wayne was incensed.
Mankiewicz claimed, “I thought Wayne and I were going to get along great until he saw that button on my chest. He came right over and said with obvious disgust, ‘Either you’re taking that thing off or not working on this picture. We have to put up with a lot of crap around here, but one thing we don’t need is some communist on the show.'”
Wayne had campaigned hard for Nixon in the election and wholeheartedly blamed Kennedy for the Bay of Pigs fiasco. In other people’s versions of this incident, he is said to have told Mankiewicz, “I’d take that button off if I were you. We don’t advertise socialists on my set.”
What did the 18-year-old Mankiewicz do when confronted by the angry right-wing Hollywood tough guy icon in his fifth decade? Did he stick to his guns and insist he had the right to show his support for whichever candidate he wanted? Of course, he didn’t.
“I looked at Wayne and said my usual line: ‘Right away, sir!'” laughed Mankiewicz. “And I took that button off so fast. I mean, when John Wayne tells you to do something, and you’re working on a picture for the first time…well, I would’ve taken all my clothes off if he’d asked.”
