The John Wayne movie that almost descended into violence: “What a miserable film to make”
There aren’t many moments in John Wayne‘s career where the actor wasn’t seemingly on the edge of knocking someone’s tooth right out of their mouth. His roles, by and large, positioned Wayne as the all-American hero, a working man fighting, quite literally, for the goodness in the world. Whether he was a serving member of the US Army or a lone-ranging cowboy, Wayne’s roles always packed a punch.
Quite expected then, the tough-talking actor was usually somewhat brutish off-screen, too. Whether it was with his co-stars or his directors, Wayne was not an actor who took things too lightly when it came to making movies and his bullish demeanour on set was not reserved for his characters alone.
Throughout his career, Wayne has been noted for being a cantankerous customer. Not only did he once try to rush the stage when Sacheen Littlefeather rejected Marlon Brando’s Oscar for ‘Best Actor’ and enraged the western star, but Wayne also routinely campaigned about what he deemed Hollywood’s “perverted” side of filmmaking, even heading up an anti-Communist league for the industry.
Things would be more personal than that, too. Over the years, he fell out with countless actors, including Brando, Kirk Douglas, Montgomery Clift and director John Huston. However, perhaps his most issue-laden relationship was that between him and John Ford, who, as well as being his adversary, was perhaps one of his closest collaborators.
The duo shared numerous projects together and worked, for the most part, like warring father and son. While Wayne was always aiming to please Ford, the latter took his time to routinely chastise his star and, on many projects, would actively seek to upset him either through banning him from socialising or simply making fun of the fact he didn’t serve in World War II. When the duo reconnected in 1062 to shoot The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, things almost boiled over and ended in a violent altercation.
It was a perfect storm of unenviable interferences that would lead to the on-set tension. Paramount was hounding Ford to make the picture faster than ever before, and he took it out on his star. Woody Strode, who also starred in the movie, remembered that Ford “kept needling Duke [Wayne] about his failure to make it as a football player” as well as his usual jibes about the war.
Within Michael Munn’s John Wayne – The Man Behind The Myth book, Strode said that the director’s comments “really pissed Wayne off, but he would never take it out on Ford.” Instead, the actor claimed, “He ended up taking it out on me.”
This culminated when Wayne almost lost control of his horse. With the veteran actor struggling, Strode attempted to help him before Wayne batted his co-star away and attempted to land a punch. Strode almost responded in kind before Ford yelled: “Don’t hit him, Woody! We need him!”
In the end, Wayne levelled with his colleague and said: “We gotta work together. We both gotta be professionals.” Rather than lay blame on Wayne, Strode blamed Ford for every issue on The Man From Liberty Valance: “What a miserable film to make.”
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