The one and only movie John Wayne banned John Ford from directing: “This was my dream”
Most of the time, if John Ford asked John Wayne to jump, he’d ask how high.
The director was a friend, frequent colleague, mentor, and father figure to the actor, and pretty much the only person in Hollywood who could talk to ‘The Duke’ like he was a piece of shit and get away with it.
The answer as to whether it was tough love or a belligerent man being a belligerent man varied depending on who was asked, with Wayne maintaining that Ford was constantly on his case to draw a better performance out of him, whereas other colleagues and co-stars simply thought he was being a dick for the sake of it.
Whenever the opportunity arose for the duo to reunite, they’d usually jump at it. Wayne thought the cinematic shine shone directly out of Ford’s rear end, rating him as the best in the business. Four Academy Awards for ‘Best Director’ would say that he was right up there, but even his protégé and surrogate son had to draw the line somewhere.
They made 14 films together, from 1939’s Stagecoach to 1963’s Donovan’s Reef, and they could have added another to the collection had Wayne not been so protective of his passion project. He’d spent years trying to will The Alamo into existence, and just when he thought the finish line was in sight, he was issued an ultimatum by some of the most powerful outfits in the industry.
“I went to every studio in town, tried calling in favours, reminded the studio heads how much money I’d made for them, but they all turned me down, unless I got John Ford to direct,” he said. “But this was my dream. I didn’t want anyone else to direct it, not even my dear friend, Jack Ford.”
It was either his way, with ‘The Duke’ stepping behind the camera in his feature-length directorial debut, or the highway. Few within Tinseltown’s corridors of power thought he had the ability to pull off such an expensive and ambitious production at the first time of asking, so it made sense that they’d suggest Ford as a replacement, especially if it would convince Wayne to abandon his plans not to act in the film.
In the end, he had to make that compromise, with his production company, Batjac, partnering with United Artists to make The Alamo a reality. He recalled that the studio “only agreed to put up part of the money if I played a part,” so he said he’d take Sam Houston, which he called “a cameo kind of role.”
The bean-counters were insistent, though: nobody puts ‘The Duke’ in the corner, not even ‘The Duke’. “They said I had to play a major role,” he bemoaned. “And said if I didn’t play Davy Crockett, they wouldn’t be interested. So, reluctantly, I played Crockett.”
The Alamo was a ‘Best Picture’ nominee, but Wayne had invested so much time, money, and effort into the enterprise that it didn’t live up to his lofty expectations, and he didn’t make a penny from it. Would it have been better with Ford at the helm? Maybe, maybe not, but he was banned from even being asked.
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