“I had to come crawling back”: the 1937 movie that made John Wayne “beg for mercy”
When you think of John Wayne, you think of westerns.
Eventually, he got used to that idea and embraced the genre he helped define, but the first time the actor tried to avoid typecasting and broaden his horizons, he ended up grovelling on his hands and knees in an attempt to save his failing career.
Once ‘The Duke’ realised that all he needed to do to win over an audience was play his greatest hits over and over again, he settled into his groove as one of the most predictable stars in Hollywood history. When a new John Wayne movie was released, nobody was under any illusions as to what they’d get.
Most of the time, whether it was a western or not, he’d play a rugged hero, one who’d defeat the bad guys, get the girl, and not do much else beyond that. You can’t say it didn’t work, since he spent decades as one of the industry’s biggest draws and most popular figures, but for a spell, he zagged when he should have carried on zigging.
In the late 1930s, Wayne distanced himself from his home studio, Republic Pictures, and set about trying to carve a new niche. He made the mystery drama Sea Spoilers, the sports flicks Conflict and Idol of the Crowds, the truck-driving actioner California Straight Ahead!, and the desert-set drama I Cover the War! for Universal, none of which were a success, either with critics or at the box office.
All of those films were released between the middle of 1936 and the end of 1937, and when the self-explanatory adventure movie, Adventure’s End, was released in December of the latter year, falling short of expectations yet again, ‘The Duke’ knew that his short-lived association with B-tier producer Trem Carr needed to come to an end before he slipped any further down the pecking order.
“I made a mistake,” he confessed. “Not because they weren’t westerns, but because they were cheap pictures.” He wanted to move away from westerns and show that there were more strings to his bow, but it came at a cost.
“I lost my stature as a western star,” Wayne admitted. “I got nothing in return. In six months, exhibitors wouldn’t touch John Wayne with a ten-foot pole.”
With that, he “said adios to Trem Carr” and carried on freelancing, which didn’t go too well. “The best I could get was B at Paramount, a cattle drive, trek type of picture, terrible,” ‘The Duke’ sighed. “Almost as bad as those Trem Carr specials.” There was only one option left on the table, and it forced him to swallow his pride and return to Republic, where Herb Yates was rubbing his hands with glee.
“Finally, I just had to come crawling back to Herbert Yates and beg for mercy,” the icon elaborated. “I didn’t want to make these cheapies for Republic, but it seemed like there was nothing else to do. There were three children now. Yates put the screws into me.” That he did, re-signing Wayne on a reduced salary and shoehorning him into the ‘Three Mesquiteers’ films, which he hated making.
As he revealed, if he wanted Yates to bring him back into the fold, then he “would have to go into those terrible series they had,” whether he liked it or not. Obviously, he didn’t like it, but there was nothing he could do, with his attempts at branching out ending in complete and utter disaster.
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