From ‘Riders of Destiny’ to ‘The Conqueror’: the movies that embarrassed John Wayne
Actors often play things pretty close to the chest when asked if they’ve made any movies they were embarrassed by. After all, they’ve got careers to build, and they don’t want to anger anyone they may need to work with again in the future. Some actors, though, reach a status where they can shoot from the hip and say what they want with little fear that it’ll come back to bite them. John Wayne was one of these stars, and if he didn’t like a movie he’d been part of, he’d practically shout it from the rooftops. However, it must be said that his taste in what was embarrassing doesn’t always line up with what audiences thought.
In the 1930s, before he became indelibly etched in the minds of cinema fans as ‘The Duke,’ Wayne and the movie studios tried him in a few different roles to see what stuck. He made a college-set basketball romance called Girls Demand Excitement that almost made him quit the business entirely, and then subjected himself to a ton of B-movies nobody could possibly remember today. However, for his money, the most embarrassing films of this era were the three ones he made as a singing cowboy – mostly because he couldn’t sing a note.
In this period, Wayne starred in three of these movies: Riders of Destiny, The New Frontier, and Lawless Range. He was in his early 20s at the time and hoped that they’d lead to career advancement, but he couldn’t help feeling ashamed that his voice had to be dubbed and his guitar playing was mimed. “Strumming a guitar I couldn’t play and miming to a voice which was provided by a real singer made me feel like a fucking pansy,” an irritated Wayne admitted.
Even worse, though, when Wayne made public appearances and audiences would want him to sing and play, he had to politely decline. “The kids insisted that I sing ‘The Desert Song,'” Wayne lamented to Playboy. “But I couldn’t take along the fella who played the guitar and the fella who sang on the other side of the camera. So finally, I went to the head of the studio and said, ‘Screw this. I can’t handle it.'”
In a way, Wayne feeling embarrassed at not being an authentic musical talent is admirable, especially because miming was the done thing at the time. In fact, it has always been a part of the entertainment business, so for him to push back against it showed he had some integrity. Therefore, perhaps The Duke didn’t need to be as ashamed of this as he was – but he was 100% correct to visibly shudder when people mentioned the offensive 1956 misfire, The Conqueror.
These days, reminding someone that Wayne once played Ghengis Khan, the former Khagan of the Mongol Empire, is likely to generate a disbelieving laugh. After all, it sounds like a joke – how could anyone think that was a good idea? The ’50s were a different time, though, and darkening a white actor’s skin to play a Mongolian warlord wasn’t seen as wildly inappropriate. However, while Wayne didn’t have the good sense to decline the role, he did at least realise that it was a mistake. Indeed, he once said he learned a valuable lesson in not making “an ass of yourself trying to play parts you’re not suited for.”
In truth, though, Wayne made a boatload of other movies that definitely fall into the category of deeply embarrassing. For one thing, he made a 1932 western called Ride Him, Cowboy that saw him rescue a horse accused of murder – yes, you read that correctly – and set off in pursuit of an outlaw called Hawk. Worse than this, though, was the fact that the film was a remake of a 126 silent movie named The Unknown Cavalier, and it reused much of that movie’s stock footage. So, it wasn’t only embarrassing in a story sense – it was essentially a recycled movie, too.
I’d also argue that Rooster Cogburn, the belated sequel to 1969’s True Grit, is embarrassing because it was one of the first crystal clear examples of Hollywood milking an IP with name value. It paled in comparison to the original, with the only thing to recommend it being Wayne and Katharine Hepburn’s lead performances. Vincent Canby of the New York Times arguably said it best when he dubbed it “a high-class example of the low Hollywood art of recycling.” That’s something the modern cinematic landscape is inundated with, and it could be argued that it’s partially The Duke’s fault.
