The movies John Wayne blamed for the “poison polluting Hollywood’s moral bloodstream”
Edgy fare was never something John Wayne concerned himself with, leaving the iconic star increasingly appalled by the ongoing evolution of cinema as a result.
Much like any other medium, film is in a constant state of moving with the times, pushing boundaries, and breaking down barriers, which was something ‘The Duke’ could never wrap his head around. He was increasingly scathing of many modern movies towards the latter stages of his career, but two in particular stood out so much that he felt obligated to publicly denigrate them.
Wayne was still riding high as a bankable box office draw and A-list superstar at the end of the 1950s, but two features that were released in the decade’s final year seriously ruffled his feathers. It didn’t matter that they were each rapturously received and widely praised, though, because the elder statesman of the Western was apoplectic at their very existence.
Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ play Suddenly, Last Summer and Robert Rossen’s Gary Cooper vehicle They Came to Cordura were singled out by Wayne in a 1960 radio interview. He called them “too disgusting even for discussion” and “too distasteful” for the way in which their stories tackled subjects that weren’t commonplace in Hollywood at the time.
The former sees Elizabeth Taylor’s Catherine Holly witness the death of her cousin on a European trip, forcing Katharine Hepburn’s aunt to organise a secret lobotomy to prevent the news from being made public. The latter, meanwhile, had Cooper’s Tom Thorn accused of cowardice, with both featuring gay characters.
Wayne didn’t think either of them deserved “to be put on a screen designed to entertain a family, or any member of a decent family,” citing them as “poison polluting Hollywood’s moral bloodstream.” Not only that, but his staunch defence of the military and those who served had him reserving particular ire for They Came to Cordura, which he blasted with both barrels.
“To me, at least, it simply degrades the Medal of Honour. The whole story makes a mockery of America’s highest award for valour,” he ranted. “The whole premise of the story was wrong, illogical, because they don’t pick the type of men the movie picked to win the award, and that can be proved by the very history of the award.”
A decade later, Wayne would unleash similar ire upon Midnight Cowboy after it became the first X-rated movie to ever win the Academy Award for ‘Best Picture’, illustrating how ‘The Duke’ would verge increasingly into ‘old man yells at cloud’ territory during the twilight years of his decades spent in the spotlight. Cinema isn’t designed to appeal to everybody at all times, but Wayne used his status and platform to make it clear in no uncertain terms which titles he believed were harmful to his profession.
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