The only director who refused to make a John Wayne movie: “So, you’re the fella?”
This might sound like splitting hairs, but there were two distinct types of John Wayne movies: there were the movies that John Wayne agreed to star in, and then there were the movies that were made because John Wayne wanted them to be made.
If a director or producer was developing a new project and they wanted ‘The Duke’ to become part of the cast, they’d extend him an offer. He’d say yes, or he’d say no, and that covers the first half of the equation, with John Ford about the only filmmaker in Hollywood whom he wouldn’t dream of turning down.
The second half was born from Wayne’s star power; if he saw a script that he liked, he would take it to the various studios around town, who more often than not would agree to fund the production, because he was one of the biggest names in the business. He’d get approval of the final screenplay, his co-stars, and the director, and all of the major decisions would run through him.
1960’s North to Alaska fell into the latter camp, with the adventure film the first of a three-picture deal ‘The Duke’ had signed with 20th Century Fox. His old friend, Henry Hathaway, was handpicked for the director’s chair, but when scheduling conflicts ruled him out, attention turned to Richard Fleischer instead.
Before he’d even agreed, he was informed that Wayne had approved him. “Well, Duke phoned early this morning from the yacht, and I thought I’d save us all some time and trouble, so I told him all about you, and he said OK,” a producer told him, which didn’t sit well: “‘No, it isn’t great’, I replied, steam beginning to rise from my collar. ‘It’s terrible. What if I don’t like the story? What if I don’t want to do it?'”
As it turned out, Fleischer didn’t like the story, not that the producer cared: “You’re committed now. You have to do it,” he was warned. He refused to take the reins on North to Alaska without a script that he was happy with, and since he didn’t get one, he wouldn’t budge: “Next time you speak to him, you can tell him that I’m not doing the picture.”
Even though he’d made himself perfectly clear, the producer still resorted to blackmail: “If he hears you don’t want to do it, he’ll become suspicious that there’s something wrong with it and will want to see the script.” Fleischer wasn’t for changing his mind, and things eventually worked out the way they were supposed to when Hathaway helmed the movie.
However, when the filmmaker ran into ‘The Duke’ years later, things got very awkward very quickly. “So, you’re the fella who didn’t want to make a movie with me?” Wayne ominously asked. “I froze,” Fleischer confessed. “Those bastards in Hollywood had really done it to me. They had given Wayne precisely the impression I didn’t want him to have; that I didn’t want to do the picture because of him.”
Mounting a defence, Fleischer insisted that he was actually “the fellow who didn’t want to make a bad John Wayne movie.” Mercifully, the tension was diffused in an instant, and a huge sigh of relief was breathed when the star relayed the obvious: “You were right,” he acknowledged. “I shouldn’t have made that picture, either.”
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