Death, suicide and addiction: The story of John Wayne’s most cursed movie
It’s easy to pick holes in John Wayne’s character. The western star may have been an unimpeachable star during his heyday, but as the years passed, his ultra-conservative all-American views started to read not as unadulterated patriotism but as something that more closely resembled racism. This notion has stained his output on film and left a black mark on The Duke’s iconic stature.
That’s not to say that Wayne was an angel during his time in the limelight—far from it. The idea that Wayne’s behaviour is only unacceptable in retrospect is far from the truth. Across his filmography his actions can be seen as the root cause of countless rifts, co-star issues and general unease on-set. However, few can lay blame on Wayne for the cursed production of The Horse Soldiers.
Things had started out so well. The 1959 production began with Wayne agreeing to team up again with John Ford for the director’s only Civil War movie. In agreeing to take on the picture, Wayne also cosied up to his co-star William Holden to negotiate an impressive contract. Garnering $775,000 (closer to $8million in today’s money) and a 20 per cent cut of the overall profits, the duo had begun production with sure-footing.
But, from then on, production became almost intolerable for all involved. While Wayne and Ford had endured some rough times, the director routinely making fun of Wayne’s absence from WWII, this time the filmmaker spent most of his time arguing with Holden. Ford had been advised by doctors that he needed to quit drinking and so had tried to be sober during the film’s production. It made the director, who was often unpleasant, all the more unwelcome on set.
As Ford tried to conduct himself in sobriety, he demanded his stars do the same. Producer Martin Rackin would then jump in to save Wayne and Holden from their drink-less existence and whisk them off to New Orleans under the guise of whitening their teeth. It would be a heavy drinking session for the ages, and word of their triumphant tour of the city’s most notorious watering holes made its way back to Ford, who blew up and berated them heavily.
The truth is, Wayne had needed the break. During filming, the health of his wife, Pilar, had worsened significantly. She had become addicted to barbiturates and, fearing press reprisals, Wayne had refused to send her to get help, instead believing that spending time with him on location would help her recover. However, during production, Pilar would begin to hallucinate and slash her wrists in an apparent suicide attempt. It was a heartbreaking moment for Wayne, and he quietly sent Pilar to a hospital in California.
The set may have fallen quiet for a few days, but soon enough, the cursed production would begin once more. Three actors, including Ford’s son Patrick, suffered broken legs from falls on the set. It would be a painful but ultimately survivable set of occurrences. Tragically, that benefit would not extend to Fred Kennedy.
The veteran stuntman would lose his life performing a run-of-the-mill horse fall, tragically breaking his neck in a brutal miscalculation. The moment would shock Ford for the rest of his life. His biographer, Joseph Malham, said of the incident: “Ford was completely devastated [as he] felt a deep responsibility for the lives of the men who served under him.”
Shooting was instantly halted, and the production moved back to Hollywood. This would signify the end of the movie being made in earnest. Ford lost interest in this and any other project following Kennedy’s death. Rather than complete the picture as intended, with Wayne’s Colonel Marlowe heading to Baton Rouge, he cut the script short and ended it with Wayne blowing up a bridge to stop Confederate advances.
Perhaps owing to this woeful set of circumstances, the movie was a lacklustre affair, and the golden contract Wayne and Holden had arranged—with a fifth of the profits—ended up being a damp squib as the picture bombed at the box office. For that reason, and so many more, this could easily be considered John Wayne’s worst on-set experience.
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