Who helped make John Wayne great? Director John Ford

By Matt Hurwitz

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – In 1939, while shooting the seminal
western “Stagecoach,” John Wayne got his first taste of
director John Ford’s biting, often cruel, sense of humor.

After inviting the “Duke” in to see the previous day’s work
– of actor Andy Devine, an accomplished horseman, driving a
team of six horses — he asked the young actor for his opinion.
“Dad told him, ‘You know, the stunt men didn’t put any pressure
on the reins, so it didn’t look like Andy was really driving
them,”‘ recalled Wayne’s son Patrick. “I see,” Ford said.

The two went out to the set, where Ford called for silence
and announced, “Duke says Andy Devine can’t drive a six-up!”

The entire crew stood looking at the young actor, wondering
why he would slam a seasoned actor like Devine. “He completely
turned the story around, and my dad was totally humiliated,”
said Wayne. “That was dad’s baptism into John Ford.”

It was the beginning of a professional relationship which
would span five decades and produce some of Hollywood greatest
films. Eight of those movies are included in a new Warner Home
Video DVD box set, “The John Wayne-John Ford Film Collection.”

The pairing of Wayne, who died in 1979, and Ford, who died
in 1973, had a strong impact on the film world, as well as on
their careers. “There have been other great actor/director
collaborations, but I don’t think any two people were part of
each other’s lives so crucially as Wayne and Ford,” said film
historian Leonard Maltin.

It was Ford who gave the Duke his first break in the
movies, recommending him for “The Big Trail” in 1930 to
director Raoul Walsh, only to snub the actor for his success in
the film, leaving him to play in B-movies for nine years.

“Wayne never knew why,” said director Peter Bogdanovich,
who is making a new documentary about Ford. “And then, as
suddenly as it began, it ended, and Ford became friendly again
and cast him in ‘Stagecoach’ and changed his career.”

Ford’s introduction of Wayne on the screen in “Stagecoach”
remains one of the most iconic cowboy images on film. “That
fantastic closeup of him essentially heralds the birth of a new
star,” Maltin said.

MEATHEAD

Wayne never forgot the break Ford gave him, even enduring
constant abuse from him on film sets. “By all accounts, Ford
would ride Wayne miserably, calling him ‘meathead.’ And Wayne
always took it,” said Maltin. “He never fought back; it was
like from a parent that you knew loved you, in spite of
superficial evidence to the contrary.”

“Ford was tough, and he could be meaner than hell,” said
actress Maureen O’Hara, 85, from her home in Glengariff,
Ireland. “But, by God, he was the best bloody director you ever
worked with in your life.”

Actors on Ford’s films never knew which Ford they’d get on
any given day. “We’d come on the set, and they’d say, ‘How is
he today? What kind of a mood is he in?”‘ O’Hara recalled of
her five films with the director. “And they’d say, ‘Oh, God,
he’s in a stinkin’ mood — watch out.”‘

Socially, however, Wayne and Ford were incredibly close,
spending time together on Ford’s yacht, The Araner.

“We’d spend summers in Catalina, and Ford would be there on
The Araner,” Patrick Wayne said. “There was a true sense of
romance and adventure about it.” Duke and “Pappy,” as he called
Ford, Wayne said, “would go out and play cards and drink and
smoke … maybe eat, maybe not eat, for days, maybe weeks.”

Ford’s films often included the same “stock company” of
fine character actors, including Wayne, Ward Bond, Harry Carey,
Jr., John Carradine and Victor McLaglen, often writing parts
with these actors in mind to fit their characters, Bogdanovich
said. “The parts, of course, fit like gloves.”

Ford is credited with creating “mature” westerns. “Ford was
a key architect in expanding the western from a cubbyhole of
cliche,” Maltin said. “Stagecoach,” “Fort Apache,” “She Wore a
Yellow Ribbon” and “The Searchers,” all included in the set,
are among the great westerns for grown-ups.

Indeed, Wayne’s performance as Ethan Edwards, an embittered
Civil War veteran hunting for his niece in “Searchers,” is
often thought of as his finest film performance.

“Wayne was always dismissed as an actor — and still is,”
said Maltin. “But it was Ford who gave Wayne some of his most
iconic roles, to a point where their images and reputations
fused.”

Wayne, apparently, felt the same way. “He really gave Ford
credit for everything that he became,” said Wayne’s son
Patrick. “But I think he had a little something to do with it,
too.”