3 Godfathers

(1948) Directed by John Ford. Three bandits "adopt" a baby born in the desert.
DVD $12.97


DVD $14.98



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It's hardly shameful that The Three Godfathers ranks as the slightest John Ford Western in a five-year arc that includes My Darling Clementine, Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Wagon Master, and Rio Grande. The source, a Peter B. Kyne story both hard-bitten and sentimental, had already been filmed at least five times--once by Ford himself as Marked Men (1919). The star of that silent version, Harry Carey, had recently died. This remake is dedicated to him ("Bright Star of the early western sky") and proudly introduces his son, Harry Carey Jr. (who had already appeared in Howard Hawks's Red River--as did his father--but we won't quibble).

Just before Christmas, three workaday outlaws (John Wayne, Pedro Armendáriz, Harry Carey Jr.) rob a bank in Welcome, Arizona, and flee into the desert. The canny town marshal (Ward Bond) moves swiftly to cut them off from the wells along their escape route, so they make for another, deep in the wasteland. There's no water waiting for them, but there is a woman (Mildred Natwick) on the verge of death--and also of giving birth. The three badmen accept her dying commission as godfathers to the newborn. Motley variants of the Three Wise Men, they strike out for the town of New Jerusalem with her Bible as roadmap. It becomes increasingly apparent that saving the child's life will cost them their own.

Ford's is the softest retelling of the tale; in place of Kyne's bitter/triumphant final twist, he adds a very broad comic postlude. Elsewhere, the nearly sacramental treatment of the mother's death is followed by an extended gosh-almighty sequence of the banditos reading up on childcare. But it's all played with great gusto and tenderness--especially by Wayne, who's rarely been more appealing. Visually the film is one knockout shot after another. This was Ford's first Western in Technicolor, as well as his first collaboration with cinematographer Winton Hoch. What they do with sand ripples and shadows and long plumes of train smoke is rapturously beautiful. It's also often too arty by half, but who can blame them? --Richard T. Jameson

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"3 Godfathers" is also available in these multi-movie products:
John Wayne - John Ford Film Collection (6 Movie Set)
John Wayne - John Ford Film Collection (7 Movie Set)
Turner Classic Movies, Greatest Classic Legends, Director John Ford



Movie Trailer for the "3 Godfathers"




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4 Film Favorites
Four Film Favorites: John Wayne Collection (They Were Expendable / Operation Pacific / Flying Leathernecks / Back to Bataan)
DVD $17.94

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They Were Expendable
Supplies are dwindling. Troops are hopelessly outnumbered. But even in defeat there is victory. The defenders of the Philippines including PT-boat skippers John Brickley (Robert Montgomery) and Rusty Ryan (John Wayne) will give the U.S. war effort time to regroup after the devastation of Pearl Harbor. Director John Ford's World War II tale knows its battle-scarred topic firsthand. Montgomery was himself a Pacific PT-boat commander and a valorous Bronze Star recipient. Ford filmed the Academy Award-winning* documentary Battle of Midway. And Wayne creates a portrait of patriotic resolve as only he can. They Were Expendable salutes all who expended themselves during some of the war's bleakest hours. Director John Ford's World War II tale knows its battle-scarred topic firsthand. Montgomery was himself a Pacific PT-boat commander and a valorous Bronze Star recipient. Ford filmed the Academy Award -winning documentary Battle of Midway. And Wayne creates a portrait of patriotic resolve as only he can. They Were Expendable salutes all who expended themselves during some of the war's bleakest hours.

Operation Pacific
World War II rages across the Pacific and Lt. Cmdr. Duke E. Gifford is in the thick of it. He evacuates children from enemy-held islands. Oversees the development of torpedoes at Pearl Harbor. And prowls the depths in the submarine Thunderfish for a chance to aim his improved "tin fish" - torpedoes - at the enemy. John Wayne plays Gifford in Operation Pacific. "I'm no theory man. I'm a line officer," Gifford barks. He backs it up with lots of bite in several feverish sea battles. He's also a man of heart with a loving wife at home (fellow Academy Award winner Patricia Neal). Vice Adm. Charles Lockwood, World War II commander of all U.S. Pacific submarines, was technical advisor for this adventure packing real you-are-there thrills!

Flying Leathernecks
It's World War II. Major Dan Kirby (John Wayne) is hard on his marines. His subordinate Captain Carl Griffin thinks the Major is overdoing it. But Kirby proves that there is a method to his madness after all.

Back to Bataan
After the fall of the Philippines to the Japanese in World War II, Col. Joseph Madden (John Wayne) of the U.S. Army stays on to organize guerrilla fighters against the conquerors.

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Back To Bataan
DVD (1 Disc Version)$12.97





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After the fall of the Philippines to the Japanese in World War II, Col. Joseph Madden (John Wayne) of the U.S. Army stays on to organize guerrilla fighters against the conquerors. John Wayne and Anthony Quinn star in this touching 1945 drama inspired by real-life heroism in the Philippines following General MacArthur's withdrawal in 1942 and the islands' subsequent conquest by the Japanese army. Wayne plays Colonel Joe Madden, an American who stays behind to organize a ragtag guerrilla army in the forests and hills. At his side is Captain Andres Bonifacio (Quinn), grandson of a legendary revolutionary martyred in the nation's old war against Spanish colonialists. Joe, Andres, and their fearless irregulars (with support from a schoolteacher, played by Beulah Bondi) sap the enemy's resolve through hit-and-run missions, but as time passes the locals wonder, with pronounced disillusionment, why America doesn't return with masses of troops and weapons. Wayne's star power is undeniable, and Quinn is very good as a man uncertain of his role or destiny. Edward Dmytryk (Murder, My Sweet), soon to be imprisoned during Joseph McCarthy's witch hunt of Hollywood communists, directs. --Tom Keogh

Also See: 4 Film Favorites

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Big Jim McLain
DVD $12.97






The John Wayne Film Collection
(Without Reservations /
Allegheny Uprising /
Tycoon /
Reunion in France /
Big Jim McLain /
Trouble Along the Way) (1947) $49.98







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A troubleshooting special agent is assigned to the investigation of a worldwide terror ring headquartered in Hawaii.
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This John Wayne Film Collection includes: Without Reservations (1946), Allegheny Uprising (1939), Tycoon (1947), Reunion in France (1942), Big Jim McLain (1952), and Trouble Along the Way (1953).

Pilgrim, let's talk. John Wayne starred in something like 150 feature films, and the most loyal Duke devotee cannot insist that all of them were U.S. Grade A, even if the man himself never stinted. So what we have in this boxed set--now that the classics have been corralled in previous collections--is a mixed bag. A couple of these movies should be happy discoveries. A couple are honorable misfires. A couple are downright (to borrow a disturbing word from McLintock!) unprepossessing. But all are new to DVD and all are welcome, because there's no such thing as a John Wayne movie that isn't worth checking out.

The likable Allegheny Uprising (1939) was made at RKO half a year after Wayne achieved stardom in Stagecoach. It's an odd little picture: a "Western" set in Pennsylvania, a "forgotten footnote of history" about a rebellion against King George III's forces a decade-and-a-half before the American Revolution, and a basically B-movie production (over and done with in 80 minutes) with some middling-large action scenes and lots of fresh air and sunlight. Wayne plays a thoughtful fellow named Jim Smith who leads his "men of the Conococheague" in a brief shooting war in which they scrupulously strive not to kill anybody; they're still loyal British subjects, for all their buckskinned orneriness. Just as buckskinned and just as ornery is love interest Claire Trevor, and George Sanders gives yeoman service as the obdurate Brit officer responsible for a lot of the civil unrest.

Reunion in France (1942) finds Wayne out of his element at chintzy MGM in a Parisian-set WWII melodrama conceived for and dominated by Joan Crawford--the only occasion these stars worked together. She's a cosseted but curiously principled fashionista shaken by the Nazis' inconsiderate invasion of France--and still more by the willingness of her millionaire industrial designer fiancé (Philip Dorn) to collaborate with Hitler's war machine. The Duke makes a delayed entrance as a Yank whose RAF plane has crashed in the French countryside. Crawford shelters him, against her better judgment, then begins to be drawn to someone with even more imposing shoulders than her own. In later years everybody involved in this film preferred to forget it had ever happened, but its wackiness can be endearing.

In Without Reservations (1946), the Duke again is essentially a featured player in a woman's picture, with Claudette Colbert as a novelist searching for "the Man of Tomorrow" to play the main character in the film version of her visionary bestseller. That turns out to be the Marine she bumps into on the transcontinental train taking her to Hollywood. The script, like their much-interrupted journey, is all over the map, and the comedy scenes are shockingly mishandled--though it looks as if director Mervyn LeRoy was trying to imitate Preston Sturges in some of them and Ernst Lubitsch in others. Cary Grant has a charming cameo, as himself.

Tycoon (1947) inspired a sublime one-sentence review from James Agee: "Several tons of dynamite are set off in this movie; none of it under the right people." Wayne's an engineer trying to drill and blast through the Andes, and his worst obstacle is the aristocratic railroad magnate (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) he's working for--chiefly because Wayne and the magnate's daughter (Laraine Day) have fallen for each other. The script spins its wheels (the film runs two hours plus), and neither the corporate politics nor the romance makes a lick of sense, but fans of vibrant Technicolor will O.D. on this movie's psychedelic palette. The supporting cast (able but wasted) includes James Gleason, Anthony Quinn, Judith Anderson, and Paul Fix, and the Andes are played by the Alabama Hills at Lone Pine, Calif.

The kindest and most damning thing to say about the 1952 Big Jim McLain is that it's a Cold War artifact, a snapshot of that American moment when Sen. Joseph McCarthy could pass for a patriot and a hero. Wayne, companioned by equally big Jim Arness, actually plays an investigator for McCarthy's House Un-American Activities Committee, searching out Commies in Hawaii. The Red agents on view are a robotic bunch who look as if they couldn't menace a dog pound, but that was consistent with such contemporary portrayals of fifth-column lifestyle as the TV series I Led Three Lives. Latterday liberal sentimentality about the Party can be as absurd as '50s paranoia was, so the point here is not to condemn Wayne's politics, but to deplore how completely he lost his moviemaking savvy whenever he set out to crusade. This personal production of the actor's own company is an embarrassingly shoddy piece of work. Still, it is a window into its time.

Even John Wayne fans have tended to skip the dubious-sounding Trouble Along the Way. Well, don't. This comedy-drama about a former big-time football coach signing on at a venerable Catholic college turns out to be an intriguingly complicated entertainment. The title invokes the sentimental classic Going My Way, with the great Charles Coburn taking the doddering-but-sly priest (and school administrator) role. Besides the threatened shutdown of the college, there's the vicious campaign of Wayne's ex-wife Marie Windsor to regain custody of daughter Sherry Jackson, who pretty much lives out of the bar where her disreputable dad runs a bookie operation. Donna Reed plays a social worker who has to make the call in this contest. The script by future Bob Hope writers Melville Shavelson and Jack Rose and direction by Michael Curtiz combine to scuff up Wayne's heroic image, and instead of the sappy big-game climax we think we see coming a mile away, the movie veers toward a finale in which several "happy endings" are put on hold. For his part, Wayne gets to deliver more syncopated dialogue than usual, and seems both refreshed and startled by the experience.

The packaging of the six feature DVDs falls a mite short of the wraparound "Warner Night at the Movies" extras in other collections: one live-action short, one cartoon, and sometimes the movie's trailer. The cartoons are fine, and the live short packaged with Allegheny Uprising is one of those Technicolor history lessons featuring studio contract players that Warners used to win awards for--the 1939 "The Bill of Rights." There are no commentaries. --Richard T. Jameson

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Big Stampede, The
DVD



The Big Stampede /
Ride Him Cowboy /
Haunted Gold (2006)
$14.98






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John Wayne's road to stardom needed some giddyup in the early 1930s; after a leading-man turn in The Big Trail, he quickly fell into B-movie obscurity. While waiting to vault to first-tier status in 1939's Stagecoach, he honed his talent with a set of six B-Westerns at Warner Brothers, shot in 1932-33. The series of snappy little films (under an hour each) allowed Warners to recycle footage (and plots) from a string of silent Westerns made with Ken Maynard, with the young Mr. Wayne stepping into Maynard's saddle. The Big Stampede doesn't have much drama but lives up to its title with a cattle-frenzy finale. Noah Beery Sr. plays the baddie, and Wayne's future Stagecoach co-star Berton Churchill plays Lew Wallace (the governor of New Mexico and the man who wrote Ben-Hur). It was shot by Ted McCord, who would go on to shoot The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and East of Eden. Wayne, 25 years old, plays the same naively heroic hero in each of the six films. He's lean and handsome and not yet grown into his talent. But you can see how much the camera likes him--as his future director Howard Hawks might have put it--and how much that famous stride is already coming into step. --Robert Horton

Thrilling sagebrusher stars John Wayne as a deputy sheriff who searches for a nasty cattle rustler responsible for the death of a town's lawman. Determined to do whatever it takes to bring the bad guys to justice, he becomes unlikely allies with the philosophical leader of a gang of Mexican bandits. Remake of 1927's "The Land Beyond the Law" co-stars Noah Beery, Paul Hurst, Mae Madison. 54 min. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono. NOTE: This Title Is Out Of Print; Limit One Per Customer.

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This Triple Feature includes: "The Big Stampede", "Ride Him, Cowboy", and "Haunted Gold".

John Wayne's road to stardom needed some giddyup in the early 1930s; after a leading-man turn in The Big Trail, he quickly fell into B-movie obscurity. While waiting to vault to first-tier status in 1939's Stagecoach, he honed his talent with a set of six B-Westerns at Warner Brothers, shot in 1932-33. The series allowed Warners to recycle footage (and plots) from a string of silent Westerns made with Ken Maynard, with the young Mr. Wayne stepping into Maynard's saddle. These snappy little films (under an hour each) are contained on two Warners DVDs; this one has the first three pictures in the series. Ride Him, Cowboy is the best of the batch, a very entertaining number in which Wayne is introduced to a feisty horse named, of all things, Duke. Duke would feature in the later films, as would Wayne's harmonica playing. The movie has some wild stunt riding and some very amusing dialogue (someone urges a pokey storyteller, "Skip that part and get down to bedrock"). And for a cheap B-movie, there's some exceptionally inventive camerawork by Ted McCord, who would go on to shoot The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and East of Eden. McCord also shot The Big Stampede, which doesn't have much drama but lives up to its title with a cattle-frenzy finale. Noah Beery Sr., plays the baddie, and Wayne's future Stagecoach co-star Berton Churchill plays Lew Wallace (the governor of New Mexico and the man who wrote Ben-Hur). Haunted Gold adds a dose of haunted-house shenanigans to an awkward tale about a hidden cache of gold. The comic relief comes from character actor Blue Washington, who unfortunately has the kind of wide-eyed, scaredy-cat role that too many black actors of the era got stuck with. Wayne, 25 years old, plays the same naively heroic hero in each. He's lean and handsome and not yet grown into his talent. But you can see how much the camera likes him--as his future director Howard Hawks might have put it--and how much that famous stride is already coming into step. --Robert Horton

Twenty-five-year-old John Wayne saddles up in three of six early 1930s shoot-'em-ups made for Warner Bros. and previously filmed with silent-screen cowboy Ken Maynard. The Big Stampede pits Wayne against a cattle baron (Noah Beery) heaping a load of misery on new ranchers. Haunted Gold unravels the mystery of an abandoned gold mine lying beneath a ghost town. Ride Him, Cowboy finds drifter Wayne rescuing a spirited horse, tracking a notorious killer called The Hawk...and falling under suspicion of being the infamous outlaw. Billed with Wayne in each of the three films is the white stallion Duke (chosen to match Maynard's horse in intercut footage from the earlier films). Ride him, John!

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Blood Alley
An American merchant marine captain ferries a group of Chinese refugess down the Yangtze River to escape the Communists.
DVD (2-Disc) $12.98






DVD (1-Disc) $12.98






DVD $14.96
War Double Feature: Blood Alley /
The Sea Chase (2006)






DVD $46.98
John Wayne Legendary Heroes Collection
Blood Alley /
McQ /
The Sea Chase /
Tall in the Saddle /
The Train Robbers (1944)






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War Double Feature: Blood Alley / The Sea Chase "Powder your nose, Baby, we're coming into Hong Kong!" John Wayne, joined by fellow screen icon Lauren Bacall, braves dangerous waters and pursuing soldiers as he steers Chinese refugees to freedom's shore in Blood Alley. William A. Wellman (The Story of G.I. Joe) directs. Another femme movie legend - Lana Turner - teams with Wayne in the search-and-destroy adventure The Sea Chase, directed by John Farrow (The Big Clock). Wayne plays naval officer Karl Ehrlich, renegade commander of a German freighter trapped in perilous circumstances at the outbreak of World War II. Catch him if you can!

The John Wayne Legendary Heroes Collection features five classic films from the larger-than-life American hero, including Blood Alley, McQ, The Sea Chase, Tall in the Saddle and The Train Robbers, all available on DVD for the first time.

Born Marion Robert Morrison in Winterset, Iowa, John Wayne first worked in the film business as a laborer on the Fox lot during summer vacations from U.S.C., which he attended on a football scholarship. He met and was befriended by John Ford, a young director who was beginning to make a name for himself in action films, comedies and dramas. It was Ford who recommended Wayne to director Raoul Walsh for the male lead in the 1930 epic Western The Big Trail, and, although it was a box office failure, the movie showed Wayne's potential. For the next nine years, Wayne worked in a multitude of B-Westerns and serials in between bit parts in larger features. Wayne's big break came in 1939, when Ford cast him as the Ringo Kid in the adventure Stagecoach. Wayne nearly stole the picture from his more seasoned co-stars, and his career as a box-office superstar began. During his 50 year film career, Wayne played the lead in 142 movies, an as yet unsurpassed record, and was nominated for three Academy Awards., winning the Best Actor award in 1970 for his performance in True Grit.

Blood Alley (1955) - An American seafarer patrolling the South Seas is asked by the daughter of a missionary doctor killed by the Communists to help transport the citizens of a small Chinese town to freedom in Hong Kong. This action-adventure based on A. S. Fleischman's novel, marks the first on-screen pairing of movie legends John Wayne and Lauren Bacall. DVD special features include: Newsreel footage (The Hollywood Foreign Press Honors John Wayne, Crusade for Freedom, John Wayne and The Legion Poppy Sale (silent clip), Air Force Honors the Cast of Blood Alley), 1955 Promos on Blood Alley (Wayne discusses how he made it into the movies; "the monster" of movie land; the Mitchell BNC camera and his use of his home movie camera to capture scenes while on Blood Alley), John Wayne trailer gallery.

McQ (1974) - John Wayne forcefully enforces the law in this high-velocity thriller that's a revenge western set in the big city. Police Lieutenant Lon McQ (Wayne) investigates the killing of his best friend and uncovers corrupt elements of the police department dealing in confiscated drugs. Directed by John Sturges (Ice Station Zebra, The Magnificent Seven), McQ also stars Eddie Albert (Roman Holiday) and Colleen Dewhurst (Annie Hall, Dying Young).

The Sea Chase (1955) - John Wayne and Lana Turner are a formidable romantic team in this harrowing adventure directed by Academy Award-nominee John Farrow (Wake Island). Sea captain Kal Erhlich (Wayne) is an anti-Nazi German freighter captain at the outset of World War II attempting to sail his ship from Australia to the North Sea rather than risk internment. Both Allied and German ships follow in pursuit, while Erhlich battles storms, sharks, and romances.

Tall in the Saddle (1944) - In this fast-paced entertaining western, John Wayne stars as Rocklin, a cowboy who upon arriving at a ranch to work as a cowhand finds his employer was just murdered. Although he has no friends, and no money, Rocklin stays in town, intent on tracking the killers and uncovering a plan to inherit the dead employer's riches.

The Train Robbers (1973) - The action never stops in this western starring John Wayne, Ann-Margret and Ricardo Montalban. A gunhand named Lane (Wayne) is hired by a widow, Mrs. Lowe (Ann-Margret), to find gold stolen by her husband so that she may return it and start fresh. However, once they cross the border into Mexico to recover the loot, they discover two very different pursuers: a large group of bandidos and a lone horseman (Montalban), both of whom know their every move.

DVD special features include: Two featurettes (Working with a Western Legend - an inside look at Wayne with stuntmen Jerry Gatlin, Dean Smith and Terry Leonard; The Wayne Train), John Wayne trailer gallery.

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Cahill: U.S. Marshall
Cahill - United States Marshal (2003)
DVD $12.97





Cahill: United States Marshal (1973)
DVD $12.98






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After the late-career high of True Grit, only The Cowboys and The Shootist escaped the curse of half-baked scripts, recycled material, and lackadaisical filmmaking that characterized John Wayne's last half-dozen years in movies. Cahill is no exception, but it's more energetic than The Undefeated and Chisum (likewise nominally directed by Andrew V. McLaglen), with a certain Gothic tinge. Also, the theme of a dedicated professional who lets his job keep him from being part of his children's lives appears to have had some relevance for the producer-star. Marshal Cahill's two sons (Summer of '42's Gary Grimes and the preteen Clay O'Brien) are so unhinged by paternal "negligence" that they get caught up in a twisted bank-robbery scheme with a very bad guy, a veritable bogeyman (George Kennedy). Cahill has to sort his familial crisis and several outlaw crews, with the assistance of a sardonic half-breed scout (Neville Brand) who teases him mightily. --Richard T. Jameson

Lawman J.D. Cahill can stand alone against a bad-guy army. But as a widower father, he's on insecure footing raising two sons. Particularly when he suspects his boys are involved in a bank robbery - and two killings. Filmed on location in the high desert of Durango, New Mexico, Cahill: United States Marshal offers a hearty helping of the stoic charisma that made John Wayne a lomg-time box-office champion. Summer of '42 discovery Gary Grimes - as Cahill's rebelllious older son - joins a cast of tough-guy favorites (Neville Brand, Denver Pyle, Harry Carey Jr. and George Kennedy) and such other Hollywood greats as Marie Windsor and Jackie Coogan in a deft blend of trigger-fast action and heroic sentiment.

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Chisum
Chisum (2003) DVD $5.98






TCM Greatest Classic Film Collection: Westerns
The Stalking Moon /
Ride the High Country /
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid /
Chisum) (2010) DVD $12.98






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Although Chisum stars John Wayne--playing a benign variation on his Red River empire-builder --he's curiously sidelined in this umpteenth retelling of Pat Garrett, William Bonney, and the Lincoln County War. Sam Peckinpah would direct the world-class version of that götterdämmerung, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, three years later. This version, directed by Andrew V. McLaglen in a slightly less broad vein than usual, is just odd--not least because it omits Garrett and Bonney's celebrated final confrontation. Geoffrey Deuel's Billy is a pleasant juvenile who scarcely seems delinquent, let alone murderously psychotic. Glenn Corbett's characterization of Garrett consists mainly of wearing a seriously BIG hat. There's an irksome rivalry for Chisum's perky niece (Pamela McMyler), and a Dominic Frontiere score that's the Western equivalent of elevator music. Chief scoundrel Forrest Tucker seems bored, but Christopher George, Richard Jaeckel, and Bruce Cabot get some juice into their villainy. --Richard T. Jameson

Chisum showcases John Wayne in the twilight of his remarkable 200+-film career. As John Chisum, a real-life cattle king determined to protect his empire against a land-grabbing developer (Forrest Tucker). Wayne's no-nonsense persona snugly fits this lively reworking of the events of New Mexico's 1878 Lincoln County War. "Directed in fine sagebrush style by Andrew V. McLaglen and beautifully photographed by William H. Clothier" (The Warner Bros. Story), Chisum is the kind of sweeping, brawling Western that made Wayne endure as a star.

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Cowboys, The
The Coyboys (Deluxe Edition) (2007)
DVD $5.97






TCM Greatest Classic Film Collection:
John Wayne Westerns
The Cowboys /
Fort Apache /
Rio Bravo /
The Searchers) (2009)
DVD $27.92





The Cowboys (2007)
Blu-Ray $14.98






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Almost in spite of itself, The Cowboys has taken its place among John Wayne's most beloved films. It wasn't always that way: When it was released in January of 1972, the film was widely criticized for appearing to promote the notion that boys become men through violence. From a politically correct perspective, this apparent message is arguably deplorable (and some interpreted the film's young fighters as a reflection of young draftees into the Vietnam war), but there's no denying that The Cowboys remains as invigorating as it ever was, no matter how dubious its thematic implications. Based on a novel by William Dale Jennings, and adapted with Jennings by the married screenwriting team of Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr. (whose impressive credits include Hud, Hombre, and Norma Rae), the movie opens with aging ranch owner Wil Anderson (Wayne) desperate for ranch-hands to herd 1,500 head of cattle across 400 miles of dangerous territory. With no better options, he reluctantly hires boys from the local schoolhouse (including Robert Carradine in his screen debut), and an experienced, worldly-wise cook named Nightlinger (played to perfection by Roscoe Lee Browne) joins the cattle drive--the first black man the boys have ever seen.

A Hollywood liberal who initially felt at odds with Wayne's right-wing politics, Mark Rydell (On Golden Pond) originally sought George C. Scott for the lead, but studio executives urged him to convince Wayne to take the role. It was a happy outcome for both, as Rydell directs Wayne with an enjoyable mixture of Old West humor and grizzled trail-hardiness, and The Cowboys is a top-drawer production with gorgeous cinematography (on location in Mexico and Colorado) by veteran cameraman Robert Surtees. Colleen Dewhurst appears briefly but memorably as the madam of a traveling troupe of prostitutes (in a scene often cut from earlier TV broadcasts and some home-video releases), and the young A Martinez (who would later star in several TV soap operas and the indie-hit Powwow Highway) makes a strong impression in a prominent supporting role. But the real reason for the film's lasting popularity is the hiss-worthy villainy of Bruce Dern (as "Long Hair," leader of the rustlers), who earned a dubious place in movie history for his character's cheating approach to gunplay. No matter how you interpret its themes of fatherly influence and justified vengeance, The Cowboys (later the basis of a short-lived TV series) is undeniably entertaining, dominated by Wayne's reliable presence and bolstered by a rousing, Copland-esque score by John Williams. --Jeff Shannon

(1972) A veteran rancher risks everything when he recruits schoolboys to man a dangerous cattle drive.

TCM Greatest Classic Film Collection: John Wayne Westerns (The Cowboys / Fort Apache / Rio Bravo / The Searchers) (2009)

The Cowboys See above.

Fort Apache
The soldiers at Fort Apache may disagree with the tactics of their glory-seeking new commander. But to a man, they're duty-bound to obey - even when it means almost certain disaster. John Wayne, Henry Fonda and many familiar supporting players from master director John Ford's "stock company" saddle up for the first film in the director's famed cavalry trilogy (She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande are the others). Roughhouse camaraderie, sentimental vignettes of frontier life, massive action sequences staged in Monument Valley - all are part of Fort Apache. So is Ford's exploration of the West's darker side. Themes of justice, heroism and honor that Ford would revisit in later Westerns are given rein in this moving, thought-provoking film that, even as it salutes a legend, gives reasons to question it.

Rio Bravo
When it comes down to naming the best Western of all time, the list usually narrows to three completely different pictures: John Ford's The Searchers, Howard Hawks's Red River, and Hawks's Rio Bravo. About the only thing they all have in common is that they all star John Wayne. But while The Searchers is an epic quest for revenge and Red River is a sweeping cattle-drive drama ("Take 'em to Missouri! Yeeee-hah!"), Rio Bravo is on a much more modest scale. Basically, it comes down to Sheriff John T. Chance (Wayne), his sobering-up alcoholic friend Dude (Dean Martin), the hotshot new kid Colorado (Ricky Nelson), and deputy-sidekick Stumpy (Walter Brennan), sittin' around in the town jail, drinkin' black cofee, shootin' the breeze, and occasionally, singin' a song. Hawks--who, like his pal Ernest Hemingway, lived by the code of "grace under pressure"--said he made Rio Bravo as a rebuke to High Noon, in which sheriff Gary Cooper begged for townspeople to help him. So, Hawks made Wayne's Sheriff Chance a consummate professional--he may be getting old and fat, but he knows how to do his job, and he doesn't want amateurs getting mixed up in his business; they could get hurt. This most entertaining of movies also achieved some notoriety in the '90s when Quentin Tarantino (director of Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, and Jackie Brown) revealed that he uses it as a litmus test for prospective girlfriends. Oh, and if the configuration of characters sounds familiar, it should: Hawks remade Rio Bravo two more times--as El Dorado in 1967, with Wayne, Robert Mitchum, and James Caan; and as Rio Lobo in 1970, with Wayne, Jack Elam, and Christopher Mitchum. -- Jim Emerson

The Searchers
Working together for the 12th time, John Wayne and director John Ford forged The Searchers into a landmark Western offering an indelible image of the frontier and the men and women who challenged it. Wayne plays an ex-Confederate soldier seeking his niece, captured by Comanches who massacred his family. He won't surrender to hunger, thirst, the elements or loneliness. And in his five-year search, he encounters something unexpected: his own humanity. Beautifully shot by Winton C. Hoch, thrillingly scored by Max Steiner and memorably acted by a wonderful ensemble including Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Natalie Wood and Ward Bond, The Searchers endures as "a great film of enormous scope and breathtaking physical beauty" (Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic).

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Flying Leathernecks
Flying Leathernecks (2004)
DVD $12.98






TCM Greatest Classic Film Collection:
Four Film Favorites:
John Wayne Colection
They Were Expendable /
Operation Pacific /
Flying Leathernecks /
Back to Bataan (2007)
DVD $17.94






They Were Expendable /
Flying Leathernecks (2006)
DVD $12.98






They Were Expendable /
Flying Leathernecks (1951)
DVD $14.98






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John Wayne and Robert Ryan co-star in Flying Leathernecks, Nicholas Ray's intense 1951 war movie that managed to appeal to RKO studio chief Howard Hughes's passion for thrilling aerial footage while supplying Ray's own fascination with the human psyche under near-inhuman duress. Wayne plays Major Dan Kirby, commander of a Marine Flying Corps squadron in the South Pacific of World War II. After witnessing the slaughter of men under his command at Midway, Kirby is battle-hardened and in no mood for the familiar style of his executive officer (Ryan). Emotions are further strained as Kirby's pilots are picked off one by one in grueling missions, leading to a crisis that ultimately forces each man to reevaluate his attitude toward sending men to their likely doom. The drama is built around extensive, startling documentary footage of battle action in the sky, but what makes Flying Leathernecks unique is its literate, psychologically probing script. --Tom Keogh

It's World War II. Major Dan Kirby (John Wayne) is hard on his marines. His subordinate Captain Carl Griffin thinks the Major is overdoing it. But Kirby proves that there is a method to his madness after all.

TCM Greatest Classic Film Collection:
Four Film Favorites:
John Wayne Colection
They Were Expendable /
Operation Pacific /
Flying Leathernecks /
Back to Bataan (2007)

They Were Expendable
Supplies are dwindling. Troops are hopelessly outnumbered. But even in defeat there is victory. The defenders of the Philippines ? including PT-boat skippers John Brickley (Robert Montgomery) and Rusty Ryan (John Wayne) will give the U.S. war effort time to regroup after the devastation of Pearl Harbor. Director John Ford's World War II tale knows its battle-scarred topic firsthand. Montgomery was himself a Pacific PT-boat commander and a valorous Bronze Star recipient. Ford filmed the Academy Award?-winning* documentary Battle of Midway. And Wayne creates a portrait of patriotic resolve as only he can. They Were Expendable salutes all who expended themselves during some of the war's bleakest hours. Director John Ford's World War II tale knows its battle-scarred topic firsthand. Montgomery was himself a Pacific PT-boat commander and a valorous Bronze Star recipient. Ford filmed the Academy Award -winning* documentary Battle of Midway. And Wayne creates a portrait of patriotic resolve as only he can. They Were Expendable salutes all who expended themselves during some of the war's bleakest hours.

Operation Pacific
World War II rages across the Pacific and Lt. Cmdr. Duke E. Gifford is in the thick of it. He evacuates children from enemy-held islands. Oversees the development of torpedoes at Pearl Harbor. And prowls the depths in the submarine Thunderfish for a chance to aim his improved "tin fish" - torpedoes - at the enemy. John Wayne plays Gifford in Operation Pacific. "I'm no theory man. I'm a line officer," Gifford barks. He backs it up with lots of bite in several feverish sea battles. He's also a man of heart with a loving wife at home (fellow Academy AwardO winner* Patricia Neal). Vice Adm. Charles Lockwood, World War II commander of all U.S. Pacific submarines, was technical advisor for this adventure packing real you-are-there thrills!

Flying Leathernecks
It's World War II. Major Dan Kirby (John Wayne) is hard on his marines. His subordinate Captain Carl Griffin thinks the Major is overdoing it. But Kirby proves that there is a method to his madness after all.

Back to Bataan
After the fall of the Philippines to the Japanese in World War II, Col. Joseph Madden (John Wayne) of the U.S. Army stays on to organize guerrilla fighters against the conquerors. Back to Top




Fort Apache
Fort Apache (2006) DVD $5.97






TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection:
John Wayne Westerns
The Cowboys /
ort Apache /
Rio Bravo /
The Searchers) (2009)
DVD $27.92






Fort Apache DVD $14.98






Fort Apache [Blu-ray] (2012)
Blu-Ray $19.98






DVD $59.92
John Wayne: John Ford Film Collection
The Searchers 2-Disc Special Edition /
Fort Apache /
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon /
They Were Expendable /
3 Godfathers /
The Wings of Eagles /
Directed by John Ford






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John Ford's 1948 classic stars John Wayne as a Cavalry officer used to doing things a certain way out West at Fort Apache. Along comes a rigid, new commanding officer (Henry Fonda) who insists that everything on his watch be done by the book, including dealings with local Indians. The results are mixed: greater discipline at the fort, but increased hostilities with the natives. Ford deliberately leaves judgments about the wisdom of these changes ambiguous, but he also allows plenty of room in this wonderful film for the fullness of life among the soldiers and their families--community rituals, new romances--to blossom. Fonda, in an unusual role for him, is stern and formal as the new man in charge; Wayne is heroic as the rebellious second; Victor McLaglen provides comic relief; and Ward Bond is a paragon of sturdy and sentimental masculinity. All of this is set against the magnificent, poetic topography of Monument Valley. This is easily one of the greatest of American films. --Tom Keogh

The soldiers at Fort Apache may disagree with the tactics of their glory-seeking new commander. But to a man, they're duty-bound to obey - even when it means almost certain disaster. John Wayne, Henry Fonda and many familiar supporting players from master director John Ford's "stock company" saddle up for the first film in the director's famed cavalry trilogy (She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande are the others). Roughhouse camaraderie, sentimental vignettes of frontier life, massive action sequences staged in Monument Valley - all are part of Fort Apache. So is Ford's exploration of the West's darker side. Themes of justice, heroism and honor that Ford would revisit in later Westerns are given rein in this moving, thought-provoking film that, even as it salutes a legend, gives reasons to question it.

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TCM Greatest Classic Film Collection: John Wayne Westerns (The Cowboys / Fort Apache / Rio Bravo / The Searchers) (2009)

The Cowboys
Almost in spite of itself, The Cowboys has taken its place among John Wayne's most beloved films. It wasn't always that way: When it was released in January of 1972, the film was widely criticized for appearing to promote the notion that boys become men through violence. From a politically correct perspective, this apparent message is arguably deplorable (and some interpreted the film's young fighters as a reflection of young draftees into the Vietnam war), but there's no denying that The Cowboys remains as invigorating as it ever was, no matter how dubious its thematic implications. Based on a novel by William Dale Jennings, and adapted with Jennings by the married screenwriting team of Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr. (whose impressive credits include Hud, Hombre, and Norma Rae), the movie opens with aging ranch owner Wil Anderson (Wayne) desperate for ranch-hands to herd 1,500 head of cattle across 400 miles of dangerous territory. With no better options, he reluctantly hires boys from the local schoolhouse (including Robert Carradine in his screen debut), and an experienced, worldly-wise cook named Nightlinger (played to perfection by Roscoe Lee Browne) joins the cattle drive--the first black man the boys have ever seen. A Hollywood liberal who initially felt at odds with Wayne's right-wing politics, Mark Rydell (On Golden Pond) originally sought George C. Scott for the lead, but studio executives urged him to convince Wayne to take the role. It was a happy outcome for both, as Rydell directs Wayne with an enjoyable mixture of Old West humor and grizzled trail-hardiness, and The Cowboys is a top-drawer production with gorgeous cinematography (on location in Mexico and Colorado) by veteran cameraman Robert Surtees. Colleen Dewhurst appears briefly but memorably as the madam of a traveling troupe of prostitutes (in a scene often cut from earlier TV broadcasts and some home-video releases), and the young A Martinez (who would later star in several TV soap operas and the indie-hit Powwow Highway) makes a strong impression in a prominent supporting role. But the real reason for the film's lasting popularity is the hiss-worthy villainy of Bruce Dern (as "Long Hair," leader of the rustlers), who earned a dubious place in movie history for his character's cheating approach to gunplay. No matter how you interpret its themes of fatherly influence and justified vengeance, The Cowboys (later the basis of a short-lived TV series) is undeniably entertaining, dominated by Wayne's reliable presence and bolstered by a rousing, Copland-esque score by John Williams. --Jeff Shannon

(1972) A veteran rancher risks everything when he recruits schoolboys to man a dangerous cattle drive.

Fort Apache See above.

Rio Bravo
When it comes down to naming the best Western of all time, the list usually narrows to three completely different pictures: John Ford's The Searchers, Howard Hawks's Red River, and Hawks's Rio Bravo. About the only thing they all have in common is that they all star John Wayne. But while The Searchers is an epic quest for revenge and Red River is a sweeping cattle-drive drama ("Take 'em to Missouri! Yeeee-hah!"), Rio Bravo is on a much more modest scale. Basically, it comes down to Sheriff John T. Chance (Wayne), his sobering-up alcoholic friend Dude (Dean Martin), the hotshot new kid Colorado (Ricky Nelson), and deputy-sidekick Stumpy (Walter Brennan), sittin' around in the town jail, drinkin' black cofee, shootin' the breeze, and occasionally, singin' a song. Hawks--who, like his pal Ernest Hemingway, lived by the code of "grace under pressure"--said he made Rio Bravo as a rebuke to High Noon, in which sheriff Gary Cooper begged for townspeople to help him. So, Hawks made Wayne's Sheriff Chance a consummate professional--he may be getting old and fat, but he knows how to do his job, and he doesn't want amateurs getting mixed up in his business; they could get hurt. This most entertaining of movies also achieved some notoriety in the '90s when Quentin Tarantino (director of Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, and Jackie Brown) revealed that he uses it as a litmus test for prospective girlfriends. Oh, and if the configuration of characters sounds familiar, it should: Hawks remade Rio Bravo two more times--as El Dorado in 1967, with Wayne, Robert Mitchum, and James Caan; and as Rio Lobo in 1970, with Wayne, Jack Elam, and Christopher Mitchum. -- Jim Emerson

The Searchers
Working together for the 12th time, John Wayne and director John Ford forged The Searchers into a landmark Western offering an indelible image of the frontier and the men and women who challenged it. Wayne plays an ex-Confederate soldier seeking his niece, captured by Comanches who massacred his family. He won't surrender to hunger, thirst, the elements or loneliness. And in his five-year search, he encounters something unexpected: his own humanity. Beautifully shot by Winton C. Hoch, thrillingly scored by Max Steiner and memorably acted by a wonderful ensemble including Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Natalie Wood and Ward Bond, The Searchers endures as "a great film of enormous scope and breathtaking physical beauty" (Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic).

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"Fort Apache" is also available in these multi-movie products: John Wayne - John Ford Film Collection (6 Movie Set) John Wayne - John Ford Film Collection (7 Movie Set)




Green Berets (1997)
Green Berets (1997)
DVD $5.97






TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection:
War - Battlefront Asia
Bataan /
Back to Bataan /
The Green Berets /
Destination Tokyo (2009)
DVD $27.92






Green Berets Blu-Ray $14.98






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Anyone who fought in Vietnam can tell you that the war bore little resemblance to this propagandistic action film starring and codirected by John Wayne. But the film itself is not nearly as bad as its reputation would suggest; critics roasted its gung-ho politics while ignoring its merits as an exciting (if rather conventional and idealistic) war movie. Some notorious mistakes were made--in the final shot, the sun sets in the east!--and it's an awkward attempt to graft WWII heroics onto the Vietnam experience. But as the Duke's attempt to acknowledge the men who were fighting and dying overseas, it's a rousing film in which Wayne commands a regiment on a mission to kidnap a Viet Cong general. David Janssen plays a journalist who learns to understand Wayne's commitment to battling Communism, and Jim Hutton (Timothy's dad) plays an ill-fated soldier who adopts a Vietnamese orphan. --Jeff Shannon

John Wayne leads his special forces troops against the enemy in this first Hollywood treatment of the Vietnam War. It's rugged battle action all the way. David Janssen and Jim Hutton co-star. The DVD is a Double Sided Disc.

TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: War - Battlefront Asia (Bataan / Back to Bataan / The Green Berets / Destination Tokyo) (2009)

John Wayne and Anthony Quinn star in this touching 1945 drama inspired by real-life heroism in the Philippines following General MacArthur's withdrawal in 1942 and the islands' subsequent conquest by the Japanese army. Wayne plays Colonel Joe Madden, an American who stays behind to organize a ragtag guerrilla army in the forests and hills. At his side is Captain Andres Bonifacio (Quinn), grandson of a legendary revolutionary martyred in the nation's old war against Spanish colonialists. Joe, Andres, and their fearless irregulars (with support from a schoolteacher, played by Beulah Bondi) sap the enemy's resolve through hit-and-run missions, but as time passes the locals wonder, with pronounced disillusionment, why America doesn't return with masses of troops and weapons. Wayne's star power is undeniable, and Quinn is very good as a man uncertain of his role or destiny. Edward Dmytryk (Murder, My Sweet), soon to be imprisoned during Joseph McCarthy's witch hunt of Hollywood communists, directs. --Tom Keogh

BATAAN
Robert Taylor and his squad battle alongside Filipino regiments in a last-ditch effort to destroy a strategic bridge before the Japanese capture of the Philippines. George Murphy, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Nolan, Robert Walker and Desi Arnaz co-star in this fierce and stirring salute to World War II heroes.

BACK TO BATAAN
John Wayne portrays a squad commander in this heroic salute to the Philippine resistance forces who became effective guerrilla-warfare operatives against the invading Japanese in the years leading to General MacArthurs return. Anthony Quinn co-stars, Edward Dmytryk (The Young Lions) directs.

DESTINATION TOKYO
In the only military-action film he made during World War II, Cary Grant plays the skipper of a submarine making its battle-strewn way from San Francisco to the Aleutians and into the enemy's front yard. Under the taut direction of Delmer Daves (his directorial debut), John Garfield leads a stellar array of co-stars as boys-next-door gone to war.

THE GREEN BERETS
John Wayne stars in and co-directs this red-white-and-blue depiction of Americas Vietnam effort, based on Robin Moore's novel about the elite, uniquely trained soldiers of the Special Forces. David Janssen, Jim Hutton and Aldo Ray add star-power to the firepower.

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How the West Was Won
How the West Was Won
(Ultimate Collectors Edition) (2008)
DVD $20.97






How the West Was Won
(Three-Disc Special Edition) (2008)
DVD $20.97






How the West Was Won (1963)
DVD $38.68





How the West Was Won (2011)
Blu-Ray $19.98






How the West Was Won (2011)
Blu-Ray $19.98




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The first feature film to be photographed and projected in the panoramic three-camera Cinerama process, this epic Western is almost as expansive as the West itself, chronicling a pioneering family's triumphs and tragedies in numerous episodes spanning three generations and a half century of westward movement. Divided into five segments directed by veteran Hollywood filmmakers Henry Hathaway, George Marshall, and the legendary John Ford (and including uncredited sequences directed by Richard Thorpe), the film was one of the most ambitious ever made by the venerable MGM studio. Its stellar cast reads like a virtual who's who of Hollywood's biggest stars. Debbie Reynolds plays a sturdy survivor of many pioneering dangers, and the eventual widow of a gambler (Gregory Peck), who is later reunited with her nephew (George Peppard), a Civil War veteran and cavalryman who heads for San Francisco as the transcontinental railroad is being built. Many more characters and stories are woven throughout this epic film, which is dramatically uneven but totally engrossing with its stunning vistas and countless outdoor locations in Illinois, Kentucky, South Dakota, Monument Valley in Arizona, California, Colorado, and elsewhere. --Jeff Shannon

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The Long Voyage Home
The Long Voyage Home
DVD $17.94






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The merchant ship Glencairn rolls and shivers in the black North Atlantic. On board, her anxious crewmen search the sky for German planes. And hope they'll survive The Long Voyage Home. Director John Ford and screenwriter Dudley Nichols adapted four Eugene O'Neill one-acts into this compelling, lyrical look at men at sea that O'Neill considered his favorite of all his filmed works. As his sailors, Ford cast members of his so-called "Stock Company:" Thomas Mitchell, Barry Fitzgerald, Arthur Shields, Ward Bond, John Qualen and the star of the previous year's Stagecoach, John Wayne. As sunny, sweet-natured Ole Olsen, Wayne does winning work in an atypical role. Nominated for six Academy Awards?* incuding Best Picture, The Long Voyage Home is a journey to remember. Come aboard! Director John Ford and screenwriter Dudley Nichols adapted four Eugene O'Neill one-acts into this compelling, lyrical look at men at sea that O'Neill considered his favorite of all his filmed works. As his sailors, Ford cast members of his so-called "Stock Company:" Thomas Mitchell, Barry Fitzgerald, Arthur Shields, Ward Bond, John Qualen and the star of the previous year's Stagecoach, John Wayne. As sunny, sweet-natured Ole Olsen, Wayne does winning work in an atypical role. Nominated for six Academy Awards * incuding Best Picture, The Long Voyage Home is a journey to remember. Come aboard!

Cast (in credits order) verified as complete:
  • John Wayne as Olsen
  • Thomas Mitchell as Driscoll
  • Ian Hunter as Smitty
  • Barry Fitzgerald as Cocky
  • Wilfrid Lawson as Captain
  • John Qualen as Axel
  • Mildred Natwick as Freda
  • Ward Bond as Yank
  • Arthur Shields as Donkeyman
  • Joe Sawyer as Davis (as Joseph Sawyer)
  • J.M. Kerrigan as Crimp
  • Rafaela Ottiano as Bella
  • Carmen Morales as Principal Spanish Girl
  • Jack Pennick as Johnny
  • Bob Perry as Paddy (as Bob E. Perry)
  • Constant Franke as Norway (as Constant Frenke)
  • David Hughes as Scotty
  • Constantine Romanoff as Big Frank
  • Danny Borzage as Tim (as Dan Borzage)
  • Harry Tenbrook as Max
  • Cyril McLaglen as First Mate
  • Douglas Walton as Second Mate
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
  • Billy Bevan as Joe - Limehouse Barman (uncredited)
  • Mary Carewe as Elizabeth - Smitty's Wife (uncredited)
  • Bing Conley as Limehouse Roustabout (uncredited)
  • Lita Cortez as Bumboat Girl (uncredited)
  • Jane Crowley as Kate (uncredited)
  • Carmen D'Antonio as Bumboat Girl (uncredited)
  • Lowell Drew as Blind Man (uncredited)
  • James Flavin as Dock Policeman (uncredited)
  • Soledad Gonzales as Bumboat Girl (uncredited)
  • Guy Kingsford as London Policeman (uncredited)
  • Judith Linden as Bumboat Girl (uncredited)
  • Elena Martínez as Bumboat Girl (uncredited)
  • Tina Menard as Bumboat Girl (uncredited)
  • Art Miles as Captain of the Amindra (uncredited)
  • Lionel Pape as Mr. Clifton (uncredited)
  • Luanne Robb as Smitty's Daughter (uncredited)
  • Ky Robinson as Limehouse Roustabout (uncredited)
  • Maureen Roden-Ryan as Meg (uncredited)
  • Lee Shumway as Dock Policeman (uncredited)
  • Leslie Sketchley as London Policeman (uncredited)
  • Wyndham Standing as British Naval Officer (uncredited)
  • Roger Steele as Smitty's Son (uncredited)
  • Sammy Stein as Seaman (uncredited)
  • Blue Washington as Black Cook on Glencairn (uncredited)
  • Harry Woods as Amindra First Mate (uncredited)

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"The Long Voyage Home" is also available in these multi-movie products:
John Wayne - John Ford Film Collection (7 Movie Set)



Man From Monterey
Man from Monterry
DVD $9.98





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Western about a cavalry officer who helps save a family's ranch from land grabbers.
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McQ
McQ (2005)
DVD $12.98





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Police lieutenant resigns from the force to track down some big dope dealers involved in killing a couple of police officers. John Wayne is a force to be reckoned with when he stars as a cop who quits the force to seek revenge for his murdered partner in this high action, suspenseful drama. After turning down the role of Dirty Harry, John Wayne made up for lost time by starring in this pretty-good 1974 police drama. Shot on location in a gritty pre-Microsoft Seattle, McQ finds John Wayne butting heads with fellow cops and local crime elements as he investigates the murder of a fellow cop and friend. Wayne is obviously a bit long-in-tooth to be taking on this kind of role, but the script allows for some decent character development, including Colleen Dewhurst in a brief but memorable role as a washed-up barmaid, and the action sequences by veteran director John Sturges still hold up well. For anyone who cares, a key drug-heist sequence was shot in the hospital that now houses Amazon.com's Seattle headquarters. --Kristian St. Clair

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Operation Pacific
Operation Pacific (2003)
DVD $12.98






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World War II rages across the Pacific and Lt. Cmdr. Duke E. Gifford is in the thick of it. He evacuates children from enemy-held islands. Oversees the development of torpedoes at Pearl Harbor. And prowls the depths in the submarine Thunderfish for a chance to aim his improved "tin fish" - torpedoes - at the enemy. John Wayne plays Gifford in Operation Pacific. "I'm no theory man. I'm a line officer," Gifford barks. He backs it up with lots of bite in several feverish sea battles. He's also a man of heart with a loving wife at home (fellow Academy AwardO winner* Patricia Neal). Vice Adm. Charles Lockwood, World War II commander of all U.S. Pacific submarines, was technical advisor for this adventure packing real you-are-there thrills! If not a seminal World War II submarine picture, then Operation Pacific is at least an entertaining one. John Wayne stars as "Duke" Gifford, first officer of the submarine Thunderfish. Patricia Neal is Duke's ex-wife, and when they meet again after four years, the couple tries to recapture "that old zing." Complications arise when Duke goes on a mission with dud torpedoes, and his best friend's younger brother goes after Neal. Fans will be pleased with Wayne's role, as the Gifford character is one of Wayne's simplest, but most honest performances. Wayne regulars Ward Bond and Jack Pennick are on hand as well; Bond plays sub captain "Pop" Perry, and Pennick the sub's Chief. The scene in which Pop tells his crew to "Take 'er down!" came from real life; a sub skipper uttered the famous command during a desperate surface action. --Mark Savary

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Reunion in France
Reunion in France (2003)
DVD $12.98






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A Frenchwoman believes that her fiance is a Nazi collaborator. The lone pairing of Joan Crawford and John Wayne is reason enough for being curious about Reunion in France, a flagrantly preposterous World War II melodrama with a surprisingly distinguished roster of contributors--from producer Joseph L. Mankiewicz, co-screenwriter Marc Connelly, and director Jules Dassin to such stalwart character actors as Philip Dorn, John Carradine, Reginald Owen, Henry Daniell, Albert Bassermann, Howard Da Silva, and unbilled bit player Ava Gardner. It's a Crawford vehicle all the way (her next-to-last at MGM), with her as a heedless French fashionista in love with ultra-swank, wealthy industrial designer Dorn. While on a trip, Crawford finds herself under German bombs and, after suffering in the company of other, much less stylishly costumed refugees, makes her way back to Paris. There she's shocked to discover Dorn still enjoying his upper-crust lifestyle: he's lent his skills and factories to the Nazi war machine, and Crawford--appalled and suddenly penniless--seeks gainful employment and moral rearmament with her favorite modiste. Wayne enters the picture a couple of reels in, an American flyboy who signed on with the RAF, crashed in France, and made his way to Paris. Inveigling himself into Crawford's arms under the eyes of a Gestapo agent, he enjoys her reluctant protection for a good deal longer than credibility can bear. People who know such things have recorded that, in reality, Crawford made any number of heavy passes at her costar, but there was no chemistry between them offscreen or on. The one scene in the film with any sting features veteran German actor Ernst Deutsch (the future Baron Kurtz of The Third Man, billed as Ernest Dorian in his Hollywood years) as a Nazi officer tormented by the knowledge that he is loathed by the people whose nation he occupies. --Richard T. Jameson

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Rio Bravo
Rio Bravo (2010)
DVD $12.97





Rio Bravo
[Two Disc Special Edition] (1959)
DVD $19.98






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John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson. A no-nonsense sheriff attempts to prevent a well-connected criminal from escaping jail. Directed by Howard Hawks. When it comes down to naming the best Western of all time, the list usually narrows to three completely different pictures: John Ford's The Searchers, Howard Hawks's Red River, and Hawks's Rio Bravo. About the only thing they all have in common is that they all star John Wayne. But while The Searchers is an epic quest for revenge and Red River is a sweeping cattle-drive drama ("Take 'em to Missouri! Yeeee-hah!"), Rio Bravo is on a much more modest scale. Basically, it comes down to Sheriff John T. Chance (Wayne), his sobering-up alcoholic friend Dude (Dean Martin), the hotshot new kid Colorado (Ricky Nelson), and deputy-sidekick Stumpy (Walter Brennan), sittin' around in the town jail, drinkin' black cofee, shootin' the breeze, and occasionally, singin' a song. Hawks--who, like his pal Ernest Hemingway, lived by the code of "grace under pressure"--said he made Rio Bravo as a rebuke to High Noon, in which sheriff Gary Cooper begged for townspeople to help him. So, Hawks made Wayne's Sheriff Chance a consummate professional--he may be getting old and fat, but he knows how to do his job, and he doesn't want amateurs getting mixed up in his business; they could get hurt. This most entertaining of movies also achieved some notoriety in the '90s when Quentin Tarantino (director of Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, and Jackie Brown) revealed that he uses it as a litmus test for prospective girlfriends. Oh, and if the configuration of characters sounds familiar, it should: Hawks remade Rio Bravo two more times--as El Dorado in 1967, with Wayne, Robert Mitchum, and James Caan; and as Rio Lobo in 1970, with Wayne, Jack Elam, and Christopher Mitchum. --Jim Emerson

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Sea Chase, The
The Sea Chase (2005)
DVD $12.98



The Sea Chase (1955)
DVD $14.98






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Adventure, drama and romance of an outlaw ship and the people aboard her. Based on Andrew Geer's novel.

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Searchers, The
The Searchers [Blu-Ray] (2006)
Blu-Ray $14.98






The Searchers (1997)
DVD $12.98






The Searchers
[Ultimate Collector's Edition] (2006)
DVD $20.97






The Searchers (1956)
DVD $14.98






The Searchers
(Two-Disc 50th Anniversary Edition) (2006)
DVD $26.99






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Working together for the 12th time, John Wayne and director John Ford forged The Searchers into an indelible image of the frontier and the men and women who challenged it. Wayne plays ex-Confederate soldier Ethan Edwards, a believer more in bullets than in words. He's seeking his niece, captured by Comanches who massacred his family. He won't surrender to hunger, thirst, the elements or loneliness. And in his obsessive, five-year quest, Ethan encounters something he didn't expect to find: his own humanity. A favorite film of some of the world's greatest filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, John Ford's The Searchers has earned its place in the legacy of great American films for a variety of reasons. Perhaps most notably, it's the definitive role for John Wayne as an icon of the classic Western--the hero (or antihero) who must stand alone according to the unwritten code of the West. The story takes place in Texas in 1868; Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, a Confederate veteran who visits his brother and sister-in-law at their ranch and is horrified when they are killed by marauding Comanches. Ethan's search for a surviving niece (played by young Natalie Wood) becomes an all-consuming obsession. With the help of a family friend (Jeffrey Hunter) who is himself part Cherokee, Ethan hits the trail on a five-year quest for revenge. At the peak of his masterful talent, director Ford crafts this classic tale as an embittered examination of racism and blind hatred, provoking Wayne to give one of the best performances of his career. As with many of Ford's classic Westerns, The Searchers must contend with revisionism in its stereotypical treatment of "savage" Native Americans, and the film's visual beauty (the final shot is one of the great images in all of Western culture) is compromised by some uneven performances and stilted dialogue. Still, this is undeniably one of the greatest Westerns ever made. --Jeff Shannon

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"The Searchers" is also available in these multi-movie products:
John Wayne - John Ford Film Collection (6 Movie Set) John Wayne - John Ford Film Collection (7 Movie Set)






She Wore A Yellow Ribbon
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (2002)
DVD $12.97






She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949)
DVD $19.98






She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949)
DVD $19.98






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(1949) A masterpiece of mood and heroics, this second film in director John Ford's renowned cavalry trilogy features one of John Wayne's most moving performances as a cavalry officer in his final week of service on the frontier. Under makeup aging him some 20 years, he inhabits the role of a wily veteran who knows the sting of war and vows to make his last mission one of peace. The second installment of John Ford's famous cavalry trilogy (which also includes Fort Apache and Rio Grande), this meditative Western continues the director's fascination with history's obliteration of the past. It features one of John Wayne's more sensitive performances as Capt. Nathan Brittles, a stern yet sentimental war horse who has difficulty preparing for his impending military retirement. All things considered, he refuses to leave before fulfilling his obligation to the local Indian tribe. It's a film about honor and duty as well as loneliness and mortality. And Oscar-winner Winton C. Hoch beautifully photographs it in Remington-like Technicolor tones (you've never seen such stunning cloud-covered skies). The combination of melancholy and farce (Victor McLaglen makes a perfect court jester) evokes comparisons to Shakespeare. Best of all, the scene in which Wayne fights back tears when receiving a gold watch from his troops is unforgettably bittersweet. If you view the whole trilogy, it actually makes sense to save this for last. --Bill Desowitz

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"She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" is also available in these multi-movie products:
John Wayne - John Ford Film Collection (6 Movie Set)
John Wayne - John Ford Film Collection (7 Movie Set)
Turner Classic Movies, Greatest Classic Legends, Director John Ford





Tall In The Saddle
Tall In The Saddle
DVD $12.97






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Woman-hating cowboy becomes foreman of ranch run by pretty woman and her spinster aunt who have inherited the ranch. In this convoluted Western mystery, "tall in the saddle" is more of a genealogical clue than an accurate index of the hero's behavior. John Wayne has come to town, so he says, to work for a local rancher--who was murdered shortly after sending for him. Prime villain would appear to be Ward Bond, exuding oiliness as the local judge, who doesn't seem to be a real judge. Paul Fix (who cowrote the screenplay) and Harry Woods supply the thuggery. But mostly it's women that Wayne has trouble with: the dead man's genteel niece (Audrey Long) and her virago of a duenna (Elisabeth Risdon), and especially Ella Raines, who dresses like a man (well, a very pretty boy), runs the neighboring ranch, and falls into instant love-hate with Wayne. (This was Raines's glory period--within a few months in 1943-44 she was breathtakingly lovely in Corvette K-225, Hail the Conquering Hero, and Phantom Lady--but alas, here she's mostly just shrill.) As run-of-the-mill Wayne Westerns go, this RKO picture is a bit upscale from the fare at Republic, if also less robust. Edwin L. Marin's direction is undistinguished, but the RKO craftsmanship is handsome as usual, and it must have been nice to work from a coherent screenplay for a change. Gabby Hayes is around to discuss sexual politics with Duke. For some reason the veteran character actor Frank Puglia goes uncredited as Raines's enigmatic servant, who seems to have wandered in from a Val Lewton production. --Richard T. Jameson

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They Were Expendable
They Were Expendable (2000)
DVD $12.97





They Were Expendable (1945)
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Supplies are dwindling. Troops are hopelessly outnumbered. But even in defeat there is victory. The defenders of the Philippines ? including PT-boat skippers John Brickley (Robert Montgomery) and Rusty Ryan (John Wayne) will give the U.S. war effort time to regroup after the devastation of Pearl Harbor. Director John Ford's World War II tale knows its battle-scarred topic firsthand. Montgomery was himself a Pacific PT-boat commander and a valorous Bronze Star recipient. Ford filmed the Academy Award?-winning* documentary Battle of Midway. And Wayne creates a portrait of patriotic resolve as only he can. They Were Expendable salutes all who expended themselves during some of the war's bleakest hours. Director John Ford's World War II tale knows its battle-scarred topic firsthand. Montgomery was himself a Pacific PT-boat commander and a valorous Bronze Star recipient. Ford filmed the Academy Award -winning* documentary Battle of Midway. And Wayne creates a portrait of patriotic resolve as only he can. They Were Expendable salutes all who expended themselves during some of the war's bleakest hours.

They Were Expendable is the greatest American film of the Second World War, made by America's greatest director, John Ford, who himself saw action from the Battle of Midway through D-day. Yet it's been oddly neglected. Or perhaps not so oddly: for as the matter-of-fact title implies, the film commemorates a period, from the eve of Pearl Harbor up to the impending fall of Bataan, when the Japanese conquest of the Pacific was in full cry and U.S. forces were fighting a desperate holding action. Although stirring movies had been made about these early days (Wake Island, Bataan, Air Force), they were gung ho in their resolve to see the tables turned. They Were Expendable, however, which was made when Allied victory was all but assured, is profoundly elegiac, with the patient grandeur of a tragic poem. "They" are the officers and men of the Navy's PT boat service, an experimental motor-torpedo force relegated to courier duty on Manila Bay but eventually proven effective in combat. Their commander is played by Robert Montgomery, who actually served on a PT and later commanded a destroyer at Normandy; James Agee called his "the one unimprovable performance" of 1945. In addition to giving it, Montgomery codirected the breathtaking second-unit action sequences (and took over the first unit for a week when Ford broke his leg). John Wayne's costarring role as Montgomery's volatile second-in-command initially looks stereotypically blustery, but as the drama unfolds--the death of comrades, a friendship-that-never-gets-to-be-a-romance with an Army nurse (Donna Reed)--Wayne sounds notes of tenderness and vulnerability that will take Duke-bashers by surprise. They Were Expendable is a heartbreakingly beautiful film, full of astonishing images of warfare, grief, courage, and dignity: the artificial "rainfall" that lashes the beached Wayne as his PT boat explodes in the surf; the glow around a communally improvised dinner for nurse Reed; an old ship-repairer (Russell Simpson, The Grapes of Wrath's Pa Joad) settling in grimly to wait for the Japanese, with "Red River Valley" as benediction; the propeller spray that hangs over a jungle inlet, like the dust from one of Ford's cavalry pictures, as the PTs round a bend and disappear into history. This is a masterpiece. --Richard T. Jameson

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"They Were Expendable" is also available in these multi-movie products:
John Wayne - John Ford Film Collection (6 Movie Set)
John Wayne - John Ford Film Collection (7 Movie Set)





The Train Robbers
The Train Robbers (2005)
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A feisty, beautiful widow bands together with three cowboy buddies to recover a cache of gold stolen by her husband and her attempt to clear his son's name. It's wide-open fun and dynamite excitement as The Duke meets his match in lovely Oscar-nominee and Emmy and Golden Globe-winner Ann-Margret ("Grumpy Old Men").
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Trouble Along The Way
Trouble Along The Way (1953)
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Silver screen legend John Wayne stars as a former top-notch college football coach who tries to maintain custody of his daughter during a tough divorce while earning back self-respect by coaching a small-town Catholic school's football team. A unusually sentimental role for the Duke, in which he proves his amazing gift for comedy and sentiment. Co-starring Donna Reed ("It's a Wonderful Life"), and directed by Michael Curtiz ("Casablanca"). Trouble Along the Way, a John Wayne movie even John Wayne fans have tended to skip, is an intriguingly complicated entertainment that gets more interesting from reel to reel. The premise scarcely sounds like prime Duke material: Former big-time football coach with an ugly divorce behind him and a little daughter to look out for takes a job at a venerable Catholic college in danger of being shut down. The title nudgingly recalls the sentimental classic Going My Way, with school administrator Charles Coburn replacing Barry Fitzgerald in the doddering-but-sly priest role and Wayne as a nonclerical (and non-singing) substitute for Bing Crosby. In addition to the diocesan politics dooming the College of St. Anthony's, the plot is complicated by ex-wife Marie Windsor's vicious efforts to regain custody of daughter Sherry Jackson; that sparks a spiky ambivalence between social worker Donna Reed and disreputable papa Wayne, who pretty much lives out of a bar where he runs his latterday business--as a bookie. The script was the work of future Bob Hope writers Melville Shavelson and Jack Rose, and between them and director Michael Curtiz--nearing the end of his long tenure at Warner Bros.--they scuff up Wayne's heroic image in interesting ways. To turn St. Anthony's into a winning football team overnight, Wayne indulges in some outright larceny and extortion; there's even a sly throwaway joke likening his profit-sharing plan for his co-conspirators to a form of "socialism." Instead of the anticipated big-game climax with the St. Anthony's underdogs victorious, the movie veers toward a finale in which several "happy endings" are put on hold till some point in the future. For his part, Wayne gets to deliver more syncopated dialogue than usual, and seems both refreshed and startled by the experience. --Richard T. Jameson

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True Grit
True Grit (1969)
DVD $5.97






True Grit
(Special Collectors Edition) (1969)
DVD $14.98






True Grit (1969)
DVD $9.98






True Grit (1969)
Blu-Ray $14.98





True Grit (1969)
Blu-Ray SteelBook $24.98






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Youthful gamine Mattie Ross (Kim Darby) likes her dad. However when this dad gets gotten rid of by a tramp called Tom Chaney (Jeff Corey), she is figured out to see him hang. She goes to Fort Smith and finds that Tom Chaney has run away in the Indian area, where just a marshall can get him. A marshall who has real grit, in order to vanquish not only Chaney, however likewise the group of criminals he has actually linked with, led by the well-known bandit Ned Pepper (Robert Duvall) and including Moon (Dennis Hopper) and Quincy (Jeremy Slate). Mattie finds the most difficult marshall of the West: the one-eyed Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn (John Wayne), who's never ever known a dry day in his life, and employs him - with $100 - to go after Chaney and Pepper. Rooster soon pairs with young Texican La Boeuf (Glen Campbell) who likewise looks for Chaney as he had actually gotten rid of a Texas-senator before killing Mattie's father. Mattie and La Boeuf are soon at odds, as the most up to date does not want her to sign up with the chase, however Mattie holds on and Rooster lets her had them. Strong-headed Mattie, fast talking La Boeuf and sharp Rooster engage themselves in a battle of wits and, at the exact same time, on Chaney's tracks. After an ambush where Moon and Quincy are eliminated, Mattie gets face to face with Chaney and injuries him prior to being abducted by Ned Pepper. Ned forces Rooster and La Boeuf to withdraw and leaves Mattie with Chaney as a captive. La Boeuf comes back and captures Chaney. Mattie and La Boeuf witness the last battle between Ned Pepper and 3 of his men on one side, Rooster all alone on the various other. They all charge on their equines and Rooster gets rid of three guys and injures Pepper before his equine (Bo) is killed under him. He frantically tries to buy his weapon as the passing away Ned comes closer. At the very last moment, La Boeuf fires from capital he bases on with Mattie and shoots Ned before Rooster gets eliminated. Chaney then leaves and attacks La Boeuf on the head with a huge stone, just to get shot once again by Mattie. Rooster shows up at that minute, eliminates Chaney who was still trying to injure Mattie and goes down the pit to conserve Mattie. Rooster leaves him on the field and kills his equine under him to bring Mattie to a physician. At the end of the film, Mattie is back to her ranch where she heals gradually. Rooster comes and sees her. After an ambush where Moon and Quincy are killed, Mattie gets face to face with Chaney and wounds him prior to being abducted by Ned Pepper. Ned forces Rooster and La Boeuf to withdraw and leaves Mattie with Chaney as a captive. Chaney then hits and leaves La Boeuf on the head with a huge stone, only to get shot once more by Mattie. Rooster shows up at that minute, gets rid of Chaney who was still trying to harm Mattie and goes down the pit to conserve Mattie.

Cast (in credits order) verified as complete:
  • John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn
  • Glen Campbell as La Boeuf
  • Kim Darby as Mattie Ross
  • Jeremy Slate as Emmett Quincy
  • Robert Duvall as Ned Pepper
  • Dennis Hopper as Moon
  • Alfred Ryder as Goudy
  • Strother Martin as Col. G. Stonehill
  • Jeff Corey as Tom Chaney
  • Ron Soble as Capt. Boots Finch
  • John Fiedler as Lawyer Daggett
  • James Westerfield as Judge Parker
  • John Doucette as Sheriff
  • Donald Woods as Barlow
  • Edith Atwater as Mrs. Floyd
  • Carlos Rivas as Dirty Bob
  • Isabel Boniface as Mrs. Bagby
  • H.W. Gim as Chen Lee
  • John Pickard as Frank Ross
  • Elizabeth Harrower as Mrs. Ross
  • Ken Renard as Yarnell
  • Jay Ripley as Harold Parmalee
  • Kenneth Becker as Farrell Parmalee
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
  • Wilford Brimley as Minor Role (uncredited)
  • Gene Coogan as Boarding House Guest (uncredited)
  • Myron Healey as Deputy at Prisoner Unloading (uncredited)
  • James McEachin as Judge Parker's Bailiff (uncredited)
  • Dennis McMullen as Bailiff (uncredited)
  • Boyd 'Red' Morgan as Red - Ferryman (uncredited)
  • Robin Morse as Bit Part (uncredited)
  • General Sterling Price as Ginger Cat (uncredited)
  • Stuart Randall as McAlester (uncredited)
  • Connie Sawyer as Talkative Woman at Hanging (uncredited)
  • Jeffrey Sayre as Courtroom Spectator (uncredited)
  • Jay Silverheels as Condemned Man at Hanging (uncredited)
  • Dean Smith as Minor Role (uncredited)
  • Vince St. Cyr as Gaspargoo (uncredited)
  • Max Wagner as Courtroom Spectator (uncredited)
  • Guy Wilkerson as The Hangman (uncredited)
  • Hank Worden as R. Ryan - Undertaker (uncredited)
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The Wings of Eagles
The Wings of Eagles (2006)
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Cmdr. Frank "Spig" Wead was a pioneer aviator, renowned screenwriter (whose works included John Ford's They Were Expendable) and a man of war. The skies beckoned Spig to action; a crippling injury ultimately left him powerless to act, propelling him to discover the power of his pen. He was talented, driven, flawed, a friend of Ford and the subject of this compassionate biography. John Wayne plays Spig and Ford directs The Wings of Eagles, which also offers a fascinating glimpse into the ways and world of Ford: Ward Bond plays moviemaker John Dodge, a role modelled on Ford. Maureen O'Hara, Wayne's five-time co-star (including Ford's The Quiet Man), and Dan Dailey (of Ford's 1952 What Price Glory?) play Spig's indomitable wife Min and cigar-chomping sidekick "Jughead" Carson. John Ford had a big emotional investment in The Wings of Eagles, and his favorite star John Wayne rewarded the director with one of his strongest performances. The subject is Frank "Spig" Wead, Naval aviation legend turned Hollywood screenwriter, who had written Ford's very good 1932 movie Air Mail and his magnificent WWII elegy They Were Expendable (1945). On the latter, Ford made the extraordinary gesture of putting Wead's screenplay credit on the same main-title panel as his own. Ford was fond of exploring the theme of "victory in defeat." Wead's life was made to order for that. The hell-raising flyboy shenanigans, and his flailing marriage to a scrappy Irish redhead (The Quiet Man's Maureen O'Hara reporting for duty), were abruptly curtailed by a fall that left him with severe spinal damage. He should never have been able to walk again, but he fought his way back to limited mobility and built a new career as a writer. And when WWII broke out, Wead talked his way into uniform once more and made a key contribution to the Pacific air war. It would be satisfying to report that The Wings of Eagles is a triumph--that the broad comedy of the early reels cuts brilliantly against the raw pain of the Weads' marriage, the grief of a family broken and mended and broken again, the film's specters of death and deep frustration. There are powerful moments--especially the complex, scalding scene of the newly injured Spig dismissing Min (O'Hara) from his life. But the low comedy is very low, the visual style sometimes stark but more often just drab, and the screenplay is very choppy about the passage of time. Ford-Wayne pal Ward Bond turns up as a crusty movie director with a walking stick full of booze, an office full of Western memorabilia, and the nudge-nudge moniker "John Dodge." --Richard T. Jameson

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"Wings of Eagles" is also available in these multi-movie products:
John Wayne - John Ford Film Collection (6 Movie Set)
John Wayne - John Ford Film Collection (7 Movie Set)