THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY

THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY (1954). Director: William A. Wellman.

"The youth of man will never die unless he murders it."

NOTE: Some plot details are revealed in this review.This was a [near] disaster film made before the era of disaster films, based on a novel by the once-popular Ernest K. Gann. On a flight from Honolulu to San Francisco, various passengers share their stories, as some unspecified troubles begin, culminating in the loss of an engine and the possibility that they might not have enough fuel to make it to land --  which means they might wind up in the drink. No one can say with any certainty if the plane will float until help arrives, or break up and sink. On board we have a honeymoon couple, middle-aged couples, a woman who's in love with her boss, an aging gal, Sally (Jan Sterling), meeting her future, younger husband for the first time, and so on. One thing the plane doesn't have is any chivalrous men. When Sally explains how nervous she is about meeting her guy considering she's a bit older than the only picture he has of her, neither the pilot Sullivan (Robert Stack) or another male passenger ever tell her that she's still considerably attractive -- gee, what nice guys! When another woman, May (Claire Trevor), betrays her terror of aging -- "no one's whistled at me in years" -- her male companion offers no compliments, either, despite her own good looks. The younger women, including the pretty and efficient stewardess (Julie Bishop) and the darling Miss Chen (Joy Kim) fare a bit better. 

Sidney Blackmer of Rosemary's Baby is aboard for a little melodrama involving his wife and her alleged lover, David Brian, and there's also Paul Kelly as a disaffected scientist. Loraine Day is a wealthy woman disgusted with her husband's financial decisions, Phil Harris and Ann Doran are disappointed middle-aged tourists; all are fine. William Campbell [Dementia 13] has one of his best roles as an obnoxious younger pilot. The performances and the characterizations are actually pretty good, but The High and the Mighty is only sporadically entertaining and suspenseful, and at nearly two and half hours in length is much too long and in fact fairly tedious for long stretches. But the main problem is that the movie has no pay-off and no real climax. John Wayne -- did I forget to mention him? -- saves the day and that's that. You're happy for the characters but disappointed that there's so little life or death action. Wayne plays an older pilot who is haunted by the death of his wife and boy in a crash that he survived. When he thinks back on this event in a flashback, he furrows his brow to show that he's allegedly "haunted." He's better in scenes when he has to firmly and kindly reassure the passengers; in fact, for the most part he's not bad at all. Dimitri Tiomkin's Oscar-winning music score does most of the work in this movie, however.

Verdict: This is by no means a classic. **1/2.

CIRCUS WORLD

Rita Hayworth and John Wayne

CIRCUS WORLD (1964). Director: Henry Hathaway. 

Matt Masters (John Wayne) decides to pack up his tents and take his circus on a European tour. His associate and buddy Cap (Lloyd Nolan) suspects that Matt's real reason for going is to find Lily (Rita Hayworth), who ran off fourteen years ago and hasn't been seen since. Lily left behind a daughter, Toni (Claudia Cardinale), who was taken in by Matt, who has become her surrogate father. Matt is a bit disturbed by Toni's feelings for Steve (John Smith), who hopes to become Matt's partner and Toni's husband. But just as the troupe arrives in Paris, there's a disaster when their ship capsizes. 

Wayne with John Smith

Circus World may not be a great movie, but it's quite colorful and entertaining. Hayworth and Wayne, two very different kinds of actors, actually play quite well together, with Hayworth being handled the more difficult role and running with it. Cardinale of the whiskey voice also acquits herself nicely, although one could argue that she's more decorative than anything else. John Smith makes a decidedly positive impression as Steve, but he did much more work on television shows such as Laramie. Lloyd Nolan arguably comes off the best in his peppery and engaging performance as Cap. Richard Conte is also good in an underwritten role as Hayworth's former brother-in-law, a clown. Miles Malleson and Katherine Kath are also notable in smaller roles.

Claudia Cardinale with Wayne

Despite some terrific circus and animal acts involving horses, highwire acts, lions and tigers, the most outstanding sequence is when the boat capsizes at the dock in France. This scene is remarkably well-handled and wakes up anyone who might have been sleeping beforehand. An elaborate sequence when a tent catches fire is also notable, if not quite as impressive. Dimtri Tiomkin's theme song is pretty awful. Other major circus movies include Trapeze, Jumbo, The Big Circus, Carnival Story, and The Greatest Show on Earth, not to mention numerous films of varying genres that use the circus as a backdrop. 

Verdict: Even when Hayworth is down and out and deglamorized she is still beautiful. ***. 

THE HURRICANE EXPRESS

John Wayne

THE HURRICANE EXPRESS (12 chapter Mascot serial/1932.). Directors: Armand Schaefer; J. P., McGowan.

Jim Baker (J. Farrell MacDonald), an engineer on the world's fastest train, the Hurricane Express, is killed when the express is deliberately sabotaged. Baker's son, Larry (John Wayne of McLintock!). is determined to uncover the identity of "The Wrecker," the mysterious figure who, with the help of his gang, is out to destroy the railroad for uncertain reasons. The suspects include Walter Gray (Lloyd Whitlock), who runs an airline; Howard Edwards (Tully Marshall), the head of the railroad; Frank Stratton (Edmund Breese), who escaped from jail after being falsely accused of robbing the railroad; Tom Jordan (Matthew Betz), a disgruntled former employee of the railroad; and others. Larry Baker teams up with Stratton's daughter, Gloria (Shirley Grey) to unmask the Wrecker and prove her father's alleged innocence. There's also a lot to do with a stolen gold shipment that everyone is fighting to recover. An interesting aspect of Hurricane Express is the way the villain uses highly detailed and convincing masks to pretend to be other people throughout the serial, not only confounding Larry, Gloria and the authorities, but confusing the audience at times as well. While this aspect is certainly suspect, it's amusing to note that the same "mask" business is currently used in the Tom Cruise Mission: Impossible movies made many decades later (and it is still quite improbable that these masks would actually fool anyone). The cliffhangers in this are nothing that special, but we've got a runaway box car, a plane that catches fire and crashes to earth, and Wayne is nearly crushed by a descending and very heavy airplane part at one point. In general, the movie lacks the slick polish of Republic's serials, but it's generally fast-paced and entertaining, with a dollop of suspense pertaining to the identity of the Wrecker. It's funny how many characters in the serial jump to conclusions about the mastermind's identity when everyone is clued in to the fact that he wears masks and nothing could be certain about anyone. John Wayne did several serials for Mascot in the thirties, and gives a competent and rather charismatic performance. Armand Schaefer also directed Wayne in the serial version of The Three Musketeers.

Verdict: One express you might want to catch if you like these old cliffhangers. ***. 

THE SEA CHASE

THE SEA CHASE (1955). Producer/director: John Farrow.

How's this for perfect casting? In The Sea Chase John Wayne plays Karl Erlich, the Captain of a German freighter (the Ergenstrasse), who supports his country but is no fan of Hitler. Lana Turner is cast as Elsa Keller, a kind of Mata Hari German spy who winds up as the only female passenger among a bunch of horny sailors. While it can't be said that Wayne and Turner have great chemistry, the odd thing is that the movie actually works and both stars are more than adequate in their roles. Erlich sets sail from Sidney just as war is declared, and an old friend, the British officer, Jeff Napier (David Farrar of The Echo Murders) -- he was one of Elsa's many conquests -- doggedly pursues him. Complications ensue when Chief Officer Kirchner (Lyle Bettger) takes it upon himself to murder some innocent fishermen who are shipwrecked on a supply island, making Erlich and his crew not only murderers but wanted war criminals. Erlich also has a conflict with Schlieter (James Arness) who has a chip on his shoulder and hates taking orders from his captain. Not only is The Sea Chase suspenseful, but you get caught up in the unusual storyline and begin to care about what happens to the characters and their ultimate fate. Bettger [No Man of Her Own] is especially good as Kirchner, and there's also excellent work from Farrar and from John Qualen [Dark Waters] as Chief Engineer Schmidt. Richard Davalos, Tab Hunter, Paul Fix, Arness, and Claude Akins (whose name is misspelled as "Akin" in the credits) also have some fine moments. Clearly this picture would not have been made just a few years earlier. In WarnerColor.

Verdict: Memorable "forgotten" Wayne film with an intriguing and different plot. ***.

JOHN WAYNE: THE LIFE AND LEGEND Scott Eyman

JOHN WAYNE: THE LIFE AND LEGEND. Scott Eyman. Simon and Schuster; 2014.

Examining the life and very long career of John Wayne from a largely positive angle, the book makes a case for him as a fine actor and misunderstood human being who had more facets to him than people realized. Frankly, the lengthy book probably won't change the minds of people who saw Wayne as distinctly limited, especially in his middle-aged years (although he could give very good performances and was more talented than his detractors would suggest) nor those who saw him as a swaggering hypocrite. Wayne became quite the war hawk when he was too old to serve in the military, but during WW2, when other actors with big careers enlisted, he fell back on deferments that other stars rejected. [His attempts to get into the O.S.S. do not seem that whole-hearted.] Eyman scrutinizes Wayne's friendships, romantic involvements, movies, and performances, and the book may make you want to search out such classics as Stagecoach and The Searchers, if you haven't seen them already. While Eyman does include some negative critical and political reaction to Wayne, his approach is, frankly, so worshipful at times that the book can't be considered objective by any standard -- but that, of course, is the author's right.

Verdict: Informative and well-done for the most part if just a bit slanted. ***.

MCLINTOCK!

Stefanie Powers, Patrick Wayne, and John Wayne

MCLINTOCK! (1963). Director: Andrew V. McLaglen.

G. W. McLintock (John Wayne) is a wealthy cattle baron in a homestead awaiting statehood. His snooty estranged wife, Katherine (Maureen O'Hara), comes back into his life when their daughter, Becky (Stefanie Powers), comes home from college and Katherine is horrified to think that she may live with her hard-drinking father and his cronies. Katherine also isn't too crazy about the fact that G.W. has hired a pretty new live-in cook, Louise (Yvonne De Carlo), the mother of handsome new employee Dev (Patrick Wayne), who likes Becky but finds her a little spoiled like her mother. Meanwhile Becky dallies with nerdy Matt (Jerry Van Dyke) while Dev simmers. Will the situation with the battling McLintocks finally boil over or will true love win out in the end? McLintock! is way too long, but it has some funny sequences -- a mud slide and a drunken bit with a staircase -- although the gags are repeated too much and nothing is exactly on the level of the stateroom scene in A Night at the Opera. Still McLintock!  is basically amiable and entertaining, even if it has a very sixties sensibility and a subtext of sissies threatening to ruin the world [as opposed to big, tough John Wayne]. Wayne, already starting his trend toward ossification, is okay, Powers is quite good, O'Hara is very strong as the insufferable but uncompromising Katherine and gives one of her more memorable performances, De Carlo is fun, and Patrick Wayne proves no great actor but is acceptable. An interesting aspect of the picture -- when you consider that Wayne starred in several cliffhanger serials early in his career -- is that two of Wayne's enemies are played by other serial stars, Gordon Jones (The Green Hornet) and Robert Lowery (Batman and Robin). A sub-plot has to do with a contingent of Comanche Indians who are to be taken to a fort for what they see as charity when they only want the freedom to live and die as men. Although the movie seems to be pro-Indian, the social statements don't really fit comfortably into the piece as a whole. Mari Blanchard has a small role as a saloon  gal/hooker who comes afoul of Katherine.

Verdict: Not exactly a classic but one of Wayne's more palatable latter-day movies. **1/2.

HIS PRIVATE SECRETARY

HIS PRIVATE SECRETARY (1933). Director: Philip Whitman.

Dick Wallace (John Wayne) is a good-natured, girl-happy playboy addicted to gals, parties and late nights. His grumpy father (Reginald Barlow) takes him into his firm but fires him on the first day when he fails to collect money owed by a minister. It seems the cleric uses his funds to help the poor -- and he happens to have a pretty daughter, Marion (Evalyn Knapp). Dick and Marion get married, but the elder Wallace wants nothing to do with them. Marion gets a job as the old man's private secretary and uses it to ingratiate herself with him, but a bigger problem may be Dick's old girlfriend, the slinky and conniving Polly (Natalie Kingston). His Private Secretary isn't as interesting as it sounds, but the likable characters and players help a lot. There's a nice scene when kindly Marion intercedes when Wallace fires dyspeptic employee, Mr. Little (Arthur Hoyt), even though he wasn't all that nice to her. Wayne [Legend of the Lost], Knapp and the others all give very good performances. Knapp starred in the sound-remake of the serial The Perils of Pauline the same year.

Verdict: Minor comedy-drama with very pleasant cast. **.

DONOVAN'S REEF

John Wayne and Elizabeth Allen

DONOVAN'S REEF (1963). Director: John Ford.

"What young girl of my age doesn't contemplate matrimony?" -- Miss Lafleur [Dorothy Lamour at 49]

On an island in French Polynesia lives bar owner Donovan (John Wayne) and his fighting buddy Gilhooey (Lee Marvin), who are always punching each other out over a long-ago offense neither can remember, and the local doctor Dedham (Jack Warden). While Dedham is off-island his daughter Amelia (Elizabeth Allen) from Boston society, who has never met her father, shows up on the island. [She has been told that Daddy's inheritance will go to her if she can prove moral lapses on his part, but this sub-plot is dropped pretty early, with no mention of it made again.] Donovan is afraid Amelia will have a bad reaction if she discovers that she has three "half-caste" siblings so he pretends the children are his own -- a bad idea. Meanwhile the island's governor (Cesar Romero) learns how much money Miss Dedham has and tries to interfere with her budding romance with Donovan. [When 56-year-old Wayne smooches with 34-year-old Allen, it's like she's kissing her father!] This is a perfectly amiable, minor-league film with more than adequate performances that holds the attention while never quite being side-splitting or terribly dramatic. But while it's sort of a slice-of-life movie in some ways, its presentation of Polynesian ways is rather cliched, and it's nowhere in the league of Ford's How Green Was My Valley. For some reason, Ford doesn't use nearly enough close ups, possibly to minimize the age difference between the romantic leads. Dorothy Lamour isn't given much to do as a saloon entertainer who hopes to marry Gilhooey. Some amusing scenes and beautiful scenery, and Dedham's children are adorable. Allen was basically a theater actress who starred on Broadway in the Richard Rodgers-Stephen Sondheim collaboration Do I Hear a Waltz?

Verdict: This shouldn't work at all but somehow it entertains in spite of itself. ***.

'TIS HERSELF Maureen O'Hara

'TIS HERSELF A Memoir. Maureen O'Hara with John Nicoletti. Simon and Schuster; 2004.

Extremely well-written by Nicoletti, this memoir of the red-headed Irish actress describes her journey from Good Catholic Girl in Dublin from a well-heeled, cultured family, to life in Hollywood as a movie star, most famously associated with Johns Ford and Wayne. As O'Hara describes the making of such films as How Green Was My Valley and The Quiet Man, as well as the turmoil of her private life and disastrous early marriages, the book almost reads more like a page-turning novel than non-fiction. While the last sections of the book are not quite as absorbing, there is still some interesting stuff surrounding the mysterious death of her last husband, and some readers may enjoy her inside tales of her long friendship with "Duke" Wayne. The most fascinating material has to do with the contrary character of director John Ford, who used her more than any other actress, but snapped that she couldn't act when asked about her by a student. Ford's love/hate for O'Hara went on for decades, and she observes that he was probably conflicted about his sexuality -- she saw him smooching with a guy -- and imagined he was in love with her [or the character she played in The Quiet Man]. Her religiosity isn't too oppressive, and thankfully she doesn't go much into her presumably conservative politics [although Roddy McDowell tried to explain to her why she would probably never be honored in liberal Hollywood]. Although O'Hara styles herself as feisty and independent, one can't imagine Davis, Crawford or Stanwyck putting up with Ford's nasty, almost insane behavior for as long as she did [I mean, the man tried to have her arrested, had her thrown out of a film she wanted to do for another director behind her back, destroyed her brother's career, prevented her from getting an Oscar nomination and on and on]. She also stayed married to her alcoholic, unloving, abusive, parasitical second husband for way too long. [Marrying "for better or worse," she married for worse!] One wonders how she would have behaved had she wound up in today's Hollywood or wasn't such a Good Catholic Girl? Anyway, this is a frank and interesting memoir.

Verdict: A damn good read for most of its length. ***1/2.

THE QUIET MAN

John Wayne in Technicolor

THE QUIET MAN (1952). Director: John Ford.

Sean Thornton (John Wayne), an ex-boxer who killed a man in the ring, returns to Inisfree, Ireland where he was born, for a fresh start. He falls in love with Mary Kate Danaher (Maureen O'Hara) and the two get married after outwitting her brother, Will (Victor McLaglen), who refuses to give his sister her dowry. Until her husband gets it for her, he has to spend each night by himself in a sleeping bag. It all leads up to a supposedly big, highly over-rated fight scene that isn't half as entertaining, long or well-done as the fisticuffs in the average Republic serial. (Someone mentions that Will has 20 lb on Sean, but no one seems to notice that he also has twenty years on the younger man; Wayne was 45 and McLaglen 66 at the time of filming.) Well, the photography is beautiful and there are some fine performances from the supporting cast, but while the film certainly has its admirers, for the rest of us it hasn't worn well with time. Wayne and O'Hara make acceptable leads, but neither is well-cast (despite O'Hara's fiery red hair) nor especially memorable. Wayne was already becoming the familiar bull-necked ossified performer of his later years. Barry Fitzgerald, Arthur Shields (Fitzgerald's younger brother) and Mildred Natwick are more on the mark. But the main problem with the movie is that the characters are just types; they never really emerge as fully-dimensional people. There are some amusing moments to be fair, and the picture begins well and has some well-directed scenes (Wayne first spotting O'Hara, for instance), but it's also too "cutesy" by far, and thick with Hollywood-Irish cliches. A scene that is hilarious for the wrong reasons has the capon priest (Ward Bond), of all people, becoming furious when he learns Kate makes her husband sleep in a sleeping bag. One of Republic Pictures' rare "A" movies.

Verdict: You want to like it but ... **1/2.

THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1933)

THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1933). 12 chapter Mascot serial. Directed by Armand Schaefer and Colbert Clark.

Described as an “updated” version of the story by Alexander Dumas, this is an entertaining cliffhanger with John Wayne taking center stage and the “musketeers” pushed into a subordinate position. In a battle between members of the Foreign Legion and gunrunners, all but three members of the legion forces are wiped out. The last three are saved by the timely intervention of Lt. Tom Wayne (John Wayne) in his plane. This first scene is a little weird, as the “heroes” have absolutely no reaction to the sudden deaths of their colleagues (one who "steals" a cigarette from a fallen comrade is shot and killed himself a moment later) and indeed remain jaunty and insouciant as they stand there afterward with the bodies of fellow legionnaires presumably lying all around them. Smiling in the face of death and remaining cool and philosophical about warfare is all well and good, but these musketeers come off as callous idiots. In contrast, John Wayne shows genuine emotion and concern when his buddy Stubbs (Noah Beery Jr.) is shot in front of him. Lon Chaney Jr., billed as Creighton Chaney, appears briefly as a friend of Wayne's who is murdered, with Wayne becoming the chief suspect. The real culprit is the villain El Shaitan (The Devil), who is plotting an Arab rebellion against the Legion. Wayne's girlfriend, Chaney's sister Elaine (Ruth Hall), has a letter which will clear Wayne of murder charges, and naturally there's a lot of running after this letter as well as many shots of men fairly leaping onto horses. The Musketeers are played by Francis X. Bushman, Raymond Hatton, and Jack [The Clutching Hand] Mulhall.

Verdict: Fairly entertaining, with a generally fast pace and some exciting moments. **1/2.

LEGEND OF THE LOST

LEGEND OF THE LOST (1957). Director: Henry Hathaway.

The strange trio of Joe January (John Wayne), Paul Bonnard (Rosanno Brazzi) and Dita (Sophia Loren) trek from Timbuktu into the Sahara desert in search of a lost city and treasure that Bonnard's father went to look for -- although he never returned. There's a sand storm, a big spider that crawls over Loren's body, and not a hell of a lot of action in a dull, leisurely "adventure" film that never catches fire. There's some good art direction when it comes to the lost city itself, but it makes no sense that it wasn't spotted from the air long before! Wayne looks tired and bored. At one point Dita shouts out the hilariously cliched line: "I'm no good -- everything I touch turns rotten!" [The weak script is by Ben Hecht and Robert Presnell Jr.] Hathaway directs as if he was half asleep throughout filming. Sexy Loren's hair cut makes her sort of look like a plucked chicken, not an image you normally associate with the busty Italian actress. Her acting is fine, as is Brazzi's and Kurt Kasznar's in a small role as a policeman. All in all, however, the whole enterprise is just a waste of time.

Verdict: For insomniacs only. *.