Classic movie site with rare images, original ads, and behind-the-scenes photos, with informative and insightful commentary. We like to have fun with movies!
Archive and Links
grbrpix@aol.com
Search Index Here




Thursday, January 14, 2021

Wayne Back On The Strenuous Job

 


Real and Reel Life Survival Boost The Sons of Katie Elder


Behind-scene accounts of this are harrowing, John Wayne back at work too soon after having a lung out and not fully recovered. Also weight gain and he was weak as a kitten. The location (high-altitude Mexico) would challenge breathing of a fit man, let alone one just off a hospital bed. There was pressure to perform, however, and prove to the world that Big Duke was back in harness. The Wayne image had become his prison by now. Public expectation left little space to convalesce. There was also Hal Wallis who had waited and put off the project till Wayne got reasonably well. Latter owned a piece of Katie Elder with Wallis and the producer's partner, Joseph Hazen. Better to watch and enjoy The Sons Of Katie Elder before you read about a sick man plunged into freezing water, doing stunts he shouldn't have, then retreat to oxygen masks soon as cameras switched off. Makes stardom seem pretty unenviable.



The Sons of Katie Elder
was hung with a Welcome Back, Duke sign by Paramount. Everyone who could read or had a television knew he'd been ill, as in hair breath so. Few ducked cancer then, but Wayne apparently beat it, and told the world. He would wear a cloak of invincibility through ordeal of Katie Elder as media peered close for collapse, Wayne performance continuing even after director Henry Hathaway called cut. Producer Wallis was considerate, but Hathaway was a tough bird who made Wayne face hazards a stuntman should have spared him, Hathaway, like Ford and Hawks, not a director Wayne could stare down. Co-players had Katie Elder stories from there on. Dean Martin was sympathetic, thought Wayne the greatest, but Earl Holliman says Duke disappointed him, engaged to excess at "macho bulls--t," the more tiring as everyone knew fragile reality of the situation.



Maybe it's me lacking perception, but there seems little about Wayne in The Sons of Katie Elder to bespeak frailty. He carries well, sits the hoss OK, speaks with customary authority, never seems down and possibly out. Steller acting went on here. The movie goes too long, you want the Elders to settle accounts sooner, more forcefully, and not be pushed around so much. Action is ladled less generously; that would have needed Wayne at center and there was distinct limit to what he could do. Shooting in Mexico saved cash, but costs crept up, and Wallis began looking for ways to shave location time and do more of Katie Elder back on H'wood soundstages. Success was assured as Wayne hadn't been in a western since McLintock! two years before, so $4.8 million in domestic rentals for Katie Elder was perhaps expected. A 1968 reissue with Red Line 7000 was good for another $325K, and ABC stepped up with further revenue for an 11/17 tee-vee run a same year.

10 Comments:

Blogger radiotelefonia said...

This film was extremely popular. During the Saturday movie marathons on television after 1981, it would be scheduled at different time slots every 15 days for a long while.

1:23 PM  
Blogger Mike Cline said...

Watched it twice in the last few months.

7:13 AM  
Blogger James Abbott said...

I first saw this in 1968 when I was five at a drive-in theater in Milford, PA. Even at five, I had a hard time believing they were brothers....

A somewhat neglected film, I think, as it is an unusually strong addition to the latter Wayne corpus. And Dean Martin is an asset to any film.

Katie Elder was one of the many names for Big Nose Kate, lover of Doc Holliday. Wayne, Martin, et.al. as the progeny of Doc Holliday is a vision too delicious to contemplate.

11:42 AM  
Blogger Dave K said...

Some serious sibling spacing in that Elder family. Wayne was about 10 years older than Martin, Martin about 10 years older than Holliman and Holliman around 15 years older than Anderson!

1:15 PM  
Blogger MikeD said...

My dad took me to see this in '65 when I was 12. I never doubted that they could have been brothers but I was just enjoying the show. That opening theme brings me back to those carefree times. I've watched it a bunch since, but I can't remember if Dean Martin makes it to the end credits.
Since hearing the story of his firing, I've always wondered how Tommy Kirk's career would have panned out had he not be busted for pot. He did some good work for Disney.

10:30 AM  
Blogger John McElwee said...

Dan Mercer considers late career John Wayne:


The opening scene of “The Sons of Katie Elder” turns on the image of John Wayne, immense and almost graven, gazing upon the funeral of Katie Elder from a distant place. There is a valedictory quality to it which says, “Here is a man. Note him well, for he may not come this way again.” The shadow of death seems to hang over nearly all the films Wayne will make to the end of his life, especially those that were distinguished only by his presence in them. Whatever their merits as entertainments, their real purpose was to provide an opportunity for those who cherished the man to pay their respects to him for what could be the final time, and to celebrate the career that had brought him to this place. “True Grit” might be considered an exception, but in the great scene where “Rooster” Cogburn confronts the gang of taunting badmen, it is really, for the audience, John Wayne riding once more for glory against all odds.

4:37 PM  
Blogger Filmfanman said...

Smoking tobacco is very bad for your health. May John Wayne, whose death brought that fact home to many who otherwise might have been caught up in, or have continued on with, that bad habit, rest in peace.

7:51 AM  
Blogger Mike Cline said...

Dino makes it through the final fade out. Holliman, not as fortunate.

8:23 AM  
Blogger MikeD said...

Thanks Mike Cline! I still don't recall seeing Dino after he passes out on the barn floor. I need to break out my old DVD. But now I'll be thinking "Hey, they can't be brothers!".

That splinter was pretty painful to me as Earl Holliman was a favorite for his stint on Hotel De Paree (At the time I thought the name of the show was Sundance).

9:28 AM  
Blogger gscarfe said...

Dean is left lying on the floor as the Duke takes his gun and strides out of the shot with a suspiciously post-dubbed line on the soundtrack : "And get a doctor for Tom".

Since he is never shown again, but only referred to by Martha Hyer and Wayne in the final scene, I suspect that Dean's character was originally slated to face a more downbeat fate.

4:40 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

grbrpix@aol.com
  • December 2005
  • January 2006
  • February 2006
  • March 2006
  • April 2006
  • May 2006
  • June 2006
  • July 2006
  • August 2006
  • September 2006
  • October 2006
  • November 2006
  • December 2006
  • January 2007
  • February 2007
  • March 2007
  • April 2007
  • May 2007
  • June 2007
  • July 2007
  • August 2007
  • September 2007
  • October 2007
  • November 2007
  • December 2007
  • January 2008
  • February 2008
  • March 2008
  • April 2008
  • May 2008
  • June 2008
  • July 2008
  • August 2008
  • September 2008
  • October 2008
  • November 2008
  • December 2008
  • January 2009
  • February 2009
  • March 2009
  • April 2009
  • May 2009
  • June 2009
  • July 2009
  • August 2009
  • September 2009
  • October 2009
  • November 2009
  • December 2009
  • January 2010
  • February 2010
  • March 2010
  • April 2010
  • May 2010
  • June 2010
  • July 2010
  • August 2010
  • September 2010
  • October 2010
  • November 2010
  • December 2010
  • January 2011
  • February 2011
  • March 2011
  • April 2011
  • May 2011
  • June 2011
  • July 2011
  • August 2011
  • September 2011
  • October 2011
  • November 2011
  • December 2011
  • January 2012
  • February 2012
  • March 2012
  • April 2012
  • May 2012
  • June 2012
  • July 2012
  • August 2012
  • September 2012
  • October 2012
  • November 2012
  • December 2012
  • January 2013
  • February 2013
  • March 2013
  • April 2013
  • May 2013
  • June 2013
  • July 2013
  • August 2013
  • September 2013
  • October 2013
  • November 2013
  • December 2013
  • January 2014
  • February 2014
  • March 2014
  • April 2014
  • May 2014
  • June 2014
  • July 2014
  • August 2014
  • September 2014
  • October 2014
  • November 2014
  • December 2014
  • January 2015
  • February 2015
  • March 2015
  • April 2015
  • May 2015
  • June 2015
  • July 2015
  • August 2015
  • September 2015
  • October 2015
  • November 2015
  • December 2015
  • January 2016
  • February 2016
  • March 2016
  • April 2016
  • May 2016
  • June 2016
  • July 2016
  • August 2016
  • September 2016
  • October 2016
  • November 2016
  • December 2016
  • January 2017
  • February 2017
  • March 2017
  • April 2017
  • May 2017
  • June 2017
  • July 2017
  • August 2017
  • September 2017
  • October 2017
  • November 2017
  • December 2017
  • January 2018
  • February 2018
  • March 2018
  • April 2018
  • May 2018
  • June 2018
  • July 2018
  • August 2018
  • September 2018
  • October 2018
  • November 2018
  • December 2018
  • January 2019
  • February 2019
  • March 2019
  • April 2019
  • May 2019
  • June 2019
  • July 2019
  • August 2019
  • September 2019
  • October 2019
  • November 2019
  • December 2019
  • January 2020
  • February 2020
  • March 2020
  • April 2020
  • May 2020
  • June 2020
  • July 2020
  • August 2020
  • September 2020
  • October 2020
  • November 2020
  • December 2020
  • January 2021
  • February 2021
  • March 2021
  • April 2021
  • May 2021
  • June 2021
  • July 2021
  • August 2021
  • September 2021
  • October 2021
  • November 2021
  • December 2021
  • January 2022
  • February 2022
  • March 2022
  • April 2022
  • May 2022
  • June 2022
  • July 2022
  • August 2022
  • September 2022
  • October 2022
  • November 2022
  • December 2022
  • January 2023
  • February 2023
  • March 2023
  • April 2023
  • May 2023
  • June 2023
  • July 2023
  • August 2023
  • September 2023
  • October 2023
  • November 2023
  • December 2023
  • January 2024
  • February 2024
  • March 2024
  • April 2024
  • May 2024
  • June 2024
  • July 2024
  • August 2024
  • September 2024
  • October 2024