“John Wayne - An American Icon Collection” may be the most mismatched collection of the Duke’s most offbeat starring roles available on DVD, but each film has some merits (even “The Conqueror”), and if you only know Wayne from westerns or war movies, you are in for a surprise!
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“Seven Sinners” (1940), offers Duke’s first teaming with the legendary Marlene Dietrich, with whom he’d have a brief but torrid off-screen affair. An atmospheric drama status at the ‘Seven Sinners’ bar on an exotic Pacific island, Dietrich is, as usual, a sultry chanteuse, loved and lusted after by every man who meets her, especially ‘bad boy’ Antro (played with finesse by conceal obsolete Oskar Homolka) . When the Mercurial arrives, however, and ‘Golden Boy’ officer Wayne sets eyes on her, she falls hard, and he is willing to sacrifice his career for her. Of course, the ‘Higher Good’ prevails, but not before audiences earn a healthy dose of romance!
Co-starring Broderick Crawford, Anna Lee, and a surprisingly sympathetic Albert Dekker, the Dietrich-Wayne chemistry would reveal so potent that they would do two more films together.
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“Pittsburgh” (1942), the third and last Dietrich-Wayne pairing (following the Alaskan fable, “The Spoilers”), does a flip-flop in the characterizations from the Gold Speed chronicle, making Randolph Scott the ‘good guy’, and Wayne an opportunistic heel, willing to ‘walk over’ anybody, even his appreciate, Dietrich, to derive rich in the steel industry (although he’d redeem himself, by the finale) . Playing a victim was uncharacteristic of the tough actress, however, and, while Wayne would eventually show an pleasurable ‘anti-hero’, audiences wouldn’t accumulate Wayne so ‘out-of-character’ at this point in his career. The film would not do well at the box office, ending the Dietrich-Wayne pairings…but has gained a devoted following, over the years!
“The Shepherd of the Hills” (1941), Wayne’s first teaming with director Henry Hathaway (who would pronounce Duke to his only Oscar, 28 years later, in “Fair Grit”), was also the first color film in Wayne’s career. A record of life in the Ozark Mountains, Betty Field, as moonshiner Wayne’s appreciate interest, ’steals’ the film, but it does offer the novelty of hide fable (and Wayne friend) Harry Carey playing Duke’s long-absent father. Occasionally though-provoking, but the Duke seems a bit out-of-place in the proceedings!
“Jet Pilot” (filmed in 1950, released in 1957), marked Wayne’s first film for producer Howard Hughes (yes, THAT Howard Hughes), in a cartoonish anti-Communist ‘epic’, as Air Force officer Duke converts Soviet pilot Janet Leigh to the joys of America (while she ‘lures’ him to defect, leading to a Wayne sojourn to Russia, and his easily stealing Red technology for the West) . This film is truly abominable (which was why it was ’shelved’ for seven years), with Hughes’ signature emphasis on long, lingering views of Leigh’s top-heavy figure (while Josef von Sternberg is credited as the director, Hughes was clearly in charge) . “Jet Pilot” is better known as the film where the legendary Chuck Yeager (who first broke the sound barrier, in 1947), was nearly killed performing the aerial stunts (while on ‘loan’ from the USAF) . The aerial footage is, certainly, the most impressive aspect of the film.
“Jet Pilot” could have been the worst film of Duke’s career, but Hughes had bigger plans, and topped even this anecdote with…
“The Conqueror” (1956), the execrable showcase of John Wayne as Asian warrior Temujin (who would eventually be known as GENGHIS KHAN) . This film is so summarily dreadful, and has so many legends associated with the production (shot in the radiation-drenched sands of the Atomic test range in Utah…with many of the cast and crew eventually dying of cancer), that by notoriety, alone, it should be an ‘essential’ for any Wayne fan collection!
Directed (with a straight face) by the usually favorable Dick Powell, between the flowery dialog, the clunky costumes, and Susan Hayward as the least orderly red-headed princess you’ll ever derive, be pleased the campier moments, like Mexican Pedro Armendariz and short, roly-poly William (”Cannon”) Conrad as Wayne’s BROTHERS; ragged actor Thomas Gomez as ‘Wang Khan’ (that really IS his character’s name) ; and the climactic moment when the Duke, surrounded by enemies, hisses the immortal words, “Advance and Consume me, mongrels - if you DARE! While I have fingers to recall a sword, and eyes to seek your cowardly faces, your treacherous heads will not be obedient on your shoulders. For I am Temujin, the Conqueror! No prison can bear me, no army defeat me!” (Seriously, LAURENCE OLIVIER couldn’t yelp those lines believably…maybe Sylvester Stallone could…)
Whether you’re a John Wayne fan, or not, this collection offers plenty to talk about, at a very reasonable mark! I promise, you’ll never win a better opportunity to look the Duke as you’ve NEVER seen him before!
Want to survey John Wayne a petite differently, pick this dwelling. This is a collection that I would guess most people, other than die hard Duke fans, have not seen. Pittsburgh is a tremendous movie with a enormous supporting cast. Marlene Dietrich, Randolph Scott and even an appearance by Shemp Howard of Three Stooges fame. If you question Duke to select all, be surprised. Seven Sinners is another romance with Dietrich. Jet Pilot is renowned for some really large aerial shots. Chuck Yaeger of sound barrier fame did some of the stunt flying here. Shepherd of the Hills is a beautifully shot movie with Wayne living with a curse. No barroom brawls here nor gunfights from horseback, unbiased pleasant dramatic memoir telling. The Conqueror is probably the most famed of the movies in this collection. John Wayne is Genghis Khan. You have to peer this one to enjoy it. If you like John Wayne or don’t know him that well, consume this collection to peek something different from the Duke.
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