Tag: Western
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Behind the Scenes of ‘Rio Bravo’: Angie Dickinson Unveils the Art of Acting Alongside John Wayne
“Fair to middling” is how Angie Dickinson is feeling this morning as she talks about “Rio Bravo,” the 1959 film that made her a star. “Somebody who says they’re great at 90, you can figure out that they lie a lot.” It’s a line that could have come straight from Jules Furthman and Leigh Brackett’s…
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Marlon Brando’s Cinematic Rebellion: How ‘One-Eyed Jacks’ Redefined Film Directing
Whether “One-Eyed Jacks” is a misunderstood masterpiece or a bizarre psychological Western, it’s notable for demonstrating the actor’s capability with filmmaking. It’s also notable that it destroyed any desire on Brando’s part to be in the director’s chair again, even as the movie produces beautiful and nuanced performances and had such stunning imagery that it…
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Clint Eastwood’s On-Set Showdown: The Confrontation That Made Him Gag and Say ‘I’m Going to Throw Up’
Clint Eastwood’s performance as the Man with No Name has its legendary iconography with his signature hat, poncho, and cigar. However, the actor reportedly had a tough time with one iconic element of the character in the films, which even once led to him shouting at Leone. Clint Eastwood In The Dollars Trilogy Sergio Leone’s…
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John Wayne’S Spanking Of Co-Star ‘So Authentic She Had Bruises For A Week’
John Wayne famously spanked his co-star in a satirical Western that left her actually bruised for a week. Back in 1963, John Wayne starred in a Western comedy loosely based on William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Duke played an ageing rancher called George Washington McLintock, a wealthy self-made man facing a number of…
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The Dark Secrets of John Wayne’s Rio Grande – Tragedy Strikes on Set in 1950’s Scorching Utah
John Wayne filmed a classic Western with Maureen O’Hara in which cast members were killed and their bodies never recovered. Back in 1950, John Wayne starred in Rio Grande, the third of his Cavalry Trilogy (alongside Fort Apache and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon) with director John Ford. Cast and crew struggled terribly with the…
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Unveiling 1968’s Legendary Onset Prank: How Rock Hudson Earned John Wayne’s Respect on The Undefeated
Back in 1968, having shot his Oscar-winning performance as Rooster Cogburn in True Grit, John Wayne made another Western with Rock Hudson. The Undefeated followed the French Imperial intervention in Mexico during the 1860s and was loosely based on a Confederate General’s real escape south of the US border after the American Civil War. Originally…
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Fading Legend: The Untold Story of John Wayne’s Final Movie and Its Close Call
John Wayne suffered from ill health for the last 15 years of his life, being hospitalised for two weeks with influenza on his last movie The Shootist. At one point, doctors were even unsure if they would allow Duke to complete his final picture, in which he played an old gunslinger with cancer opposite James…
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Clint’s Handsome Rides and 600 Spaghetti Surprises: The European Western Revolution
In the 1960s a new subgenre of Western movies emerged. These were low-budget films, collaborated with Italian and German directors, and filmed in Spain and sometimes Southern Italy. Due to their place of origin, they were crudely dubbed “Spaghetti Westerns” by American critics and “Macaroni Westerns” by the Japanese. Most of these movies were originally…
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Vile-Tasting Justice: Clint Eastwood’s Regrettable Dollars Trilogy Experience Expressed
Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly combine to form what’s become known as one of the greatest trilogies ever made, turning Clint Eastwood into the epitome of on-screen cool. And yet, the director never viewed them as being connected at all. The…
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From B-Movies to the Open Sea: John Wayne’s Journey from Poverty Row to ‘The Long Voyage Home’
John Wayne had finally broken free of Poverty Row B-flicks as the lead of John Ford’s classic Western “Stagecoach” when he jockeyed for the lead in the filmmakers 1940 seafaring drama “The Long Voyage Home.” Like “Stagecoach,” this World War II-set yarn about a tramp steamer wending its way from the West Indies to Baltimore…