John Wayne | dual personalities

May 29, 2015

” I’ll buy the drinks when it’s over.”*

by chuckofish

I have been in social overload this week with a huge work event finally coming to fruition. So this exhausted introvert will be taking it easy this weekend. For sure.

Since Saturday is the birthday of film director Howard Hawks (1896–1977), I suggest we watch one of his many good movies. There are a lot to choose from.

You could go the screwball comedy route: Twentieth Century (1934) or His Girl Friday (1940) or Ball of Fire (1948).

Barbara Stanwyk and Gary Cooper in “Ball of Fire”

Or you could go with Bogart and Bacall: To Have and Have Not (1944) or The Big Sleep (1946).

Le grand sommeil The big sleep 1946 ral. : Howard Hawks Humphrey Bogart Lauren Bacall Collection Christophel

Bogart and Bacall in “The Big Sleep”

And then there’s always his legendary collaborations with John Wayne: Red River, (1948), Rio Bravo (1959), Hatari (1962) or El Dorado (1967).

John Wayne and Montgomery Clift in “Red River”

John Wayne, Ricky Nelson and Walter Brennan in “Rio Bravo”

The best crew ever: James Caan, Robert Mitchum, Arthur Hunnicutt, and John Wayne in “El Dorado”

See what I mean about excellent movies? It may be time for a Howard Hawks Marathon.

For a whole list of possibilities go here. Hawks, who was born in Goshen, Indiana by the way, was only nominated once for an Academy Award for Best Director–for Sergeant York (1941)–not one of my favorites. He didn’t win. Typical.

*Mr. Melville in Red River (1948)

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May 27, 2015

“Nothing’s too good for the man who shot Liberty Valance.”*

by chuckofish

So did you hear that over the Memorial Day weekend a new John Wayne Museum was opened in the Duke’s birthplace, Winterset, Iowa?

Wayne’s daughter, Aissa Wayne, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, actor Christopher Mitchum, and Wayne’s biographer Scott Eyman were all present at the event.

Cutting the ribbon during the grand opening ceremony for the John Wayne Birthplace Museum in Winterset. Left to right: Barry Corbin (actor & Birthplace board member), Aissa Wayne (John Wayne’s daughter), Joe Zuckschwerdt (Birthplace & Museum President), and Christopher Mitchum (actor). 5/23/2015 Photo by John Pemble

The centerpiece of the gallery is a collection of memorabilia from Wayne’s life, including scripts, costumes, set pieces, posters, personal correspondence, an original Andy Warhol painting and a custom-made 1972 Pontiac station wagon.

Executive Director Brian Downes with the custom Duke-mobile

Winterset is the county seat of Madison County, where, you may have heard, they have a lot of bridges.

Three films have been shot there: Cold Turkey (1971), The Bridges of Madison County (1995 ) and The Crazies (2010).

But it is best known as the birthplace of John Wayne.

(George Washington Carver was also born there. He has a museum at the Tuskegee Institute.)

Well, I may have to add Winterset to my list of flyover places to visit.

*The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

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May 26, 2015

Long weekend: and then we were all in one place*

by chuckofish

Long weekends are the best, right? Especially if you have out-of-town guests.

My nephew Chris and his friend Nicole stopped overnight on their cross-country trip from upstate New York to the Ghost Ranch in New Mexico.

The boy and daughter #3 came over for dinner and a movie,

but I forgot to take a picture. It was fun, as you can imagine.

The weather, despite dire predictions to the contrary, was lovely and I spent a lot of time puttering around the yard and lounging in the Florida room with a good book.

In other news, let’s not forget that today is John Wayne’s birthday–so “slap some bacon on a biscuit and let’s go! We’re burning daylight!”

Happy Tuesday and a 4-day week!

*”And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.” (Acts 2:1 KJV)

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May 1, 2015

Smile Time

by chuckofish

A few weeks ago I posted a picture of John Wayne and I was reminded what a great smile he had.

And that made me think of other great smilers of the silver screen.

Some actors are really too cool to smile a lot, but when they do, we are grateful.

And those English actors, with their British restraint and bad teeth, don’t flash their smiles constantly…but when they do…

Zut alors!

And while there aren’t many, there are still a few guys around today whose smile can still make my day. For instance, Nathan Fillion

Channing Tatum,

and, of course, Mark Harmon, alias Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

Funnily enough, the nerds are better looking now than the cool guys.

So, anyway–SMILE–it’s Friday!

(Who did I forget? Discuss among yourselves.)

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April 9, 2015

Just saying

by chuckofish

“It was like I was empty. Well, I’m not empty anymore. That’s what’s important, to feel useful in this old world, to hit a lick against what’s wrong for what’s right even though you get walloped for saying that word. Now I may sound like a Bible beater yelling up a revival at a river crossing camp meeting, but that don’t change the truth none. There’s right and there’s wrong. You got to do one or the other. You do the one and you’re living. You do the other and you may be walking around, but you’re dead as a beaver hat.”

– Davy Crockett (John Wayne) in The Alamo (1960)

I have an event-packed calendar today, so I need a little John Wayne to get me started. That and a little Philippians 4:13.

Have a great day! Tomorrow’s Friday!

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January 9, 2015

“You interrupted a very important discussion on serious matters regarding big things”*

by chuckofish

Well, gee, I know what I’ll be doing this weekend! I am going to stay home and enjoy not having much to do except put my house in order. That and watching a few good movies.

Yesterday was Elvis Presley’s birthday (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) so I DVR’d quite a few Elvis movies on TCM.

Guess I’ll be watching some of those–along with my therapeutic binge-watching of John Wayne movies.

I started last night by watching Angel and the Badman (1947).

I enjoyed it a lot! It was about Quakers and outlaws. John Wayne (as the badman–not really) rides hard and throws things around and bursts through doors and is altogether manly. He is won over by the Quaker (Gail Russell)–no surprises here. I recommend it.

Add to this a cup (or two) of cheer and you have the start of a weekend! Have a good one.

*Angel and the Badman

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January 6, 2015

Under the tree: “Big brothers know everything…Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!”*

by chuckofish

My dual personality blogged about her haul of Christmas gift books the other day, so I thought I would follow suit with a list of mine.

My big brother gave me the new biography of John Wayne by Scott Eyman and I dived right in. (Middlemarch was unceremoniously shoved to the back of the bedside table.)

I read the whole thing and enjoyed it very much. It supported my previously held view that old Duke was the greatest. I always knew he was intelligent, hard-working, kind, humble, and dreamy, but it was nice to have that opinion validated. Here is a good review of the book by Peter Bogdonavich in the New York Times.

When everyone goes home tomorrow and I am bereft, I am going to binge-watch John Wayne movies. This is what I call good therapy.

My sister gave me a new book about Raymond Chandler–another favorite of mine–The World of Raymond Chandler in His Own Words edited by Barry Day.

Chandler, as we all know, wrote not about crime or detection, as George V. Higgins once observed, but about the corruption of the human spirit. He is a man after my own heart: “Philip Marlowe and I do not despise the upper classes because they take baths and have money; we despise the upper classes because they are phony.”

As you can imagine, this book is chock-full of great quotes by the master of simile. “Soot…was down-drafted into the room and rolling across the top of the desk like tumbleweed drifting across a vacant lot.” (The Big Sleep)

An old friend (and a reader of this blog) gave me

which is full of good things to remember:

And, of course, I can always count on daughter #2 to give me something intellectually stimulating. This year it was a copy of

I can’t wait to delve into this one! Emerson is one of my favorites and you know I always like to look at the spiritual side of things.

“Travelling is a fool’s paradise. We owe to our first journeys the discovery that place is nothing. At home I dream that at Naples, at Rome, I can be intoxicated with beauty, and lose my sadness. I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea, and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the stern Fact, the sad self, unrelenting identical that I fled from.” (Self-Reliance)

(P.S. I received some wonderful non-book presents and I hope the people who gave me these will not feel slighted that I did not mention them today.)

What are you reading?

*Charlie Brown’s Christmas Stocking by Charles M. Schulz

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October 24, 2014

“Baby sister, I was born game and I intend to go out that way.”*

by chuckofish

Since I asked the trivia question yesterday, for which True Grit (1969) is the answer, I will suggest it as my Friday movie pick.

It has been a long time since I read the book by Charles Portis, but I remember that this film is a remarkably close adaption of it, which makes for a really good and authentic movie. The story revolves around Mattie Ross who is bent on avenging the death of her father and bringing to justice his killer, Tom Cheney. She hires U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn to go after him and insists on accompanying him on the trail. They are joined by a Texas Ranger, La Boeuf, as they head into the Indian Territory.

John Wayne, of course, is great in his Academy Award-winning role of Cogburn. Glen Campbell isn’t bad as La Boeuf and Kim Darby as Mattie Ross has grown on me. If you can ignore her ridiculous modern hairdo, she is really pretty good. She is not supposed to be endearing or even particularly likeable–but she does have true grit and lots of it. Robert Duvall and the rest of the supporting players are also terrific. It is interesting to see Dennis Hopper in one of his last roles before he went the Easy Rider hippie/drug route. [Side note: Hopper always credited John Wayne with saving his career when, after seven years of no one hiring him, Wayne gave him a job in The Sons of Katie Elder (1965). (I could do a whole blogpost about actors whose careers were resurrected/saved by John Wayne.)]

True Grit was beautifully shot on location, mainly in Ouray County, Colorado, which is right next door to my ancestral Hinsdale County–so I am partial to the gorgeous San Juan scenery. The courthouse scene was filmed in the Ouray County Courthouse.

Unfortunately, I have watched the movie fairly recently, so I really should watch the new version tonight, but as I make it a rule never to watch re-makes of John Wayne films, I am unable to do so. This is a good rule. Therefore, I will try to get my hands on the sequel to True Grit—Rooster Cogburn (1975) which co-starred Katharine Hepburn in a sort of western version of The African Queen.

Although not the classic its predecessor is, it is a good and highly enjoyable movie. You can tell that the two great stars were simpatico and liked each other a lot.

So that’s my plan.

Have a great weekend!

*Rooster Cogburn in True Grit

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September 16, 2014

“You’re lucky if you get time to sneeze in this goddam phenomenal world.” *

by chuckofish

I am very grateful that daughter #1 came home for a whole nine days. She is one busy lady, as you know, and so for her to come home is a big deal.

But I guess in this “goddam phenomenal world” it is still a treat to sit on the couch and watch a lot of Buffy with your mother.

It is certainly a treat for me.

Besides celebrating her birthday,

we had beers at the Boathouse with the boy.

We watched our hometown parade.

KHS marching band–huzzah!

As usual, the Methodists were the coolest

We hung out with the church ladies

and we watched the hometown band perform at the hometown festival.

Andrew and Mark, we remember you when!

We went to church and afterwards we visited some old pals at Grant’s Farm.

We watched Rio Bravo (1959)

AND El Dorado (1966).

Yes, the apple does not fall far from this nerd tree. Thank goodness.

*Franny and Zooey

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September 12, 2014

“Sorry don’t get it done, Dude.”*

by chuckofish

Since it is her birthday week, daughter #1 made the movie pick for this Friday.

Directed by Howard Hawks, Rio Bravo (1959) is John Wayne’s answer to High Noon which he thought was “Un-American”. You remember, in High Noon, Gary Cooper is the sheriff who asks for support from his town and gets none. Supposedly it is an allegory of the McCarthy era in Hollywood. Please.

Well, in Rio Bravo, John T. Chance, the sheriff, is surrounded by allies—a drunken deputy (Dude) trying to pull himself together, a young untried gunfighter (Colorado), a “crippled” old man (Stumpy), a Mexican innkeeper (Carlos) and his wife (Consuela), and an attractive young gambler (Feathers) whom Chance tries to kick out of town. He repeatedly turns down aid from most of these people because he thinks they will get hurt helping him, as his friend Ward Bond does at the beginning of the film. They all come through and help him anyway. That is the American Way. A motley crew bands together and vanquishes the Bad Guy, who is rich and powerful and has a lot of hired guns.