The War Wagon
dr by Marvin Schwartz
Based on the novel Badman by Clair Huffaker
1967 97 minutes
What makes The War Wagon stand out from the standard run of the mill comedy westerns is the pairing of John Wayne and Kirk Douglas.
Wayne plays Taw Jackson (Jack Tawlin in the original novel) a man who has just returned from jail after being cheated out of his ranch and land by cattle baron Pierce (Bruce Cabat). Taw has a plan to rob The War Wagon - a heavily guarded armoured wagon carrying half a million in gold bullion which has been mined on the land that once belonged to Taw but first he must build up a team to help him. The team includes Lomax (Douglas) who has already taken a commission from the crooked Pierce to kill Taw, a drunken explosive expert, a Indian and a crazy old man.
The magnificent five, indeed.
The action scenes are well orchestrated and the chemistry between Wayne and Douglas provides the heart of the movie. There's some snappy dialogue between the two and both actors seem to be enjoying themselves which transfers to the screen. In one early scene the two beat a couple of cowboys in a gunfight.
'Mine hit the ground first.' Douglas boasts.
'Mine was taller.' Wayne answers and walks off in the familiar style.
An enjoyable well made western with iconic stars and some great photography - true some of the characters, especially the Indians, may be the standard lazy Hollywood stereotypes but the film's entertaining enough and the climax is truly thrilling.
6 comments:
I haven't seen this for ages but I agree with you about the snappy dialogue.
"Taw Jackson" is about the most macho name anyone could come up with for a male hero just short of "Hunk Wolfson." I don't know who Hunk Wolfson is, but that's pretty macho! ;)
"The Ballad of The War Wagon", sung by Ed "Mingo" Ames is about the catchiest thing Dimitri Tiomkin--or any composer--ever wrote!
You're right that the pairing of Wayne and Douglas make all the difference.
I thought the movie was really good.
It's one of the few westerns that I always enjoy watching over and over.
Even though John Wayne's character seemed just a tad stale (I found most of his characters were played much the same way throughout his movie career), it played quite well off of Kirk Douglas's character.
Jo - yep it's classic
CK - The song is catchy but corny as hell and of course Dimitri Tiomkin had previously taken the Oscar for the score to Old Mana and the sea
David - They're a macho Laurel and Hardy
G - Agree entertainment with a big E
I remember seeing this at the theatre years ago. Wonderful movie with a perfect pair of actors for verbal sparring.
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