A Special Kind of Love Story

 If there was one thing that director, John Ford enjoyed, other than herding actors around like cattle of course, it was throwing parties for family and friends - good food would be served, even better drink would be in ample supply. Sentimental songs would be sung, stories  told and reportedly a good time would be had by all. 

 

It was at one such gathering in 1941 that John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara first met and theirs would be a friendship that was lifelong. Of course, there were numerous reports and speculation that the two were having a romantic relationship; those rumours have never really gone away.There have been claims that while Wayne was married to his third wife, Pilar Palette he was also in a love affair with O'Hara.

 This was something that both John Wayne and Maureen O' Hara denied, both of them saying that their relationship was based on friendship....a very special kind of friendship. 

So even if the romantic element is taken out of the picture, there is little doubt that theirs was a love story; a very special kind of love story.

 

'Duke and I were not just friends. We were best friends.' Maureen O'Hara

'There is only one woman who has been my friend over the years, and by that I mean a real friend, like a man would be. That woman is Maureen O'Hara,' John Wayne 

 

 

When the pair first met,at a John Ford party they were both riding high - Wayne had finally shaken off the shackles of the B-movie after the success of  Stagecoach, and O'Hara was about to star in John Ford's How Green was my Valley.

 

QUICK TRIVIA - How Green Was My Valley -  based on the novel by Richard Llewellyn was actually based on my own home of Gilfach Goch. Llewellyn, actually an Englishman was of Welsh descent and used to spend a lot of time as a child at his grandfather's home in Gilfach Goch. The village in his novel was very much based on my home village. In fact we have a blue plaque on the village hall commemorating this fact 

 

 

You can check out a prose poem about my village in video form HERE

They became instant friends, and would often meet socially and finally in the early 1950's John Ford persuaded the pair to take the leads in a project he was developing called, The Quiet Man. This quirky Irish romance was a dream project for Ford but the powers that be were not keen, and would only agree to finance the movie if Ford would first film a western, Rio Grande which was guaranteed to make money at the box office.

This was the first time Wayne and O'Hara would star together on screen and the chemistry between the two was intense - the film, the third in Ford's Cavalry trilogy, is recognized as a stone cold classic of the genre. 

 'We loved working with each other. Working with John Wayne was comfortable for me.' Maureen O'Hara.

 

The Quiet Man followed and was a huge success, grossing $3.8 million in the first year and many times that since. Even the critics were wowed by Wayne and O' Hara together on screen.

 

 'Beautifully filmed.Wayne works well under Ford's direction.' Variety

 

"A delightful and rollicking comedy melodrama of Irish life, directed with skill and acted with gusto by a fine cast." Harrison's Reports 

"Director John Ford and star John Wayne depart the Western for the Irish countryside, and the result is a beautifully photographed, often comedic romance."  ^{91% APPROVAL RATING Rotten Tomatoes}

 

 

The pair's friendship was based on shared values - both believed in professionalism and hard work. Neither of them were divas and both seemed to recognize these traits in each other.

 

They remained friends, both of them laughing off press speculation that there was more to their relationship that the platonic, and they would be reunited on screen in 1957 Wings of Eagles, and then again in 1963 for the quite silly but excellent, comedy western McLintock. Loosely, based on The Taming of the Shrew the movie is in a sense, The Quiet Man out West. 

The movie, which is actually in the public domain thanks to an oversight when the copyright was not renewed is great fun. And you get to see Wayne spanking O'Hara!

 Off-Screen they remained friends - O'Hara often visited Wayne and the pair would take trips on Wayne's yacht, The Wild Goose.

 The pair worked on screen together for one final time in 1971's Big Jake - a solid late period Wayne western. In November 1976 O'Hara appeared in an NBC show entitled, An All-Star Tribute to John Wayne, where she serenaded the Duke with the song, 'I've grown accustomed to his Face,'

 

 

 

The pair became even closer in Wayne's final years and in April 1979 O'Hara flew to Wayne's bedside to spend time with the dying actor. The pair went down memory lane, talking of old times and when O'Hara left she was sadly aware that she would never see Wayne again.

Wayne died on 11 June 1979, and O'Hara, who would outlive him by more than a quarter of a century never forgot her old friend, Duke. In her 2004 autobiography she wrote that Duke's death knocked her on her rear and sent her into a depression that lasted years.

 

So was there ever a romance between the two? Who knows! Though make no mistake theirs was a true love story....a very special kind of love story. 

 

 

THREE GODFATHER'S

£4.00 in Morrison's as part of their Father's Day display was this John Ford classic - one of the few John Wayne movies I didn't have on DVD. I don't need to tell you it flew off the shelf and into my hands as soon as I saw it - man, I love the Duke.

The film is actually a remake of Ford's 1919 silent movie, Marked Men (today no prints of this film are believed to exist) which in itself was an adaption of the novel written by Peter Kane. Basically it's the Biblical story of the three wise men in a western setting. And whilst it may not be up there with Ford's best it is an enjoyable western.

The film opens with the dedication To Harry Carey, bright star of the early western skies (Harry Carey actually starred in the original silent version) and this film features the debut of the actor's son, Harry Carey Junior who would go on to become a regular fixture in Ford movies. Other Ford regulars are Ward Bond and Hank Worden. The film is also notable for Pedro Armedariz who would later play Kerim Bay alongside Sean Connery in From Russia with Love.

Because of the plot - three outlaws on the lam, a posse in pursuit, come across a dying woman and make a promise to care for her newborn son, this is something of an off-beat western. There are some particularly effective scenes - one where the three man trudge through a sand storm , the sands looking like the waves of a sea in the grip of a perfect storm, is particularly thrilling. Indeed many hardships are suffered and only Wayne and the baby make it to town, the outlaw broken but not beaten as he stumbles, child in arms, into New Jerusalem on Christmas Day.

CONTRADICTIONARY MAN - JOHN FORD

Perhaps the director most associated with westerns, John Ford was called by John Carradine - a sadist who loved to terrify actors. John Wayne, big old tough Duke, was more than once brought to tears by Ford and Henry Fonda found him, ego maniacal. Katherine Hepburn, on the other hand found him a charming man and the pair were great friends but Walter Brennan couldn't tolerate him and Jimmy Stewart said he made acting competitive and would set actors against each other.

Whatever the truth - here are some facts about the western genius.

Ford apparently got his first break when working at Universal as a prop man and studio boss, Carl Laemmle made him a director because he yelled louder than anyone else.

Ford was drinking buddies with former cowboy Hoot Gibson. During the days of silent cinema the pair would go on hell raising binges which resulted in the both being arrested several times.

Ford constantly bad mouthed his own films and claimed not to have seen them. Of his documentary, Sex Hygiene he said he watched it once and threw up.

Ford believed in economy with his actors and once told director, Robert Parrish to count how many lines he had given John Wayne in Stagecoach.

An area of Monument Valley (pictured) is named John Ford Point after the great director.

Ford fell out and didn't talk to actor Harey Carey ever again. However at the actor's funeral, Ford wept openly and hired his son Harey Carey Jnr and continued to give him work for the next sixteen years.

Ford made 137 films and won a record four Oscars for best director.


A man of contradictions then - but most true artists are. Maybe Ford wasn't a particularly likable man, on times he could be obnoxious but the fact remains he was a master at his craft.
And western fans have much to be grateful to the great man for.

Below Lee Marvin talks about John Ford:

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)

This is another of those films that people who say, 'John Wayne couldn't act', should be tied to a chair and forced to view. Under heavy make-up that ages him some twenty years, the Duke gives a wonderful and sensitive performance as a cavalry officer in the last weeks of his service. This film is a masterpiece of mood with director, John Ford painting the canvas with broad assured strokes.

And this time in blazing technicolor.

Set after Custer's defeat at The Little Big Horn the film centers on Captain Nathan Brittles (The Duke) as he deals with a looming Indian uprising and his forthcoming compulsory retirement. There are some tender moments of genuine pathos - Brittle visiting his wife's grave, the burial of a Confederate general who ended up serving out his final days as a common trooper and of course Brittles farewell to his troop. It is in the latter scene that Wayne's performance is so full of subtle nuance that it steps away from mere performance and becomes a kind of reality in itself.

At $1.6 million the film was in its time, one of the most expensive westerns ever made. However it was a huge hit for the studio, RKO and is an acknowledged classic today.

TRIVIA: A plot problem sees it being referenced that Pony Express riders were concerned for their safety after Custer's defeat. And yet in reality the Pony Express shut up shop some 15 years before Custer's death.

FORT APACHE (1948)

Billed as the John Wayne Cavalry Collection, this box set should have been titled the John Ford Cavalry Collection, since each movie is very much Ford's vision. The three films in the trilogy are Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande and each are excellent.

Rather than look at the box set as a whole I thought it better to split the article up into three posts, one for each movie. But before I look at Fort Apache I would like to make it clear that although the three films form a trilogy and indeed, they are known as the cavalry trilogy, they only represent a trilogy in the loosest sense. They share themes, that of why men have the need for civilisation, rather than characters and were never designed as a series of films, indeed the first two titles were made for RKO and the third, Rio Grande was a Universal Picture and Ford only made it because the studio insisted on a western before they would finance The Quiet Man.

Fort Apache is set during the American Apache Wars - Henry Fonda is Colonel Thursday, a stubborn text-book soldier who is at odds with the men below him. He is not happy to be posted to the remote outpost, feeling that as a Civil War hero he deserves more than to be fighting a bunch of mindless savages and not only great Indians like The Sioux but Apaches. However he soon learns that the Apache are a formidable enemy, indeed the greatest guerilla fighters the world has ever known. His second in command is Captain Kirby York (The Duke) and the two men couldn't be more different. Where Thursday disregards the Apache as savages, Captain York has a deep respect and sympathy for the native people.

"They were here long before us."


The character of Thursday seems to be based heavily on George Armstrong Custer - he is arrogant and brash. He foolishly and fatally underestimates his enemy. His death is pointless and brought on by his own arrogancence but Captain York covers up for the man allowing him, in death to be remembered as a hero.

The film wasn't made anywhere near the real Fort Apache but instead Ford used a sleight of hand and built his fort in his beloved Monument Valley. The film is very much Ford's and contains all his trademarks - gentle humour, romance and a brooding suspense leading to an all action climax. Much time is spent examining the wives as they struggle to make a comfortable home for their husbands. In Ford's westerns the battle the women fought were every bit as heroic as anything the men faced.

Fort Apache is a serious and intelligent western that deserves its place in genre history. Both Wayne and Fonda are superb and Ford visual flair was never better. An excellent film - a western classic that doesn't commit the sin of so many early westerns of being all one sided - here the serious issues surrounding the Indian wars are examined, nothing is set in stone and shades of grey run through the crisp black and white photography.

The DVD is a great remastered print with a booming 5.1 soundtrack - the battle scenes really shake those speakers and send the sound of gunshots to every corner of the room. In fact so crisp are the visuals that when viewed on a decent home cinema set up you're probably getting a better experience than movie fans had back in the day.