quote:

Originally posted by LHeym500:


Did Humphrey Bogart die in 1954? It was a quick decline. Even Duke could not beat the “Big C.” His words when he first disclosed his first diagnosis. In all my reading on Duke and cancer it is amazing at the time the stigma attached to his diagnosis. The PR battle to keep it out of general knowledge. I guess the fear was the disease would destroy his imagine and hence draw.

In the end it kind of did. I love The Shootist with the perspective of a 1990s eye. But at the time the film was received well by the press, but did not do well in theaters. I think the reason was those who were Duke Wayne fans did not want to see Superman dying as he clearly was. There may have been something of fatality of if Duke is dying then I the viewer will surely die.

I'm a little late to this discussion, forgive me, but as a life-long John Wayne fan(atic) and classic movie fan through and through, I can't resist.

Bogart died in Jan 1957, age only 57, having completed "The Harder They Fall" in '56. He was in wardrobe tests with Bacall for their 5th film when he was diagnosed with only months to live. According to Bacall, the first person to send him a "Get Well" floral was - the Duke. They hardly knew each other. Although their politics were miles apart, he had worked with Bacall only a year and a half earlier and they actually got along very well together. He also visited Bogart a number of times towards the end. Sadly prophetic, considering his own diagnosis only a few years later.

As for "The Shootist", one of his finest performances: He had no idea at that time that his cancer was returning. His big concern was his serious heart condition. He had to be driven right up to the set, because he couldn't walk far with his failing heart. The weak reception at the box office was probably mostly to do with the total lack of promotion for the film. At that stage of his career, Wayne had great difficulty getting financing for films larger than his in-house productions by his own company, Batjac. To get this movie made, the only producer who would do it was Dino De Laurentiis. At the same time as "The Shootist", De Laurentiis was releasing another movie he considered much more important - King Kong! (yet another remake) All his promotional resources went into pushing his monkey movie, virtually nothing into "The Shootist". This also explains why so many stars from the Duke's past worked the movie for bus fare: There was limited money for salaries.

If there had to be a final movie of John Wayne's career, I can't think of one more fitting.

I agree. How prophetic as his last film. And his old contemporaries working for peanuts I can believe. Hell none of them needed the money at that stage in life. The rumor at the time was that Jimmy Stewart had a case of dementia so bad that he was hypnotized to recall his lines, as I said, it was a rumor.