I have always struggled to understand how John Wayne was as successful an actor as he was. I realize that the time period did not demand the same level of talent that it demands today (that’s not to say that all of the acting was bad, because it certainly was not), but I still feel as though Wayne’s acting ability was incredibly average. What I saw in Wayne’s John Scott in this film was a bravado like those of modern day Hollywood heroes such as John McClane, Dominic Toretto and Tony Stark. This character oozed machismo and seemed to own each and every scene in which he was present. Part of the reason Scott was such a successful character was the fact that he was surrounded by very negative secondary characters. The men he surrounded himself with were cowards and lacked any sort of ability to effectively protect themselves, and, what’s worse was the female characters. Director, Lewis D. Collins, and writer, Lindsley Parsons, seemed to have made it a point to create very stereotypical damsels in distress. Carmen Laroux’s Juanita was the worst of the two relevant female characters. Her sole purpose was to seduce men in order to help her “significant other,” if one can even call him that. Her relevance came to an end in the film when that “significant other” left her when he no longer needed her service; she is last seen crying because she is left without a man. Mary Kornman’s Anne appeared to be a bit stronger willed, yet still relied on men in order to complete menial tasks. She seems a bit tougher than Juanita, adamantly telling John Scott that she does not need his assistance to get home because another gentleman was going to help, however, her tune quickly changes and she ends the conversation with “...you can both take me home.” With the exception of Wayne’s John Scott, I was not impressed with any of the other characters. I appreciated the story; I thought that the idea behind it was well put together and I believe that it was well executed. While the characters were less than impressive, I thought that the actors owned these characters and it ultimately made the story flow well. I was impressed by how much story there was and how much they developed John Scott in a film that was less than an hour long. I feel that this film was done well enough that one doesn’t necessarily have to like westerns to enjoy it. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026273/?ref_=nv_sr_1
Comments