The 20 best of John Wayne
Here's the twenty best performances of the legend John Wayne.
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- DirectorJohn FordStarsJohn WayneJeffrey HunterVera MilesAn American Civil War veteran embarks on a years-long journey to rescue his niece from the Comanches after the rest of his brother's family is massacred in a raid on their Texas farm.While not a perfect movie, it still is moving and powerful. Wayne is a force of nature, dominating the screen and the story. His best performance in a truly great film.
- DirectorHoward HawksArthur RossonStarsJohn WayneMontgomery CliftJoanne DruDunson leads a cattle drive, the culmination of over 14 years of work, to its destination in Missouri. But his tyrannical behavior along the way causes a mutiny, led by his adopted son.A great movie with a great turn by Wayne, as he plays a good guy and a bad guy in the same movie. Duke, who never wanted to be the out-and-out bad guy, was at his best when he allowed some moral ambiguities in his characters.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsJohn WayneMaureen O'HaraBarry FitzgeraldA retired American boxer returns to the village of his birth in 1920s Ireland, where he falls for a spirited redhead whose brother is contemptuous of their union.Easily my favorite film starring Wayne. So funny, tender, and maybe the best looking color film ever made! Also, having loved "E.T." when I was a kid, I am thrilled watching the first meeting of O'Hara and Wayne. Wayne is great in it, and was never funnier. Wayne also helped as a 2nd-unit director.
- DirectorAllan DwanStarsJohn WayneJohn AgarAdele MaraHaunted by personal demons, Marine Sgt. John Stryker is hated and feared by his men, who see him as a cold-hearted sadist. But when their boots hit the beaches, they begin to understand the reason for Stryker's rigid form of discipline.Wayne gets his first Oscar nomination, losing to Broderick Crawford in "All the King's Men".
- DirectorJohn FordStarsJohn WayneClaire TrevorAndy DevineA group of people traveling on a stagecoach find their journey complicated by the threat of Geronimo and learn something about each other in the process.Wayne makes an unbelievable jump, from Three Mesquiteers movies to a star. He is really good as a morally ambiguous cowboy, an early anti-hero. John Ford gives his friend the big break, handing him a perfect role along with an introduction like non other.
- DirectorJohn FarrowStarsJohn WayneGeraldine PageWard BondArmy dispatch rider Hondo Lane discovers a woman and young son living in the midst of warring Apaches and becomes their protector.Wayne is really, really good is this, playing basically himself, or at least what the public thought he was.
- DirectorDon SiegelStarsJohn WayneLauren BacallRon HowardA dying gunfighter spends his last days looking for a way to die with a minimum of pain and a maximum of dignity.Wayne's last role.
- DirectorHoward HawksStarsJohn WayneDean MartinRicky NelsonA small-town sheriff in the American West enlists the help of a disabled man, a drunk, and a young gunfighter in his efforts to hold in jail the brother of the local bad guy.I loved this film, especially the interplay between Wayne and Angie Dickinson, and Wayne and Martin.
- DirectorJames Edward GrantStarsJohn WayneGail RussellHarry CareyQuirt Evans, an all round bad guy, is nursed back to health and sought after by Penelope Worth, a Quaker girl. He eventually finds himself having to choose between his world and the world Penelope lives in.A pretty good performance in a not-so-good film. This was also Wayne's first stab at producing.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsJohn WayneHenry FondaShirley TempleAt Fort Apache, an honorable and veteran war captain finds conflict when his regime is placed under the command of a young, glory hungry lieutenant colonel with no respect for the local Indian tribe.Wayne plays the straight, fatherly Capt. York to Fonda's strong-willed Lt. Colonel Thursday. Wayne is really good in a role that is directly in his wheelhouse.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsJohn WayneMaureen O'HaraBen JohnsonA cavalry officer posted on the Rio Grande is confronted with murderous raiding Apaches, a son who's a risk-taking recruit and his wife from whom he has been separated for many years.Another Ford-Wayne film, also stars other Ford favorites O'Hara, Victor MaLaglen, Ben Johnson, and Harry Carrey, Jr.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsJohn WayneThomas MitchellIan HunterA merchant ship's crew tries to survive the loneliness of the sea and the coming of war.Of course, Wayne is not Swedish or Meryl Streep. He does not do accents. However, Wayne is very good in this movie. He handles his character very well, and Wayne was one who never needed a lot of dialogue to get his character's motivation across. Ford should have just changed the character from Swedish to American and left it at that.
- DirectorRaoul WalshStarsClaire TrevorJohn WayneWalter PidgeonIn Kansas during the Civil War, opposing pro-Union and pro-Confederate camps clash and visiting Texan Bob Seton runs afoul of William Cantrell's Raiders.Wayne battles raiders in this offering from Republic. Wayne is a rising star, here paired again with Trevor and his old buddy "Gabby" Hayes.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsJohn WayneJoanne DruJohn AgarCaptain Nathan Brittles, on the eve of retirement, takes out a last patrol to stop an impending massive Indian attack. Encumbered by women who must be evacuated, Brittles finds his mission imperiled.Produced by John Ford's Argosy; the middle of Ford's "Calvary" trilogy. Wayne is the picture, carrying the film with his brand of fatherly, manly, and sentimental acting.
- DirectorWilliam A. SeiterStarsJean ArthurJohn WayneCharles WinningerFacing forty, a NYC spinster on a bus tour of the West encounters a handsome rodeo cowboy who helps her forget her unsuitable city suitors.Duke displays his under-rated romantic-comedy chops, starring along with Jean Arthur. I firmly believe Wayne could have easily replace Cary Grant in some of his screwball comedies and been just fine. This film, along with "The Quiet Man" is proof of his comic timing.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsJames StewartJohn WayneVera MilesA senator returns to a Western town for the funeral of an old friend and tells the story of his origins.Wayne is the best thing about this simplistic, overwrought message film from Ford.
- DirectorJohn FordRobert MontgomeryStarsRobert MontgomeryJohn WayneDonna ReedA Navy commander fights to prove the battle-worthiness of the PT boat at the start of World War II.As always, Wayne does some of his best work under director Ford. He plays a brash, aggressive leader in this film. However, it is Montgomery's film, and he delivers a great, underrated performance.
- DirectorJohn WayneStarsJohn WayneRichard WidmarkLaurence HarveyIn 1836, a small band of soldiers sacrifice their lives in hopeless combat against a massive army in order to prevent a tyrant from smashing the new Republic of Texas.Wayne's most infamous project, yet not as bad as portrayed. Wayne is adequate as a director and producer.
- DirectorHenry HathawayStarsJohn WayneKim DarbyGlen CampbellA drunken, hard-nosed U.S. Marshal and a Texas Ranger help a stubborn teenager track down her father's murderer in Indian Territory.Wayne won his only Oscar for this role. Certainly not his best.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanStarsJohn WayneClaire TrevorLaraine DayWhen a commercial airliner develops engine problems on a trans-Pacific flight and the pilot loses his nerve, it is up to the washed-up co-pilot Dan Roman to bring the plane in safely.Wayne plays the veteran pilot who saves the day in this drama from Wayne's production company, Batjac.
- DirectorLewis SeilerStarsTom MixDorothy DwanTony the HorseDisguising as a bandit, a detective infiltrates a group of train robberies while falling in love with the K and A railroad's president's daughter.