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It's easy to take for granted the fact that John Wayne is arguably the most notable Western star that Hollywood ever produced. But it wasn't always this way. Back when the Duke was a far younger man, at the start of his career around the dawn of the Great Depression, the future icon nabbed his first leading role in a 1930 picture that was helmed by filmmaker Raoul Walsh. The movie in question? The Big Trail. If you haven't seen this black-and-white Western, it's probably because it's not exactly the Duke's most notable role. While his performance isn't bad for a man pretty green to the camera, The Big Trail nearly ended Wayne's career before it had even begun. Here's what happened.

John Wayne made a secret appearance on famed Western series Wagon Train - though his voice still gave him away. There's a persistent rumor John Wayne turned down Gunsmoke, one of the longest-running TV shows in history. While major stars regularly cross over from movies to television now, this was almost unheard of back in the 1950s, and an actor of Wayne's stature would never have even considered fronting a TV show. Still, Wayne recorded an intro to Gunsmoke as a favor to leading man James Arness.

Aside from Gunsmoke, another of the major Western shows from this period was Wagon Train. Running for eight seasons, this followed the misadventures of the titular wagon train as it made its way to California and encountered guest stars like Charles Bronson, Leonard Nimoy and Bette Davis along the trail. Wagon Train itself was partly inspired by John Wayne's first major film The Big Trail...

Born Marion Robert Morrison, John Wayne is one of the greatest movie stars from Hollywood's Golden Era. Known to many as "the Duke," Wayne had a fifty-year career working in motion pictures, starting from the waning years of the silent era and concluding during the middle of the New Hollywood movement. A prolific workhorse, Wayne amassed 184 acting credits in his career, which includes 90 Westerns and over 30 war films, the two genres Wayne is most associated with.

Throughout his career, Wayne faced criticisms of being a great movie star, but not necessarily a great actor. Performances in movies such as Red River, The Searchers, and The Shootist demonstrated Wayne's expanded range as an actor, proving many of his most adamant critics wrong. Twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Wayne won the award for his performance in True Grit. One of the most beloved and profitable stars of his era,...

Oscar-winner John Wayne is one of the most enduring symbols of the Western genre, having ruled the box office for over three decades. Wayne has a mind-boggling one hundred and eighty-four acting credits to his name, and dozens of those roles were in Westerns. With such a robust body of work, it can be hard for the audience to know where to begin, but some of Wayne's films are certified classics.

Working alongside legendary directors like John Ford and Howard Hanks, Wayne helped define the Western genre. Digging into his filmography reveals the origins of many tropes, character archetypes, and storytelling elements that still echo through modern cinema.

The Big Trail Is A Taut Thriller A Young Wayne Establishes His Star Power

Wayne has a reputation for playing the prototypical grizzled cowboy, but his first lead role in The Big Trail shows how he became such a sensation. Set against...

John Wayne's first leading role came in 1930 with the pre-code Western The Big Trail, directed by Raoul Walsh, and it set the 23-year-old actor on a path to stardom and Western dominance. Before this legendary film, Wayne had starred in only minor roles, with studios unsure of what to make of the fledgling actor. Would he be a sensitive heatthrob, a dashing hero, or an unscrupulous villain?...

When it comes to acting superstardom, few professional Thespians have as many "certified fresh" films in their portfolio of work as the man, the myth, the legend, John Wayne. In order to achieve such a feat, any movie an actor has appeared in must have scored at least 75% or higher, with at least five reviews from Top Critics, while boasting a minimum of 80 reviews on the aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes.

To his great credit, John Wayne starred in seven films throughout his prolific career, which earned him this "certified fresh" distinction. Spanning a whole range of genres, including war films, romances, and, of course, Westerns, John Wayne continues to prove himself as one of Hollywood's most remarkable talents to this day, as many of his greatest pictures continue to be beloved by critics of all generations.

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Related 15 John Wayne Movies That Changed the Western Genre

John Wayne's prolific career...

Throughout American movie history, historical accuracy has certainly not been one of Hollywood's strong suits. Most Hollywood films distort the truth, utilizing their right to artistic license to add heightened drama to their narratives. High-profile movies such as JFK, Argo, and Selma have garnered significant controversy for their deviations from historical fact.

The Western, a genre whose foundation is built upon the mythology of the Old West, is one of Hollywood's most historically inaccurate genres. While no film will ever be one hundred percent historically accurate, there are some Westerns that have attempted to be more true to reality than others. Westerns such as The Covered Wagon and The Big Trail opted for realistic approaches in their depictions of Westward Expansion. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Killers of the Flower Moon tried their best to portray real historical events properly. The John Ford Westerns...

1939 was a massive year for Hollywood, in that it offered a long list of now-iconic movies and career stepping stones for some of the biggest stars of this era. This was especially true for the Western genre and two of its biggest icons in cinematic history. In that year alone, both James Stewart and John Wayne had their breakthrough Westerns, Destry Rides Again and Stagecoach, that shaped their images in the medium going forward.

There's no disputing Wayne and Stewart's significance to the genre. Of the two, Wayne obviously has the better resume, with leading roles in an impressive number of movies now considered to be among the greatest Westerns of all time. But Stewart, for his part, has also contributed his fair share of worthwhile entries into the world of Westerns. After all, James Stewart's Westerns also account for a few of the genre's best, with Winchester '73 being a notable example.

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John Wayne, born in Iowa as Marion Robert Morrison in 1907, grew up to become one of the most famous figures in American film history. His family moved to Southern California when he was young, where he eventually attended the University of Southern California on a football scholarship. After an injury cut his athletic career short, Wayne turned to Hollywood. His first job in the film industry was as a prop boy and extra, before landing his first leading role in Raoul Walsh's 1930 film The Big Trail.

John Wayne's roles embodied the spirit of the American West, making him a symbol of the Western genre in Hollywood. His partnerships with legendary filmmakers like John Ford and Howard Hawks would yield numerous classics, including The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and El Dorado two of the best movies of his career. While it...

The iconic Western that made John Wayne a movie star gave him an all-timer character introduction. John Wayne fronted 80 Westerns throughout his career and became inextricably tied to the genre. This typecasting was perfectly fine with Wayne, who still led everything from romantic comedies to war movies in between his "Oaters." Wayne may have evolved into one of the biggest stars of his era, but it took him a long time to get to that point. In fact, Wayne's The Big Trail set his career back a decade, despite marking his first leading role.

This 1930 Western was an expensive bomb, and Wayne spent years making Western B-movies in the aftermath. It was his collaborations with John Ford and Howard Hawks that transformed his career, and there was a time when Wayne appearing in a film all but guaranteed its success. John Ford and John Wayne Westerns are considered some of...

Quick Links The Story of The Big Trail The Big Trail Could Have Kicked Off Wayne's Career The Big Trail Earned Acclaim on Rotten Tomatoes Where To Watch The Big Trail

Nearly a century after its release, John Wayne's The Big Trail has achieved yet another milestone. There are few names more synonymous with Westerns in the Golden Age of Hollywood than Wayne. Having led the industry alongside the likes of Marlon Brando, Rock Hudson, and Gary Cooper, the star burned brighter than even the marks embedded in the streets on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.

Yet, before he was considered one of Hollywood's most influential actors, Wayne was taking up smaller parts that hardly let him showcase his talents. The Big Trail was the first movie that saw Wayne as a leading man, and it launched a legendary career. It was even influential outside of that legacy, as it...

Return to the Wild West with True Grit on Paramount+. The Western movie that helped earn John Wayne his second Oscar for Best Actor and was nominated for Best Original Song, True Grit, will be available to stream on Paramount+ this fall on September 1.

Based on the 1968 Charles Portis novel of the same name, True Grit follows Mattie Ross (Kim Darby) who, after her father is killed in cold blood by his hired helper Tom Chaney (Jeff Corey), goes on a journey of revenge to see true justice brought forth. To do that, she enlists the help of the old, rugged, eye-patch-wearing U.S. Marshall Reuben Cogburn (John Wayne), who goes by the moniker Rooster. On their journey into what is now present-day Oklahoma, they also gain the assistance of Texas Ranger La Boeuf (Glen Campbell), who is looking for a man who might be accompanying Chaney. The three of...

Before John Wayne became a staple name that we associate with Westerns, he was just Marion Robert Morrison, or to those close to him, his childhood moniker, Duke. It was the legendary director Raoul Walsh who spotted him as a prop man carrying furniture across soundstages who laid the ground for his fame. Handing him his first big lead role in the 1930 Western The Big Trail, Walsh would also be the one who gave him the iconic name John Wayne. It would be a decade before the two greats would collaborate again, this time on the unflinching, Oscar-nominated crime Western Dark Command. The movie is an adaptation of William Riley Burnett's 1938 novel of the same name. It is in Dark Command, which is partly inspired by a true story, that Wayne would team up with another fine talent of his generation, "the King of the Cowboys," singer, actor, radio,...

Less than a decade before John Ford made John Wayne a household name with the Western epic Stagecoach, the Duke played various bit parts in Hollywood's golden years, appearing often in film serials throughout the 1920s and '30s. It wasn't until Wayne starred in The Big Trail in 1930 that he began landing more leading roles, and in 1932 he made a 12-part serial titled The Hurricane Express. This thriller likely isn't the first production you think of when you hear the name John Wayne. It's got nothing on True Grit or The Searchers, which look much more impressive by comparison. But The Hurricane Express was foundational in the Duke's Hollywood career, and would predate his most important theatrical efforts.

Believe it or not, there was a time when The Duke was just plain old John Wayne, a struggling actor who was trying to make it. He was, like every fledgling actor, just a person trying to get themselves a job. They might have their preferences, but a check is a check. Wayne's status as a Western icon was not yet cemented, and he had yet to become a household name. His cinematic identity was more malleable because nobody really knew who he was, and the studios hadn't really decided on it yet anyway. This is where things get a little strange. Hot off the heels of The Big Trail, his first big feature, John Wayne and Marguerite Churchill reunited for the 1931 romantic comedy Girls Demand Excitement. The film is surprisingly out of character for Wayne — in fact, he hated the film so much, it almost made him quit acting.

During Hollywood's Golden Era, Westerns ranked among the most popular film genres in the United States. Routinely, nearly a quarter of all Hollywood films produced were Westerns, meaning upwards of 100 Westerns premiered every year over several decades. While revisionist Westerns saw their fair share of success in the 1960s and 1970s, Westerns have never been able to regain the glory they achieved during the 1940s and 1950s.

Like any genre, Westerns have a small group of directors who excel at crafting some of the genre's most iconic works. Filmmakers such as John Ford, Sergio Leone, and Clint Eastwood have directed numerous movies within the Western genre that have influenced both future directors and popular culture as a whole.

Raoul Walsh Was One Of The Golden Era's Premier Action Directors <img alt="Raoul Walsh standing by camera" data-image-id="1746334" height="500" src="https://static0.cbrimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/raoul-walsh-standing-by-camera.jpg" width="1000" />

Related 10 Best Non-American Action Films, Ranked The world of action cinema goes well beyond the United States, with classics like Crouching Tiger,...

Western films give viewers a sense of traveling back in time to the American Frontier in the 19th century, providing a glimpse into a specific era and location. Some Western films, such as Heaven's Gate and The Big Trail, are not only painstakingly crafted with costumes and locations, but also accurately depict real historical events. Westerns, despite their dwindling popularity in the 1970s, remain influential and have experienced a resurgence in recent years, with movies like The Assassination of Jesse James gaining a large fan following.

In the early years of cinema the Western genre was beloved for how it romanticized the Old West, but, despite that idealistic approach, a number of Westerns are actually quite accurate to real historical events. They were among the first movies ever made with the technology of filmmaking, starting with the short The Great Train Robbery in 1903. Despite the genre’s popularity dwindling by the 1970s,...

John Wayne is best known for his roles in Western films and is considered the most famous movie star in the genre. Among the top 20 John Wayne movies, 16 of them are Westerns, with one specific Western movie being named the greatest of all time. John Wayne stars in three of the top 10 Western movies listed by the American Film Institute, proving his dominance in the genre.

When it comes to one particular film genre, John Wayne was the most famous movie star of them all, and unsurprisingly a 15-year-old American Film Institute poll named his 1956 masterpiece the greatest Western ever made. While John Wayne made some great movies that are not Westerns, the actor is mostly known for playing cowboys in the quintessentially American genre. His first big movie role was in a failed 1930 Western titled The Big Trail, and his star-making success came by the end of the decade...

John Wayne's involvement in the controversial film "Baby Face" played a significant role in the revision and enforcement of Hollywood's Production Code. The original uncensored version of "Baby Face" was discovered in 2004, leading to its restoration and recognition as a culturally significant film. "Baby Face" challenged societal norms by discussing sex and female sexuality, contributing to the end of the Pre-Code era in Hollywood.

Though John Wayne is immediately associated with Westerns and war movies, he was, surprisingly, in a 90-year-old sex drama that was so shocking at the time that it completely rewrote Hollywood's censorship laws. Though most tend to think of his career in the era of the 1950s-60s, Wayne's Hollywood career started much earlier than that. His first feature film, Men Without Women, came all the way back in 1930, but it wasn't until 1939's Stagecoach that he really broke out and became a mainstream star.

John Wayne, known as "The Duke," starred in Western and war movies, leaving behind iconic quotes that continue to inspire generations. From his humble beginnings as a prop boy to becoming one of the greatest male stars of classic American cinema, Wayne's career spanned over five decades. Wayne's quotes address various themes such as courage, respect, living in the present, and the importance of family, leaving a lasting impact on viewers.

Known as "The Duke" in the Golden Age of Hollywood, John Wayne starred in Western and war movies and television shows, delivering iconic quotes that have inspired generations. He performed from 1926 until his last role in 1976 as an aging gunfighter fighting cancer in The Shootist. Over the course of his career, John Wayne set a precedent for the industry and was later pronounced one of the greatest male stars of classic American Cinema by the American Film Institute.

While...

John Wayne is among the biggest movie stars to ever grace the silver screen, yet if it weren’t for a bodysurfing accident, that legendary career may never have happened. The Duke was attending USC on a football scholarship with eyes on a law degree. However, when he injured his shoulder and could no longer perform on the field, he was cut from the football team and lost his scholarship. Looking for cash and with a film studio connection through his former coach Howard Jones, the 20-year-old started hauling props for Fox Film Corporation. This led to some minor roles in John Ford movies and his first starring role in The Big Trail when Raoul Walsh saw him moving around furniture for the studio. The rest, as they say, is history. But how much of the story is true? How much is merely the product of Singing in the Rain-style studio propaganda?...

Receiving one coveted 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes is a massive achievement in itself, with two actors being tied for having the most entries in the 100% club. Unsurprisingly, due to their influence on cinema, many of the films on Rotten Tomatoes with a Fresh 100% rating are considered classics, which means most of the actors with the highest number of 100% critic scores were at their height in the golden age of Hollywood. Many actors whose movies boast multiple 100% Rotten Tomatoes scores are also Oscar winners, suggesting their screen presence influences the films’ continued acclaim.

Beginning with 1920’s The Golem as the oldest movie with a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score, an increasing number of films have joined the desired list over the years, with the prospect of achieving a 100% score shockingly being easier to attain than a 0% score. Hollywood legends like Humphrey Bogart, Judy Garland, Henry Fonda, and James Stewart boast between nine and 11 Fresh 100% scores each,...

When it comes to classic collaborations between actors and directors, few can compete with John Ford and John Wayne. The two made movies together for most of their working careers. Even though Ford had a complicated working relationship with Wayne according to most accounts, bullying and belittling him when the cameras were off, they shared a great affection for each other between movies. And at their best, those movies are unbeatable.

Ford had a bit of a reputation for his behavior on sets, coming from his tendency to yell or roughhouse. If Ford could be a bit of a heel on set, a tyrannical bully with a megaphone, he was beloved to many of his longtime actors, the wide-ranging community that became known as the John Ford Stock Company. In many ways, his behavior was probably excused as a lot of masculine ribbing, men ridiculing each other in the tradition...

John Wayne was a Hollywood legend for decades, and his rugged individuality was a big part of his image. It's hard to imagine a guy best known for playing a lonesome cowboy as a ladies' man, but before he starred in Westerns, studios hadn't quite nailed down Wayne's image. The actor found his brief stint as a romantic comedy actor so embarrassing that he almost hung up his cowboy hat for good before ever becoming a household name.

Before he was America's movie cowboy, the Duke's early work like "Brown of Harvard" and "Girls Demand Excitement" featured a sports edge. "I should've been playing on the National Football Team in 1928," Wayne explained in a 1976 interview, per The Bobby Wygant Archive.

Wayne starred in his first feature-length cowboy film in 1930, titled "The Big Trail," but the studio wasn't sure that they saw him as a cowboy just yet. Here's what he...

The John Wayne his fans know and love didn't really show up until John Ford's "Stagecoach" in 1939. Though the director and silent Western star Tom Mix saw tremendous potential in the USC football washout when they took him on as a prop boy in the mid-1920s, his screen presence was purely physical. At 6'4", the Iowa-born lad cut a formidable figure on the big screen, but he had miles to go as an actor. If you asked Ford (and many did), he was happy to tell you that Wayne needed a decade's worth of seasoning in Poverty Row Westerns before he could topline a major Hollywood production.

It was unwise to argue with the cantankerous Ford, but Wayne had a shot at undermining his mentor when Raoul Walsh cast the young man as the star of 1930's "The Big Trail," an early, wildly pricey epic that sought to...

John Wayne's first lead role in The Big Trail was supposed to be his big break - but it set him back nearly a decade. While trying to find his way in the movie business, Wayne spent his early days making uncredited acting appearances or being a prop man. While he later became one of the Western genre's defining leading men - thanks to his unmistakable voice and walk - this wasn't always his career plan. Wayne even attempted to break out of Westerns during the '30s when he became a leading man in b-movies, but after appearing in a series of box-office duds, he literally got back on the horse.

A then 23-year-old Wayne was cast by Raoul Walsh (White Heat) to be the lead in his 1930 widescreen epic The Big Trail. This saw Wayne's Coleman leading a group of settlers along the Oregon Trail, and he...

From “The King of Kings” to “The Northman,” hundreds of films have premiered within the storied walls of the Tcl Chinese Theatre, which celebrates its 95th anniversary May 18.

Indeed, as early as 1933, the famed movie house appeared in other media as a boilerplate for how a premiere should, and often does, look like. Since then, the theater played itself in dozens of television shows and movies, some of which went on to debut on its iconic screen. The forecourt holds the signatures and imprints of concrete immortalization.

The former Grauman’s Chinese Theatre will fete its 95 years by launching a full year of programming, while also navigating premieres for first-run films and special events including the annual TCM Film Festival. It repertory programming was scheduled both in the big house and at its sister location, the Tcl Chinese 6.

“We’re going to be having screenings of seminal movies that have...

In these rare excerpts of a 1976 interview, Bobbie Wygant discusses John Wayne's career with the Duke himself. Wayne discusses being in on the advent of widescreen movies with the 1929 production of "The Big Trail" and also talks about the background of making his latest (and final) film "The Shootist", going into some details about how he wanted to make significant changes to the source novel. It's all rather tantalizing and we wish the entire interview was available.

Over the years there have been movies and TV series examining the trials and tribulations of settlers traveling together on wagon trains hoping to find a new life in the West such as Raoul Walsh’s 193o widescreen “The Big Trail” starring a young John Wayne; John Ford’s 1950 “Wagon Master”; and the 1957—65 series “Wagon Train,” which hit No. 1 in the ratings. And now there’s Paramount +’s rugged, gritty and bloody “1883,” which debuted last December attracting 4.9 million viewers. The series, which concludes on Feb 25, has been renewed for a second season.

“1883,” which stars Tim McGraw, his wife Faith Hill, Sam Elliott and Isabel May, is a prequel to Paramount’s uber-popular contemporary Western “Yellowstone,” starring Kevin Costner as the powerful landowner John Dutton. Just as “Yellowstone,” “1883” was created by Taylor Sheridan and follows Costner’s great-great grandfather James Dutton (McGraw) and great-great-grandmother Margaret (Hill) as they make the arduous,...

In an age of television where nothing is more attractive to networks than established I.P., it’s not enough to build a solidly performing drama on a humble plot of land. It’s all about the hydra-headed franchise these days, with even a series like “Law & Order” clawing back its territory following a decade of austerity measures. So it was only a matter of time before “Yellowstone,” Paramount Network’s superlatively popular nouveau Western, began manifest destiny.

The first such expansion comes in the form of “1883,” a far-flung prequel series focused on the forebears of John Dutton (Kevin Costner), the beleaguered cattle rancher at the center of “Yellowstone.” Decades before defending their massive Montana ranch from rapacious developers, they were settlers hoping for just enough luck and fortitude to survive the long journey west. The titular time period means hot-streak creator Taylor Sheridan going from a neo-Western to a proto-Western,...

Daniel Radcliffe may've been a child star, but that doesn't mean he missed out on a major '90s kid rite of passage. We're, of course, talking about playing the educational computer game, The Oregon Trail. The Harry Potter star revealed this nostalgic tidbit in an exclusive chat with E! News while promoting season three of his TBS anthology series, Miracle Workers: Oregon Trail. "It was definitely a thing," he told E! News about playing the game as a child. "I think I discovered it the exact same way that everyone else did, which was like, in some sort of computer class." As he continued, the 31-year-old star remembered being allowed to play either Oregon...

Apple today announced it is introducing two entirely new game categories and adding more than 30 incredible titles to Apple Arcade, its popular gaming subscription service for players of all ages. Apple Arcade offers breakthrough, unique benefits players love: no ads, no in-app purchases, support for Apple's high user privacy standards, and one all-inclusive subscription offer with access for up to six family members. In addition to new exclusive Arcade Originals, including "NBA 2K21 Arcade Edition," "Star Trek: Legends," and "The Oregon Trail," the service is introducing two new game categories, Timeless Classics and App Store Greats. Arcade Originals are playable across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV. Timeless Classics and App Store Greats are available on iPhone and iPad.

Timeless Classics includes universally loved, quintessential genres with titles like "Good Sudoku by Zach Gage," "Chess - Play & Learn," and "Backgammon," while App Store Greats brings some of the best award-winning...

Remember how hard it was to beat computer games in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s? Just when you thought you were doing great on The Oregon Trail, your entire family would die of dysentery or some other floppy-disk catastrophe. Now, imagine what that gameplay would be like if it were set in the Star Trek universe, complete with old-school 8-bit computer graphics. You’ve just imagined a new web-based Star Trek game you can play right now, called, appropriately, Star Trek: Kobayashi Maru. In the new trailer for the game, George Takei calls it an “all you can eat buffet of pain.” He’s not wrong! The game is hard.

Free to play online, Star Trek: Kobayashi Maru has just been released from Scopely, the makers of the popular mobile game Star Trek: Fleet Command. To be clear, Kobayashi Maru is not an extension of Fleet Command. It’s web-based (not mobile) and,...

The reunion of Sofia Coppola and Bill Murray for the new A24/Apple release “On the Rocks” comes 17 years after their first collaboration on the Oscar-winning “Lost in Translation.” Such repeated pairings between directors and actors have been mainstay a in Hollywood since the earliest days of cinema. In the silent era, there were multiple films from D.W. Griffith and Lillian Gish and Charlie Chaplin and Edna Purviance.

One of the great partnerships during the Golden Age of Hollywood was John Ford and John Wayne. Ford had actually befriended Wayne when the young man was doing odd jobs as well as extra work-including in few of the director’s films-at Fox Studios in the late 1920s. Wayne made his official film debut starring in Raoul Walsh’s 1930 epic western “The Big Trail.”

The film wasn’t a hit and Wayne found himself spending the decade doing “B” westerns including 1938’s...

The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history.Above: The Great Train RobberyThe western has been around since nearly the advent of cinema. Some of Thomas Edison’s earliest films incorporated standard conventions of the genre, established in preceding works of popular fiction, and other key tropes were solidified in Edwin S. Porter’s pioneering The Great Train Robbery (1903). Primarily originating on the East Coast, American motion picture production soon made its general migration west where the geographic consequences only amplified the form, enticing the likes of producers and directors including Thomas Ince and Cecil B. DeMille. The western swiftly flourished as an exuberant, manifold survey of idealized, often exaggerated themes concerning heroism, progress, and the myth of the American dream. The genre became a beloved compendium of cultural dichotomies, iconic symbols, locations, and character types, evincing countless variations alongside the tried and true.

As Disney quietly disappears huge swathes of film history into its vaults, I'm going to spend 2020 celebrating Twentieth Century Fox and the Fox Film Corporation's films, what one might call their output if only someone were putting it out.And now they've quietly disappeared William Fox's name from the company: guilty by association with Rupert Murdoch, even though he never associated with him.***Sometime in '28 or '29, Raoul Walsh saw his first talking picture. He didn't like it. The stuff and stuffy theatrical performances, airless studio atmosphere and rigid, immobile staging and camerawork was all profoundly off-putting to this cinematic man of action. But on the same program was a Fox Movietone newsreel, and Walsh was dazzled by the way the small crew captured a noisy union meeting. He rushed to the studio and pitched an idea...All he needed was a western script and a newsreel van...

The legendary director Raoul Walsh hits The Big Trail one more time for a CinemaScope & stereophonic ‘big star’ cattle drive movie, dodging most cliches but taking a few squarely between the eyes. Star chemistry is what keeps them dogies movin’, with Clark Gable making it look all too easy. Frisky Jane Russell fares well, but not our favorite Robert Ryan: despite the high-profile billing, he pulls S.O.B. duty yet again. There’s no doubt about it, pilgrim … I see a whole lotta cows in this one.

The Tall Men

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1955 / Color / 2:55 widescreen / 122 min. / Street Date September 17, 2019 / Available from Twilight Time Movies / 29.95

Starring: Clark Gable, Jane Russell, Robert Ryan, Cameron Mitchell, Juan García, Harry Shannon, Emile Meyer, Argentina Brunetti, Chuck Roberson, Will Wright.

Cinematography: Leo Tover

Editing: Louis R. Loeffler

Original Music: Victor Young

Written by Sydney Boehm, Frank Nugent from the novel by Clay...

“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” marks Joel and Ethan Coen’s deepest dive into Western mythology, wrapped around the inevitability of death. The six-part Netflix anthology about a singing cowboy, a wannabee bank robber, a pair of travelling performers, a gold prospector, a wagon train, and a final carriage ride contains a wide range of looks inspired by illustrations in a book that opens each segment.

However, when it came to the production and costume design, the challenge was to push the limits of authenticity for Coen Brothers’ regulars Jess Gonchor and Mary Zophres. “When I read the script, I tried to figure out how I was going to put my art director stamp,” said Gonchor. “It was like six different movies and one of the hardest things I’ve ever done because there was nothing off the shelf. Everything had to be manufactured, down to the nails and the hardware.

by Nathaniel R

John Wayne in "The Big Trail (1930)" and in "True Grit (1969)"

This day in history is a big one of Hollywood's most popular stars, John Wayne. His career began, as most did in the early days of Hollywood, with uncredited parts in silent films but he became a leading man once the talkies hit. Perhaps he needed that distinctive slow-crawl dirt road voice to stand out? He had his first leading role at just 23 years of age with The Big Trail. True stardom didn't hit, though, until Stage Coach (1939) after which, he was top-billed for the remainder of his career. On this very day in 1969 True Grit premiered in Los Angeles. The role of Rooster Cogburn would net him his third Oscar nomination and prove to be something of a career capper when he took home the Best Actor Oscar. (Jeff Bridges would later be Oscar-nominated for the...

Wagon Tracks

Blu-ray

Olive Films

1919 / B&W / 1:33 Silent Ap / 64 min. / Street Date January 24, 2017 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98

Starring William S. Hart, Jane Novak, Robert McKim, Lloyd Bacon, Leo Pierson, Bert Sprotte, Charles Arling.

Cinematography: Joseph H. August

Art direction: Thomas A. Brierley

Titles: Irvin J. Martin

Written by: C. Gardner Sullivan

Produced by: William S. Hart, Thomas H. Ince

Directed by: Lambert Hillyer

Last year we were gifted with an excellent Blu-ray of a silent John Ford western, 3 Bad Men, which turned out to be a satisfying sentimental action tale. This month we get a much older silent western that’s almost as interesting. Its star is William S. Hart, the silent icon most of know through a still of a man in a ten-gallon hat brandishing two pistols in a barroom. Hart frequently played gunslingers, but not always. Olive’s presentation of Wagon Tracks sees him...

This early John Wayne oater displays the natural star quality and winning personality that sustained him through the 1930s -- it's a naïve, charming western that features some of The Duke's closest early associates. 'Neath Arizona Skies Blu-ray Olive Films 1934 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 52 min. / Street Date July 19, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 24.95 Starring John Wayne, Sheila Terry, Shirley Jane Rickert, Jack Rockwell, Yakima Canutt, Weston Edwards, Jay Wilsey, Earl Dwire, George 'Gabby' Hayes. Cinematography Archie Stout Film Editor Charles Hunt Original Music Billly Barber Written by Burl R. Tuttle from his story. Produced by Paul Malvern Directed by Harry L. Fraser

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Want to see where our western film heritage really came from? Big studios made giant wagon train movies, epics about the railroad and star-driven biographies of Billy the Kid, but the genre was sustained by a steady diet of six reel 'oaters,...

Los Angeles, Calif. (October 2, 2015) – In 1915 William Fox founded Fox Film Corporation and forever changed the course of cinema. Over the next century the studio would develop some of the most innovative and ground-breaking advancements in the history of cinema; the introduction of Movietone, the implementation of color in partnership with Eastman Kodak, the development of the wide format in 70mm and many more. Now in honor of the 100th anniversary of the studio, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will celebrate by releasing some of their most iconic films that represent a decade of innovation.

Starting today, five classic films from the studio will be made available digitally for the first time ever – Sunrise (1927), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), Man Hunt (1941), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) and The Flight of the Phoenix (1965). Throughout the rest of the year a total of 100 digital releases will follow from Fox’s extensive catalog, including 10 films...

Burbank, Calif. May 19, 2015 – On June 2, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (Wbhe) will release The John Wayne Westerns Film Collection – featuring five classic films on Blu-ray™ from the larger-than-life American hero – just in time for Father’s Day. The Collection features two new-to-Blu-ray titles, The Train Robbers and Cahill U.S. Marshal plus fan favorites Fort Apache, The Searchers and a long-awaited re-release of Rio Bravo. The pocketbook box set will sell for $54.96 Srp; individual films $14.98 Srp.

Born Marion Robert Morrison in Winterset, Iowa, John Wayne first worked in the film business as a laborer on the Fox lot during summer vacations from University of Southern California, which he attended on a football scholarship. He met and was befriended by John Ford, a young director who was beginning to make a name for himself in action films, comedies and dramas. It was Ford who recommended Wayne to director Raoul Walsh for the male lead in the 1930 epic Western,...

Not one approach, but two...

Documentary:

And melodrama:

Surrounding these lovers in longing are people in movement, pilgrims in search of a new place to call home.

Dreamers working day and night to make their dreams come true:

And there are horses:

And herds of other animals:

All trudging forward to an uncertain future with nothing to lose:

Even when a primary villain dies—

—it’s back to work; life must go on.

Some stay behind:

But everyone else has to keep moving on. Individuals propel history forward.

In the meantime, a man can still sit and brood over his fate, and a woman can still suddenly pop into a frame and become a miracle:

Six years later, Raoul Walsh would begin his own odyssey set even earlier in history.

Melodrama returns too:

And it’s still possible for lovers to reunite in the midst of an unbroken movement forward:...

The “adult” Western – as it would come to be called – was a long time coming. A Hollywood staple since the days of The Great Train Robbery (1903), the Western offered spectacle and action set against the uniquely American milieu of the Old West – a historical period which, at the dawn of the motion picture industry, was still fresh in the nation’s memory. What the genre rarely offered was dramatic substance.

Early Westerns often adopted the same traditions of the popular Wild West literature and dime novels of the 19th and early 20th centuries producing, as a consequence, highly romantic, almost purely mythic portraits the Old West. Through the early decades of the motion picture industry, the genre went through several creative cycles, alternately tilting from fanciful to realistic and back again. By the early sound era, and despite such serious efforts as The Big Trail (1930) and The Virginian (1929), Hollywood Westerns were,...

Moviefone's New Release Pick of the Week "Brave" What's It About? Pixar's latest feature tells the story of Princess Merida, a headstrong- archery-loving teenager, living in feudal Scotland, whose desire to carve out her own fate and go against her parent's wishes for betrothal sets her on a magic adventure. See It Because: "Brave" is rich in both visual splendor and charming characters. And despite it being a completely new story, it sits perfectly alongside other timeless childhood fairy tales. Merida is an adorable and plucky heroine for young audiences, and the movie's simple message of responsibility makes this a great viewing experience for the entire family (but especially mothers and daughters). (Also Available on Amazon Instant Video | Netflix ) Moviefone's Blu-ray Release of the Week "Lawrence of Arabia" What's It About? Peter O'Toole's most iconic role -- as the real-life famed British army office -- sets him in the...

Before we get started here, I thought some of you may be interested in the fact you can buy the four film Coen Brothers' Blu-ray set from Fox for $24.99 right now, which includes Blood Simple, Fargo, Miller's Crossing and Raising Arizona. If you're interested, just click here to pick it up. There's also an interesting ten-film John Wayne DVD collection featured in the "Even More" section of today's post.

Underworld: Awakening I like this film and they sent me the Blu-ray, but I haven't yet had a chance to watch it. All the Underworld films starring Kate Beckinsale I find quite fun. It's big, loud and dumb fun as far as I'm concerned and I don't really know if I make a special exception for this franchise over others, but based on how this one ends I do hope they go forward with one more, but as Underworld: Rise of the Lycans proved,...

DVD Playhouse – May 2012

By Allen Gardner

Shame (20th Century Fox) Director Steve McQueen’s harrowing portrait of a Manhattan sex addict (Michael Fassbender, in the year’s most riveting performance) whose psyche goes into overload when his equally-troubled sister (Carey Mulligan) visits unexpectedly. Exquisitely-made on every level, save for the screenplay, which makes its point after about thirty minutes. While it tries hard to be a modern-day Last Tango in Paris, this fatal flaw makes it fall somewhat short. The much- ballyhooed sex scenes and frontal nudity are the least-interesting things about the film, incidentally, which is still a must-see for discriminating adults who seek out challenging material. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Featurettes. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS-hd 5.1 surround.

Being John Malkovich (Criterion) Spike Jonze’s madcap film of Charlie Kaufman’s script, regarding a socially-disenfranchised puppeteer (John Cusack) who finds a portal into the mind of actor...

Moviefone's Blu-ray of the Week "Gremlins 2: The New Batch" What's It About? Billy Peltzer and Gizmo wind up in New York City, where a Donald Trump-like mogul tries to experiment on the Mogwai, inadvertently unleashing a whole new gang of even more advanced gremlins. See It Because: One of the most underrated sequels of all time gets the hi-def Blu-ray treatment. Director Joe Dante turns the whole affair into a bizarre "Looney Tunes" parody of the first "Gremlins," and the end result is one of the most clever dark comedies of the past 25 years. Watch a Deleted Scene from "Gremlins 2: The New Batch" Moviefone's New Release of the Week "Tim & Eric's Billion Dollar Movie" What's It About? Um... well... Tim and Eric are given a billion dollars to make a movie by Robert Loggia, but they waste it, so they have to go on the run.

John Wayne needs no introduction. One of the most iconic actors of all time, he dominated westerns his list of classic films and great directors he worked with we could talk about all day. But how about watching some of those famed films instead? 20th Century Fox is releasing the John Wayne Film Collection featuring 10 movies on May 8th and we've got a copy for one lucky reader.

Spanning 39 years of John Wayne’s legendary career, the boxset contains some of his most memorable and critically-acclaimed films including: Raoul Walsh's "The Big Trail," Howard Hawks' "Red River," Henry Hathaway's "Legend Of The Lost" and "North To Alaska," John Ford's "The Horse Soldiers," "The Alamo" which Wayne directed himself, Michael Curtiz's "The Comancheros," the WWII epic "The Longest Day," the Civil War era flick "The Undefeated" and, for the time on DVD, John Huston's "The Barbarian And The Geisha.