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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...

Over the course of his long Hollywood career, the Hollywood actor appeared in a whopping total of 26 John Wayne movies. Between the 1920s and 1970s, legendary movie star John Wayne starred in well over 100 movies, the vast majority being either Westerns or war movies. Based on that, it's no surprise that he would wind up reuniting with some of his former co-stars in another project at some point or another. However, there were some actors in Hollywood that became recurring co-stars and collaborators of Wayne's.

Easily the most high-profile of Wayne's partners in making movies were John Ford and Maureen O'Hara. A celebrated Western icon in his own right, Ford directed several of John Wayne's movies, including Stagecoach, The Quiet Man, and Rio Grande. As for Maureen O'Hara, she was the female lead in five John Wayne movies, each being a standout entry in the actor's filmography. But neither was...

Norma Barzman, an admired screenwriter of 1940s films whose career was derailed by the Hollywood blacklist and who was one of its last survivors, died Sunday. She was 103.

Barzman died of natural causes, surrounded by family, at her home in Beverly Hills, her daughter Suzo Barzman told The Hollywood Reporter.

Born Norma Levor in New York City on Sept. 15, 1920, and raised between the U.S. and Europe, Barzman moved to Hollywood on her 21st birthday. By that time, she had already attended Radcliffe for two years before dropping out and had spent a year living in Princeton, New Jersey, as the young bride of Claude Shannon — later known as “the father of information theory” — before their divorce in 1941.

Out west, Barzman was enrolled by her older cousin, a writer, at the left-leaning School of Writers. In 1942, after a fateful meeting at a Halloween party, she married the up-and-coming screenwriter Ben Barzman,...

When it comes to classic movie stars from Hollywood's golden age in the '40s and '50s, few cast a shadow larger than John Wayne. In a five-decades-long career, Wayne became an iconic western hero -- landing close to 200 performances in film and television. Wayne is one of those rare movie cowboys whose work has lived on past the genre's peak popularity -- making Wayne himself one of the most enduringly rugged stars in history.

Though we've already covered the greatest films in Wayne's career, there are scores of films viewers haven't seen. From bringing the American war effort to the silver screen at the height of World War II to dramatic turns that expanded Wayne's range, Wayne has shown a surprising amount of acting skill. Here we'll explore the underrated movies across Wayne's filmography. Some titles were overshadowed by his more high-profile work whereas others have endured the...

Now At A Reduced Price! Only $61.00 Through Amazon...Original Price Was $149.00- Free Shipping For Prime Members.

Time to put up your Dukes! (DVDs, that is!)

DVD Collection Of 40 Warner And Parmount Films Is Largest John Wayne Box Set Ever

Includes Hours Of Special Features And Remarkable Memorabilia

Amazon Buyers Get Exclusive Wayne Belt Buckle

Here is the original press release from when the set was originally made available:

To commemorate one of America’s most iconic film heroes, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment will introduce a comprehensive new DVD set -- John Wayne: The Epic Collection -- on May 20. The spring release, just in time for Father’s Day gift-giving, will contain 38 discs with 40 Wayne films (full list below), including The Searchers, once called one of the most influential movies in American history[1] and the film for which Wayne won his Best Actor Academy Award®, True Grit (1969). The collection...

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,...

Amazon's best-selling titled "John Wayne: The Epic Collection" is on sale this week at an astounding 54% off. That means you save $80 on this massive DVD collector's set that includes 38 of the Duke's classic movies. Also included are bonus collectibles and a Duke belt buckle available exclusively through this Amazon deal.

Below is the original press release from Warner Home Video pertaining to the set's debut on Father's Day.

Burbank, Calif., February 24, 2014 -- To commemorate one of America’s most iconic film heroes, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment will introduce a comprehensive new DVD set -- John Wayne: The Epic Collection -- on May 20. The spring release, just in time for Father’s Day gift-giving ($149.98 Srp), will contain 38 discs with 40 Wayne films (full list below), including The Searchers, once called one of the most influential movies in American history[1] and the film for which Wayne won his Best Actor Academy...

There is no studio that times their releases more perfectly than Warner Bros. Around the end-of-year holidays there will be gift sets for films like “Elf” and “Willy Wonka.” Near Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, you can expect gift-appropriate releases.

And, of course, they always bring out the war movies and Westerns for Father’s Day in June. This year’s gift idea is a beauty, a massive 40-film, career-spanning set of films starring the legendary John Wayne. From 1932’s “Big Stampede” to 1976’s “The Shootist,” there’s a bit of everything for Wayne fans in here, but more for those who like war movies and Westerns.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

We don’t need to go through them all but highlights include “Rio Bravo,” “El Dorado,” “The Searchers,” “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” “True Grit,” “How the West Was Won,” “Fort Apache,” “Donovan’s Reef,” and “Hatari!” Some Wayne...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: April 22, 2014

Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray $29.95

Studio: Olive Films

Paul Muni stars in 1952's Stranger on the Prowl.

Paul Muni (I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang) stars in the 1952 film noir drama Stranger on the Prowl, which is based on a story by novelist Noël Calef (Elevator to the Gallows).

The film stars Muni as a disillusioned vagrant who accidentally kills a shop owner. While on the lam he befriends a young street urchin (Vittorio Manunta) who suspects the police are after him for stealing milk from the same shop owner. The police pursue the two lost souls through the war-torn streets and buildings of an Italian port city.

Upon its initial American release, Stranger on the Prowl’s credits read: written and directed by Andrea Forzano. In truth Forzano was two people: screenwriter Ben Barzman (Back to Bataan) and director Joseph Losey (The Romantic Englishwoman,...

If you don't have travel plans for Memorial Day weekend, get cozy on the couch (and set your DVR) because there are plenty of fun marathons happening.

Need to catch up on Season 1 of "Longmire" before the Season 2 premiere Monday, May 27? Want to re-live "Veronica Mars" Season 1? How about watching the entire series of "Arrested Development" (and reading our re-watch posts) before the new season is out on Netflix?

Here is all your Memorial Day weekend programming, all times Eastern.

Friday, May 24

A&E: "Storage Wars" marathon, 3 p.m. to 4 a.m. the next day

Animal: "Finding Bigfoot" marathon, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., "Invasion" premiere and new episode, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Bravo: "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" marathon, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., "Millionaire Matchmaker" marathon, 7 p.m. to 4 a.m. the next day

Chiller: "The Twilight Zone" marathon, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Discovery: "Sons of Guns" marathon,...

The art of the glass shot or matte painting is one which originated very much in the early ‘teens’ of the silent era. Pioneer film maker, director, cameraman and visual effects inventor Norman Dawn is generally acknowledged as the father of the painted matte composite, with other visionary film makers such as Ferdinand Pinney Earle, Walter Hall and Walter Percy Day being heralded as making vast contributions to the trick process in the early 1920’s.

Boiled down, the matte process is one whereby a limited film set may be extended to whatever, or wherever the director’s imagination dictates with the employment of a matte artist. In it’s most pure form, the artist would set up a large plate of clear glass in front of the motion picture camera upon which he would carefully paint in new scenery an ornate period ceiling, snow capped mountains, a Gothic castle or even an alien world.

Typecasting is a terrible fate to befall an actor. Many of them have suffered from it over the years, accepting role after role in similar films with similar plots and similar characters simply because they have no real alternative. However, in spite of the risks involved there are also those who subvert this association; those who have elevated themselves to near legendary status within their chosen genre. Their performances define it and are woven inextricably into its rich tapestry. Two such actors are pictured above and are the subject of this article – one, a silent and anonymous loner with no time for small talk and very direct methods of dealing with his adversaries, the other a straight talking, no – nonsense peacekeeper with a trademark southern drawl. Both are perhaps best known for their westerns, although they also directed, produced and starred in a variety of other films too including military epics and ‘unorthodox’ police procedurals.

We’ve all heard stories of “The Greatest Generation”, but what made them so great? Truthfully, Captain America: The First Avenger reaffirms our patriotic feelings of admiration and gratitude towards them, while perhaps answering that very question. Not only is this a great, fun superhero movie, it also hardly feels like one. Sure, it has the origins, the costumes, the gadgets, all of the prerequisites of a superhero film, but it’s the deft screenplay that makes every second feel like your grandmother is telling you a story about “the war” and how those boys did something special, while you’re eating her apple pie and drinking a glass of milk. Captain America: The First Avenger is more than a summer blockbuster, it’s a warm reminder of the American Spirit.

Surely, just because a guy wears a star-spangled suit doesn’t just make this a piece of Americana. The film earns it.

After years of ambiguous anti-war movies, HBO's TV epic gives audiences a familiar, clear-cut bad guy

When the first episode of Band Of Brothers, HBO's 10-part saga of a parachute infantry company's progress from D-Day to the German surrender and beyond, was broadcast on American television on 9 September, 2001, the United States had not participated in a full-scale, open-ended shooting war for 25 years, since the withdrawal from Vietnam. Episode two aired five days after the 9/11 attacks, and one suspects many Americans watched its depiction of the D-Day landings with a far greater sense of involvement and gravity than they otherwise might have.

The Pacific, made for HBO by the same team of Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, airs by contrast at a time when America is deeply involved in two distinct and socially divisive wars.

Band Of Brothers had an idealistic, uplifting side along with all the violence and bloodshed. In...