John Wayne _ The Man Behind the Myth - Michael Munn [106]
John Ford wasn’t totally satisfied with the script. According to William H. Clothier, the film’s director of photography, “Ford liked the story but he said to me, ‘If they think I’m gonna make their goddamn script, they’re wrong. There are a lot of things in it I don’t like.’ He didn’t like the ending which had the Union troops led by Wayne returning from their mission in triumph. Ford wanted an ending which reflected the pain of war. So he demanded they change the ending so it was more downbeat.
“It was a difficult picture to make all round. Pilar had become addicted to sleeping pills and Duke insisted she join him on location so he could keep an eye on her. Before they left home, she had run out of pills and after a day without them she got terrible withdrawal symptoms. Her doctor wanted to put her in a private sanatorium for people with drink and drug problems. But Duke wanted her in Louisiana and said he’d be with her as much as he could. So she arrived in Alexandria where we were based with little Aissa and a couple of maids.
“Ford was also battling alcoholism, and he was on the wagon, and he was especially bad tempered. And because he couldn’t drink, he ordered Duke and Bill [Holden] not to drink. But Bill ignored him.
He never turned up late for work, though, and he was never drunk on the set.”
William Holden hadn’t worked with Ford before, and he swore he never would again after The Horse Soldiers. During an interview I 21184_ch01.qxd 12/18/03 1:43 PM Page 198
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conducted with him in London on location for Damien: Omen II, he said, “Ford treated Duke badly because Ford was on the wagon and he took it out on Duke and wouldn’t let him have a drink. He also told me I couldn’t drink. So I found myself lodgings in Shreveport where Ford couldn’t stop me having a drink after work.
“I liked Duke a lot. I wasn’t sure how we’d get on, but he was a really nice guy. But I was pretty disgusted with the way Ford treated him. Ford would yell at him and treat him like he was a newcomer.
I said to Duke, ‘Why do you let that old bastard treat you like that?’
He said, ‘Aw, Bill, that’s just his way of making sure I give him a good performance.’ I said, ‘Duke, you’ve been at this longer than me. You got nominated for an Oscar, didn’t you?’ He said, ‘Yeah!’
I said, ‘And what film was that for?’ Of course I knew the answer.
Sands of Iwo Jima. I said to Duke, ‘Did Ford get a good performance out of you for that?’ He said, ‘Ford didn’t direct Iwo Jima.’ I said,
‘That’s what I mean.’ But Duke would just do anything for Ford, and I admired his loyalty. But I wasn’t having Ford talk to me that way.
I told him. I said, ‘Jack, I’ll sweat blood to give you a good performance, but if you ever talk to me that way you talk to Duke, I’ll walk off and I won’t come back.’ Ford said, ‘Oh Bill, I don’t need to force a good performance out of you. I saw Sunset Boulevard.
You’re twice the actor Duke is. He needs me to bully him.’ I couldn’t believe it. I never worked for Ford again. I never worked with Duke again, either, but that’s just because nothing came along that suited us both.
“Marty Rackin and I felt sorry for Duke, who really wanted to have a drink. So Marty and I came up with a plan to get him away from Ford for a whole day. Marty told Ford that Duke’s teeth looked off color in the early rushes and they needed to be cleaned. We made an appointment for Duke with a dentist in Shreveport, drove him there so he could have his teeth cleaned, and then we spent the day drinking.”
Clothier recalled, “When Ford found out, he was furious. He went into one of the worst tantrums I’ve ever seen. You’d think Duke had broken all Ten Commandments. Ford would go sneaking into Duke’s room looking for bottles.”
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Pilar was having trying to go