John Wayne _ The Man Behind the Myth - Michael Munn [120]
They finally had a weak story line in which Wayne, a gold prospector in Alaska, agrees to go and collect his partner’s sweetheart and bring her back. The problem is, his partner’s fiancée is already married, so Wayne brings his partner back a beautiful French girl.
Playing Wayne’s partner was Stewart Granger, who said, “Henry Hathaway was a sheer bully. I’d never come across his kind before. I couldn’t remember a bloody line in the first scene I had with Wayne because of the way Hathaway chewed me out while he also chewed on his cigar. The more I blew my lines, the more he’d growl and chew on his cigar and I just became so terrified that I lost all my confidence.
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I became terribly depressed. Duke just took it all in his stride. He said to me, ‘Aw, that’s just Henry’s way.’ I said, ‘This is supposed to be a comedy and we’re supposed to be having fun. But I just feel ill.’ Duke said, ‘You’re not a kid anymore. You’re a grown man. Pull yourself together. If you don’t like the way Henry talks to you, stand up to him.
Tell him whatever kind of bastard you think he is.’
“So I took Duke’s advice. I finally said to Hathaway, ‘You don’t like what I’m doing? Fine. How’s this then? I think you’re a lousy director and I think that picture you made in the desert with Sophia Loren was the most ridiculous thing I’d ever . . .’ I suddenly remembered that Duke was in that film, and there was silence. I could feel Hathaway’s eyes on me, and I could feel Duke’s eyes on me. Duke said, ‘You were saying?’ And Hathaway said, ‘I think he was going to say that film with Sophia Loren was the most ridiculous movie he’d ever seen.’ They were all deadpan, and I was sure I would be fired—or beaten up. Wayne jabbed a finger in my chest, and said, ‘Is that what you were gonna say?’ I decided to stand up to him and I straightened my back, jabbed him in the chest, and said defiantly, ‘That is exactly what I was going to say.’ And Duke jabbed me again and said, ‘That is exactly what that film was.’ He looked over at Hathaway, winked, and said, ‘Right, Henry?’ And Hathaway nodded, and Duke just started laughing so much, I was never so relieved in my life.
“But Hathaway still bullied me through that picture. Eventually I just ignored it and took every curse and bellow from him as direction. Thank God I was working with Duke on that picture. He made it fun.”
Not having quite so much fun, though, was Capucine, who played the French girl Wayne brings back for his partner. When I interviewed her at Pinewood Studios where she was filming Arabian Adventure, she told me, “I wish I could say I liked John Wayne very much. But I didn’t. I just happened to be someone who was in a John Wayne picture. He knew it, and he expected everyone else to know it. He was not the man I had expected. I was surprised he wore a toupee because he was losing his hair. And I thought he was supposed to be so tall, but he wore lifts in his boots.”
Actually, the subject of the “lifts” had come up before, and Wayne 21184_ch01.qxd 12/18/03 1:43 PM Page 226
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himself explained: “I’ve often heard people accuse me of being shorter than I am and trying to look bigger by having big heels on my boots. Of course I had big heels when I was in a Western. Cowboys had big heels. But this picture [ Brannigan] isn’t a cowboy picture.
Here, look at my shoes. Do you see any lifts?” I said I didn’t. He said,
“Do I seem