John Wayne _ The Man Behind the Myth - Michael Munn [124]
Finishing The Comancheros in mid-July 1961, Wayne collected his $2 million from Fox. He also discovered that Pilar was pregnant.
She had waited a while before telling him because, since the birth of Aissa, Pilar had suffered three heartbreaking miscarriages. This pregnancy seemed fine.
It was also time to go to work on The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance at Paramount. Pilar was of the opinion that he was working too hard and too often, and so was his agent Charles Feldman, who wrote to him, saying, “I am very concerned about you, Duke, and your not getting a holiday and working week after week practically for the past year.”
On reflection, Duke had to agree: “I was scared to death that I would never have financial security again, and I put that before all else, even though I was doing it for the good of all my family. I lost sight of what’s really important in life. And I’ve paid the price for it.”
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He was referring to the fact that by 1974 he and Pilar had separated, something I was completely oblivious to at the time.
John Ford had agreed to cast Lee Marvin as Liberty Valance, and Wayne was cast as tough rancher Tom Doniphon. But it was really only a secondary role. The real starring role, that of mild-mannered lawyer Ranse Stoddard, was given to James Stewart who had only recently worked for Ford—for the first time—on Two Rode Together.
The bulk of the film was told in flashback, with the film opening with Senator Stoddard and his wife, played by Vera Miles, arriving in Shinbone for the funeral of Doniphon. Stoddard had helped to bring law and order to the frontier town and became famous as the man who shot brutal gunman Liberty Valance. Stoddard proceeds to tell the truth about what really happened all those years ago and only toward the end of the film does he reveal that it was Doniphon who shot Liberty Valance. The local newspaper editor, played by Edmond O’Brien, decided not to run the story he has just heard, stating, “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is curiously highly rated as one of Ford’s greatest Westerns, with critics reading all kinds of nuances into the film. They talk about its claustrophobic atmosphere, created by the film being virtually entirely shot on Paramount’s soundstages, and how the black-and-white photography created a dark and oppressive mood. If John Ford wanted the critics to think that, he was simply being true to the credo in which he believed in real life: to only ever print the legend.
William Clothier told me, “There was one reason and one reason only why the film was shot in black and white and on Paramount’s soundstages. Paramount was cutting costs. Otherwise we would have been in Monument Valley or Bracketville and we would have had color stock. Ford had to accept those terms or not make the film.
He accepted the terms, but when the time came to start work on it, he had already lost interest. He was in a foul mood, creating tension on the set between actors, treating Duke worse than he ever did, just being a real son of a bitch.”
John Wayne admitted it wasn’t a happy experience. “I was just 21184_ch01.qxd 12/18/03 1:43 PM Page 233
WORKING TWENTY YEARS FOR NOTHING
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wandering around while Jimmy Stewart and Lee Marvin had all the good scenes. I was a background prop almost, doing little for the story but to be the one who shoots Valance and then keeps it secret so the townsfolk’ll think it was Jimmy. I didn’t mind playing second fiddle for a change, but I had nothing to go on. I’d ask Pappy and he’d . . . well, he was pretty unhappy the whole time, and he didn’t have a lot of advice for me.”
Lee Van Cleef, who played one of Liberty Valance’s thugs, put it more bluntly. “Ford was a complete bastard to Wayne. He’d abuse him and swear at him and call him a ‘goddamn lousy actor.’ Ford just seemed intent on humiliating the guy who got him the