John Wayne _ The Man Behind the Myth - Michael Munn [179]
“Then Duke came on the set and he and Jimmy embraced. The last time they’d worked together was for John Ford. I knew that Ford shouted a lot at his actors, but I said, ‘Gentlemen, this scene is very 21184_ch01.qxd 12/18/03 1:43 PM Page 336
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touching. But I hope you agree we should play against that. If you play the scene very matter-of-factly and don’t allow the sentimentality to creep in, all the pain, the suffering, and the pathos will be there.’ And Duke said to Jimmy, ‘Don’t you hate it when the director’s right?’ And Jimmy said, ‘I just hate it.’
“They did their scenes perfectly. The only problem was that Jimmy was rather deaf so I found myself shouting directions at him. And Jimmy said, ‘What are you shouting for?’ Duke just laughed.
“When we came to film the final shoot-out in the saloon, I went over every shot with Duke so he’d know as much as I did. He didn’t have to be there as I set all the blocking with Richard Boone, Hugh O’Brian, William McKinney, and Charles Martin [who played the bartender].
“I finished all those shots by the end of the afternoon, and Duke stopped by so I could show him how I was going to film him entering the saloon. And it was obvious he wasn’t happy. He argued with me but he didn’t get loud or lose his temper, but I had to explain everything and justify my every decision. It seemed to me he wasn’t well. He had been coughing badly. There were times when he had to have an oxygen tank on the set. When he coughed, it wracked his whole body. It was really painful. But you never dared show him sympathy or he’d get mad.
“We shot the scene the way I’d explained and it was difficult for Duke, who spent a lot of time on the floor. I decided he’d had enough and said we’d do some pickup shots the next day. But the next day he didn’t show, and Mike Frankovich turned up and announced Duke was sick. I didn’t know—nobody knew—how long we’d be without Duke, so I shot the rest of the sequence without him, working out how I could insert all his shots when he was back.
“I finished the saloon scene, except for Duke’s shots, and went to work on scenes that I didn’t need Duke for. And then I got the news that the production was shutting down due to Duke’s illness. He’d been suffering from an ear infection, but he’d never complained about it. But it had become so bad he was in excruciating pain and he was ordered to stay in bed and pumped full of antibiotics. I was put on 21184_ch01.qxd 12/18/03 1:43 PM Page 337
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immediate suspension and was told the suspension would be lifted if I finished the film without Duke. Basically, I was told that legally I had to finish the picture if the studio told me to, whether Duke was there or not.
“We continued filming, using a double for Duke, but we were not going to get the sort of shots I wanted, and we weren’t going to get the shots of Books dying. I needed the shot where Books looks up at the boy [Ron Howard] who’s just shot the bartender in a futile effort to save Books’s life, and I wanted Books to show in his face that he’s glad when the boy is not going to become a shootist. And so Books dies. But without Duke, that would all be missing. And yet I had no choice but to do what the studio told me.
“Thank God Duke got better and returned to the studio. He looked pale but he was the same old John Wayne. I had a private talk with him, explaining how I had continued filming using a double. I assumed he knew that the studio had ordered me to work that way.
The more I explained about the scene, the angrier I could see him growing. But he hadn’t said a word.
“I said, ‘I’d like to reshoot the entire sequence now that you’re back.’
“He paused a moment, the way he does in his pictures, and said,
‘Really?’
“I asked him if he’d like to see everything we’d shot and if there’s anything he doesn’t like, we’d reshoot it. But he said nothing. I said,
‘Look, Duke, surely you knew what we were doing? It wasn