John Wayne _ The Man Behind the Myth - Michael Munn [69]
Paul Fix, who played one of the heavies, said, “Poor Duke really had a rough time with Herbert Yates over that one. Yates was insisting that Wayne use Vera Ralston again, and he said, ‘Damn it, Herbert, I know you love the gal, but she just can’t act.’ Well, there was an almighty argument, but Yates won because all he had to do was wave Duke’s contract in his face and say, ‘You wanna produce this picture or not?’ And Duke wanted to get the film made because he was trying to persuade Yates into letting him make The Alamo at Republic. He had also reached the stage where he wanted to work off his contract at Republic, so he had to cast Vera, who was a really nice lady, but, boy, she was just a disaster.
“Duke said to me, ‘Never mind. Nobody’s gonna remember Vera in the film because all they’re gonna remember is Oliver Hardy and me doing our comedy scenes, and they’ll remember the battle, but they won’t remember Vera because she’ll soon be forgotten.’ And he was right—sort of. People remember Vera because she was in Duke’s films and because she was a disaster.”
Wayne told me, “I was always mad at Yates when he made me use 21184_ch01.qxd 12/18/03 1:43 PM Page 129
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Vera in that film because I think we lost the chance to have one damn fine picture.”
Producing and acting in the film took its toll on Wayne. Now in his forties, he was less agile and could do fewer stunts. He found a good stuntman in Chuck Roberson who doubled Wayne for the first time in The Fighting Kentuckian, and remained his stunt double for the rest of Wayne’s life. Duke also gave Roberson small speaking roles in many of his films.
Wayne’s next at Republic turned out to be the biggest film—and probably the most successful—that studio ever made. It was Sands of Iwo Jima. The producer of the film, Edmund Grainger, had not originally thought to cast Wayne as the tough marine, Sergeant Stryker. Herbert Yates had agreed to make the film for $200,000, but Grainger argued that it would cost more to make the film as realistic as he hoped it would be. He went to his own father, Jim Grainger, who was head of sales at Republic, and got him to put pressure on Yates who finally caved in and put the budget at $1
million—but only if Edmund Grainger would cast John Wayne in the star role.
At first, Wayne was unsure about the film: “People had had enough of the war, and I felt that maybe they weren’t ready for another war picture. But this one had class. It was written by Harry Brown, and I had Jimmy Grant come in and tweak it here and there, and the director, Allan Dwan, was a fine director. In fact, after Ford and Hawks, I’d probably place Hathaway and Dwan as the best directors I ever worked with.”
Wayne was also encouraged to do the film because he was paid a handsome $180,000 plus 10 percent of the profits. But he admitted that he got far more from that film than the money.
“The role itself was such a good one—a great one for me. The picture was made with much more realism than many other war films, and Grainger had managed to get real marines to play marines, so there was none of the phoniness you sometimes get with extras trying to play soldiers.”
Wayne prepared for his role by spending time at Camp Pendleton, talking to marines, especially the sergeants. John Agar, who was in the film, recalled, “The role of Sergeant Stryker was perfect for Duke.
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I think that had a lot to do with the way James Grant rewrote much of his dialogue and helped develop the character into someone with real dimension to it. Our director, Allan Dwan, really got the best from Duke, which is why he was Oscar nominated for the first time.”
Filming took place in San Diego, and Wayne took Chata with