John Wayne _ The Man Behind the Myth - Michael Munn [82]
“The biggest problem with working with Duke was that he was grumpy a lot of the time and would snap at anyone. Every morning he would just scream and destroy somebody, like the time he lost his temper with Lee Aaker who played my son, Johnny. Lee was just a kid and he made mistakes in several scenes, blowing his lines or opening a door at the wrong time, and Wayne would stalk around the set saying, ‘What are we going to do about that goddamn kid?’
“Then Wayne would calm down and apologize, but poor Lee became quite terrified.
“But Duke never yelled at me. If he got bad tempered or hungover, he’d get sarcastic to me about New York and Stanislavsky.
There were times when I was on the point of saying that I’d had enough and telling him what to do with his cowboy picture when he’d suddenly calm down and say, ‘Aw, Geraldine, you’re not mad at the old Duke, are you?’ And I’d say, ‘No,’ and when I’d get back to my hotel I’d say to myself, ‘I’m so stupid. I’m the same as all the others. I get taken in by that charm. That tremendous charm.’ In a funny way, I just loved him. He was John Wayne, on screen and off.
“When he was charming, he was charming. And for that reason, I loved him. Everyone did. They’d all do anything for him, because even when he lost his temper, he would later tell you how sorry he was. He didn’t like hurting anyone. He wasn’t like John Ford. If Wayne was cruel at times, he didn’t do it for effect. He was just under so much pressure. But you knew where you stood with him because he hated hypocrisy. And he was so loyal to the people who worked for him.
“One evening, it was getting late, and we were shooting a scene in a dried-up lake when a terrible storm blew in. Mr. Farrow and Mr.
Fellows were quick to get the American cast and crew out of the lake bed before it flooded, but they left the Mexican crew to clear all the equipment. By the middle of the night all the Americans were tucked up nice and warm in the motel, and Duke started worrying 21184_ch01.qxd 12/18/03 1:43 PM Page 154
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about the Mexicans because they were camped outside and were cold and wet. So Duke got the caterer up out of bed and they made sandwiches and took them out to the Mexicans with coffee and tequila, and Duke spent the rest of the night outside with them, eating, drinking, and telling stories. He was just wonderful that way.
He had great leadership qualities which is why people just revered him. He had loyalty to those who were loyal to him.
“He loved to swear. Oh, the colorful language! And he was fond of jokes. He would always listen to someone who had a joke to tell, and he had the most spontaneous, warmest, most wonderful laugh.
“And with the boots and the hat he was suddenly seven feet tall.
He looked like he was a part of the landscape.”
There were other problems to deal with during the making of Hondo that had nothing to do with the film. Yakima Canutt, who did not work on the picture, said to me, “Do you know the story about detectives sent by Chata to Camargo where John was filming Hondo?” I didn’t, so Canutt explained: “When the local police found out that there were strangers asking questions about Wayne, they asked John if he wanted these characters ‘taken care of’—which meant permanent disposal, if you know what I mean. John told them,
‘Just lock them up for a while, and then make them leave the country.’ The story was true, but not all the investigators were working for Chata. I learned from my own undercover boys that some of the investigators were Communists out to get Wayne. This time they were not Russians, but American citizens.
“I got in touch with John and told him that there were Communists heading his way, and those were the men the police were ready and able to dispose of. When Duke told the police to make sure they left the country, he didn’t just mean they should get them out of Mexico.
He meant they should