John Wayne _ The Man Behind the Myth - Michael Munn [89]
That was what Van Cleef told me in 1980. He never suffered from cancer, and died from a heart attack in 1989.
The subject of cancer was, at times, a difficult one for Wayne to discuss. At the time I met him in 1974, he had recovered from lung cancer in 1964 against the odds. He was cagey about his opinion that his lung cancer was brought on by working in Utah on The Conqueror, and made a point of defending the testing of nuclear bombs. “All I can tell you is that I smoked—and I smoked too much. So did Dick Powell, so did Susan Hayward, so did Pedro
[Armendariz], and I guess you could say that in those days at least fifty percent of people smoked, probably more, and those who did smoke and didn’t get cancer were lucky.
“As for testing nuclear weapons, we had to. Russia had developed its own atom bomb and when Stalin was alive he was mad enough to threaten the Western world with nuclear war. It became a stalemate, and that’s what has kept peace in the world. Both the Korean War and the Vietnam War could easily have escalated into the Third World War and you and I wouldn’t be sitting here having a pleasant time. It’s that fear of nuclear war that has created stability, such as it is, in the world.
“But, contrary to what people might think, I’m no politician, and I’m no military strategist. I make movies, and when I have something to say, I say it through my pictures.”
I asked him what the message was in The Conqueror. He said,
“The message is, don’t make an ass of yourself by trying to play parts you’re not suited to. But I didn’t learn that lesson. I still manage to make an ass of myself every now and then.”
Filming The Conqueror ended in August 1954 but, like Hughes’s Jet Pilot, it was withheld from distribution while Hughes endlessly tinkered with it, reediting it again and again, and still ending up with a dreadful picture that remained an embarrassment to Wayne.
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The Bloody Battle of
Burbank
In September 1954, Wayne was finally able to keep Jack Warner happy by making The Sea Chase, produced and directed by John Farrow. Wayne played an anti-Nazi German sea captain (minus any German accent) who, upon hearing the news that the Second World War has erupted, tries to get his ship from Australia back to Germany with the intention of helping to overthrow Hitler. While in Australia, he takes on an unexpected passenger in the guise of Lana Turner who turns out to be a German spy. Although Wayne does not support the Nazis, his ship is nevertheless chased all the way home by the British and, in between bouts of action, Wayne and Turner fall for each other. Although it was not one of Wayne’s own productions, he had considerable muscle now even at the big studios, and he was able to secure roles for his friends Paul Fix and James Arness. He also persuaded Warner Bros. to hire director of photography William H.
Clothier, and stuntman Cliff Lyons as second-unit director.
Among the male-dominated cast was Claude Akins who, like Lee Van Cleef, was one of those American actors who worked regularly in action films, especially Westerns, and was bound to turn up in one or two of Wayne’s films.
During a visit to London in 1980, when I was able to interview 167
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him, Akins told me, “I didn’t really connect with Wayne. But I liked him. There wasn’t really much to dislike. I guess I didn’t seek his approval, which some actors would do because it was well-known that he liked to have his pals in his films and if you clicked with Duke, you knew you’d always be working. But I was doing okay anyway. So our relationship was cordial, professional, sometimes we had laughs, but I didn’t try to break into his circle, and he didn’t invite me. I think that’s the way it should be because if you become dependent on one major movie star for work, if that star falls, you go down with him. I didn’t know John Wayne was going to become such a legend, but even if I did, I would have still been the same.”
Paul Fix recalled,