Posted on 12/25/2023 1:24:03 PM PST by Fai Mao
This funny scene makes this one of the best Christmas movies of all time.
John Wayne Lee Marvin Caesar Romero Elizabeth Allen
Lee Marvin was a bad ass in WWII, the real deal. Wayne not so much.
Wayne had a bad knee from a football injury. A legitimate reason. The real life army wouldn’t have wanted him. The two men, despite political differences were good friends.
Of course, Marvin was 17 years younger than Wayne who was already 35 when the war started.
Lee Marvin was for-real tough as was Eddie Albert, Jack Palance, Charles Bronson, Jimmy Stewart and many others. The Duke served our nation by inspiring generations to join the military through his many roles as a serviceman with a deep patriotic streak.
It's speculated he got a harmful dose of radiation filming a bad movie in the Nevada desert when nuke tests were common. But, then again, he was a notorious chain smoker. Flip a coin.
please, the Duke did far more for the war effort here than he ever could have done being just another trigger puller...
John Wayne was in his mid-30s, almost past military age, when WWII broke out. Lee Marvin was in his late teens.
I will have to see that movie. John Wayne was far and away the greatest actor of all time.
The Duke was also in the ultimate Christmas Western…The Three Godfathers.
The reason I wanted to live on a tropical island was that movie
One of my favorite movies.
Wonderful scenery.
Great camera work.
OK main plot.
Mediocre love story.
I love this movie.
Agree on all. And yep, no way that movie could be made today.
“Wayne had a bad knee from a football injury. A legitimate reason. The real life army wouldn’t have wanted him.”
He wasn’t draft age and the Gov’t was under no obligation to require his services. As such he was under an ironclad contract and the studio wasn’t about to let those box office sales go.
John Wayne - Donovan’s Reef 1963 The Bar Fight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCEw2uKH2hM
Good family fun when it was shown on the Saturday Night Movie time slot.
It is really one of Wayne’s better movies
Lee Marvin
Acclaimed star of Cat Ballou and The Dirty Dozen, was most proud of his service as a Marine in World War II.
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/lee-marvin/
I think there is more to that story than this and he was bullied quite a bit by Director John Ford for not serving in anywhere. Ford actually was at Midway filming something as a Navy Captain and Volunteer and was in a lot of hot areas during the war. I would have to look up the story but there are a lot of things to it.
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