Posted on 09/14/2005 4:29:42 AM PDT by fredhead
What are the best and worst John Wayne movies?
What are the best and worst Humphrey Bogart movies?
DARK PASSAGE (1947).
And hard though it is to pick my favorite Bogart (my fave Wayne is SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON), mention should be made of IN A LONELY PLACE
John Wayne?
I never liked "The Cowboys."
But my favorite movie of all time is "Sons of Katie Elder"
Bogie - maybe not his very worst movie but for my money To Have and Have Not --- sucked.
Why?
1. The title implies a relationship to the Hemingway book that is non-existent.
2. It looks like they were trying to remake Casablanca and failed, right down to the gather round the piano scenes.
3. Lauren Bacall may have been hot but she's trying waaaay too hard.
4. The plot makes no sense (to me).
5. Nothing in it is believable and that goes for all of the characters.
It's hard to re-catch lightning in a bottle and that's what this movie tried to do.
The Bogie film I want the most was only recently released on DVD.
The Petrified Forest, 1936, with Bette Davis and Leslie Howard
That was Dark Passage, the third of the 4 he made with Lauren Bacall. The other three were, To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, and Key Largo (great movie with this hurricane swirling off the coast).
Sons of Katie Elder - Duke made that 6 weeks after having lung cancer surgery. The director would say cut and Duke would have to suck on an oxygen mask.
"I adjourn this trial to the wreck of the Southern Cross."
I don't think it is possible there is a John Wayne movie worse that one.
Best of Duke = Sands of Iwo Jima
Casablan(C)a
I'll have to get my hands on that one, it was a great movie.
Bogie made 80 movies in his career, of which I have close to 75 on VHS. I only have a couple on DVD, and of the others I don't have, all but one are small parts he played in the early thirties BEFORE "The Petrified Forest" (great movie, Bogie's portrayal of Duke Mantee was described as evil personified). The one I can't find is his last movie, "The Harder They Fall", the only movie he made in 1956.
Leslie Howard got Bogie the role in "The Petrified Forest". They had performed together in the play on Broadway. Howard told Jack Warner, "No Bogart, no Howard". Warner wanted Eedward G. Robinson to play Mantee but wanted Howard more.
BTW, when Bogie and Bacall's daughter was born, they named her Leslie Howard Bogart. Their son was named Steven Humphrey Bogart, Steve after Bogie's character in "To Have and Have Not", the movie during the filming of that Bogie and Bacall fell in love.
"Reap the Wild Wind" was directed but the great Cecil B. DeMille.
Hard to pick a favorite - like trying to choose between my children - here are a few that I like for each:
Bogart:
Maltese Falcon
The Big Sleep
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Duke:
True Grit
Hondo
Have to get Hondo. It was originally shot in 3-D, but was a flop at the theaters in that format. It was also the first movie based on a novel by the late great author, Louis L'Amour.
Major John Wayne fan here. Favorite would have to be Big Jake. Didn't care for the real early ones. Another fave, Sons Of Katie Elder.
The scene with the Duke battling the Octopus is laugh-out-loud comical.
There were better dramatic courtroom scenes in 'Cop Rock.'
Yeah, the octopus scene is about as bad as the giant squid battle with Kirk Douglas in Disney's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea".
I can't pick a favorite Duke movie, I love so many of them. Always get a laugh out of McLintock!, love to see him ride down the bad guys in True Grit, enjoy the interaction with Kirk Douglas in The War Wagon. Then there's Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Sands of Iwo Jima, anything with Maureen O'Hara, I could go on forever. Duke was great.
John Wayne's best: "The Searchers". It's my favorite western.
John Wayne's worst: A tie between "The Conquerer" and "Jet Pilot."
I don't know what this says about me, but I kind of like the Singin' Sandy movies and The Three Mesquiteers, especially when they have Gabby Hayes and Yakima Canutt as co-stars.
Bogart's best: "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre."
If there's a bad bogart movie, I haven't seen it.
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