I recently watched Dark Command and according to my usual custom I was curious to find what others had to say about it. Can anyone enlighten me as to what this guy (a reviewer at IMDb) is trying to say? Do you feel that JW had an unnatural speech pattern? I know it was unique and distinctive, along with his voice, but I don't think of it as unnatural. Is it because I'm so used to it?

"John Wayne ruined the western for me. The whole idea of the western until Leone was in constant repetition, walking the same route every time so that subtleties could be emphasized. Since everything else was given, we could focus on the smallest things.

Real art in moviemaking is in picking the right things. Real art in moviewatching is recognizing and working with those smallest things. At just this time, John Ford counseled Wayne in developing his random cadence: a few words, then a pause in an unexpected spot before continuing.

It first appeared in `Stagecoach.' It was used in place of interesting subtleties and was remarkably successful - so much so that all news announcers employ it to make their reading sound interesting. News is now a bad western.

This film is the last where John Wayne tried real acting, the kind that uses real language patterns.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life."

I guess it was "unnatural" in terms that he really wasn't born with - it's part of the image he created. ("I started to work on this Wayne thing..")
But it wasn't developed by the time of Stagecoach, and it was Wayne's own invention.

He said later in interviews he tried to do something with the bad lines they threw at him in the quickie westerns. So he developed that little pause, like in: "I'm going to... town". He's holding the audience there even though the outcome isn't that interesting. (I think he explained in his Playboy-interview in 1971). And he had to sometimes say long monologes, like real bad dialogue which is when you make a character explain to the audience what's happening (to save time), like: We have to look out for Jim and his gang because they are after Polly's land because they think there's gold in it because... blabla. Anyway, he used it from then on. And to good effect, in my opinion.

What this fella says in his review is a little unfair. Leone isn't the great innovator of the western. I like what he did, but anyhow, I think he gets overestimated. It's always people who've never seen Shane or Yellow Ribbon tend to hail Once Upon A Time in the West as THE greatest western.

I read where Olive and Harry Carey had a lot to do with JW's speech pattern. They coached him to steal sceens.

Man, there is just so much to learn about Duke. I feel like I'm just starting to scratch the surface. I've never really seen him outside of a film - did he talk quite a bit differently when he was on the Tonight Show or in other more natural contexts? I'm just interested in where the difference between who he was and the image he created lies... like the walk, for example, or the stance (hands on hips, hips cocked jauntily to one side)... And if through projecting this image on screen those distinctive mannerisms began to carry over into his daily offscreen life. I mean, if you saw him on the street did he still have that unmistakeable swaying gait?

I suppose part of the reason for the little pause that you mention, Roland, was also to give himself more screen time. ;-) On the Sands of Iwo Jima disc one of the supporting players mentions how Duke taught him to make an exit; he said you should always put in some sort of extra movement just before you exit because it gives you an extra ten frames or so of screen time. Haha!

Whatever he did, he did it well, because he's got more on-screen presence and scene-stealing tendencies than just about anyone else I can think of.

Don't know about the scene-stealing... it's certainly true that whenever he entered a scene, all eyes are on him. But that's got to do with charisma, the quality so few had, like Bogart, Cooper or McQueen. All his co-workers always state he was rather gracious with their screen-time, throwing them lines, etc. So quite the contrary to a scene-stealer. Then Wayne always had to play the straight man, for instance in Quiet Man: he's practically surrounded by scene-stealers! And he claimed himself after that it had been very hard to play straight while everybody else got away with those little bits of business that attracts the eye of the viewer.

You can go with those little bits of informations from the people who knew him or CLAIM they knew him well enough. For everybody tells a different story. I read an article about the filming of Back to Bataan, written by the author of the film: He once maddened Wayne enough to jump-start him so "he even forgot his famous walk".

Then the biographers say:
a) he got coached into the walk by Yak Cannutt
B) " by John Ford
c) the most common version: by Paul Fix.
d) he inherited it from his dad

If you look at all those westerns from the 30s you'll see the development yourself: The walking, the talking, they shape up with every other picture. So in my opinon it was a matter of TRAINING.

Right. Sorry. I shouldn't have framed it that way. I meant to say that he was a scene-stealer because your eyes instantly go to him, not because he deliberately wanted to take the scene. Hope I've redeemed myself.

Didn't want to make you feel sorry!!
In the truest sense of the word, Wayne was a scene-stealer - only he didn't do it on purpose. I think it's Howard Hawks who said whoever made a picture with Wayne had to look for a co-star he didn't literally blow off the screen.

Originally posted by itdo@Oct 7 2003, 11:07 AM
The biographers say:
a) he got coached into the walk by Yak Cannutt
B) " by John Ford
c) the most common version: by Paul Fix.
d) he inherited it from his dad
If you look at all those westerns from the 30s you'll see the development yourself: The walking, the talking, they shape up with every other picture. So in my opinon it was a matter of TRAINING.
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Pulling from the archives - I believe I read - it has been some years ago and I don't remember the source - where Cannutt taught the Duke this walk by basically turning in the toes when moving forward. It seems to work.
Cheers - Jay ^_^

Hi

Wayne explained his manner of talking to James Caan saying that if you are a star you can get away with a slight pause in your speaking as no director will tell you not to and while you are having that slight pause all eyes are on you.

As for scene stealing Maureen O'Hara compared Wayne with Stewart saying that while Wayne wouldn't deliberately give a scene away he would let his co star earn the scene and have, unlike Stewart, no problem if she did.

When it came to scene stealers Wayne made a couple of pictures with the biggest scene stealer of them all Strother Martin and found it highly amusing to watch him in action.


Regards

Arthur

Hi Jay

I think it was Paul Fix who taught Duke how to walk that way. Did Duke and Yakama Cannutt not develop the fight scene on film?

Emmanuel. :huh:

Hi Emmanuel

Prior to the Monogram days actors engaged in a fist fight would slap each other on the shoulders and it looked ridiculous. You are right in saying that Yak and Duke developed the fist fight to arealistic fine art.

Regards

Arthur

Originally posted by Emmanuel@Apr 19 2005, 09:05 AM
Hi Jay
I think it was Paul Fix who taught Duke how to walk that way. Did Duke and Yakama Cannutt not develop the fight scene on film?
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Hi Emmanuel -
Now that you mention it, yes, it was Paul Fix and not Yakama that coached JW on the walk. And the barroom brawl (or whatever you want to call it) was developed by the Duke and Yakama. From that point on, most movie fights looked a lot more realistic.
Cheers - Jay :D