A look back at “The Heroic Charge”, John Ford’s famous western broadcast this evening on Arte, and on how John Wayne ended up inheriting the main role.
Broadcast this evening on Arte, The Heroic Charge marks one of the many collaborations between two true legends of the western: director John Ford and the superstar of the genre in the 1940s, John Wayne.
For the occasion, the latter embodies Captain Nathan Brittles, a cavalry officer whose retirement is approaching, and who tries by all means to prevent a bloody battle against a coalition of Indian tribes.
Even if John Ford had already offered several roles to John Wayne before, notably in The Fantastic Ride or The Massacre of Fort Apache, he had initially shown himself very hostile to the idea of entrusting him with the headlining of this new western.
The reason for this reluctance: the age of the actor, who was then in his forties, about twenty years younger than the character.
RKO
I didn’t know that bastard could play!
According to a documentary broadcast on TCM, it was upon discovering Wayne’s performance in Howard Hawks’ Red River, released a year earlier, that Ford finally decided to call on him. “I didn’t know that bastard could play!”he would have said before giving him the role.
According to Duke: The Life and Image of John Waynea work by Ronald L. Davis, the director was even so won over by Wayne’s performance that he offered him a cake at the end of the shoot accompanied by a note: “Now you’re an actor.”
After The Heroic Charge, John Ford and John Wayne will still tour together on many occasions.
(Re)discover the trailer for “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”, one of their most famous collaborations…
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