Whenever an actor has a new movie to promote, they’re virtually obligated to pretend it’s the best thing they’ve ever been, even if they know fine well that they’re lying through their teeth. That wasn’t quite the case with one mid-career John Wayne effort, but he grew to like it less and less with the passage of time.
‘The Duke’ wasn’t above criticising his own work if it didn’t meet the standards he’d tried to live his professional life by, especially when they took him so far out of his comfort zone that he was ready to wash his hands of this whole acting business altogether and find a different line of work.
Of course, like every major star and storied thespian, there are plenty of features he remained proud of. On the other hand, there were others that he didn’t enjoy making that turned out to be among the best entries in his filmography, while there was the occasional film he didn’t have any issues with during production before souring on them when viewing them through a retrospective lens.
Once such case in point Edward Ludwig’s 1948 adventure Wake of the Red Witch, which partnered Wayne up with Gail Russell in a yarn that saw ‘The Duke’ playing the captain of the titular ship, who ends up stranded on a remote island with a potential love interest for company when a bitter feud with his old boss leads to seafaring sabotage.
Nobody would call Captain Ralls the greatest or most memorable character ‘The Duke’ ever played, and that extends to the man himself. Wayne confessed that it was a rather dull part for him to play, but beyond his performative issues with the picture, he was left to rue the inevitable ravages of time if he could even bring himself to revisit the movie without falling asleep.
When asked in his 70s if he was ever drawn to watching his older star vehicles, Wayne admitted he sometimes gets caught up in the nostalgia of it all. “Occasionally,” he confessed. “When there’s a real old movie like Wake of the Red Witch on the other night. I looked at that until I fall asleep.”
Unfortunately, the downside was that he wasn’t a huge fan of what he saw. “It’s kind of irritating to see,” he said. “I was a good-looking 40-year-old man, and suddenly, I can look over here, and there’s this 71-year-old. You kind of think, ‘God, it was pretty wonderful then.’”
Movie stars can be a vainglorious bunch at the best of times, and for an actor who took such pride in their persona, personality, and command of the screen, Wake of the Red Witch cut Wayne deeply for the sole reason that it reminded him of the youthful and wide-eyed guy he used to be. That’s if he could keep his eyes open long enough to make it to the end credits.