John Wayne Western's ending changed after tragic death left director 'devastated' | Movie

In 1959, John Wayne teamed up with longtime collaborator and fellow Hollywood conservative John Ford on what would be the filmmaker’s only full-length film about the American Civil War.

Duke and his The Horse Soldiers co-star William Holden each negotiated a whopping $775,000 (nearly $8 million today), plus 20 percent of the overall profits.

It was an unheard of sum at the time, but there would be nothing of the latter to share as the film was a box office bomb with a “lackluster” response from critics and audiences. What made this failure even more painful was how incredibly difficult the film was to make.

Not only were Holden and Ford constantly arguing, but there were also cost overruns, serious injuries and even a tragic death. All the while, the alcoholic director had been forced by his doctor to become sober or risk dying from the side effects of his heavy drinking.

This made the notoriously temperamental and uncompromising filmmaker all the more unbearable for Wayne, who was at his wit’s end.

Ford, who infamously pushed his actors for better performances (including constantly insulting Wayne for not serving in World War II) was even harsher on everyone than usual. Although Wayne didn’t have to stop drinking, Ford asked Duke to do the same on the set of The Horse Soldiers. Eventually, the star begged producer Martin Rackin to take her away from the director he called Pappy for a short while.

The producer agreed, outright lying to Ford by saying that Wayne and Holden’s teeth were yellow on the film and therefore had to be whitened in New Orleans. As a result, the three spent a drunken evening in the Crescent City, returning to the set of an enraged Ford who discovered through his spies how many bars they had visited. Wayne certainly needed an escape during filming due to the personal crisis he was facing with his wife Pilar.

Pilar had become addicted to barbiturates, but Wayne had refused to admit her to a private sanitarium, thinking he could help her overcome it there in Louisiana. However, during filming, his wife began to hallucinate and even cut her wrists with a razor. At this point, Duke realized he would have to admit her to the hospital in Encino, California. Incredibly, this incident was not reported in the newspapers.

Meanwhile, on the set of The Horse Soldiers, three actors, including Ford’s son Patrick, suffered broken legs. But the ultimate tragedy occurred during the filming of the film’s climactic battle scene.

Veteran stuntman Fred Kennedy performed a horse fall for the film, but broke his neck and died during the attempt. According to biographer Joseph Malham: “Ford was completely devastated (as he) felt deeply responsible for the lives of the men who served under him. » Following the tragic accident, filming was immediately halted and brought back to Hollywood. At this point, the filmmaker had completely lost interest in filming the scripted ending with Wayne’s character, Colonel John Marlowe, and his forces arriving in Baton Rouge. In the end, he simply concluded The Horse Soldiers with the leader’s farewell to Constance Towers’ Hannah Hunter before crossing and blowing up a bridge to stop the Confederate advance.

Despite the villainous sides of Ford’s character, he was way ahead of his time in defending black actors in the segregated South where they were filming the film.

Ford had cast tennis champion Althea Gibson as Lukey to help attract African-American viewers to see The Horse Soldiers. However, his dialogue was written in an offensive and stereotypical “Negro” dialect. As a result, she claimed to the director that she would not deliver the lines as written. Despite the filmmaker’s usual intransigence towards the demands of his actors, he accepted and the script was modified. Additionally, Ford also ensured that black extras on location in Louisiana and Mississippi were paid the same as white extras, which angered members of segregated states.