John Wayne Once Revealed The Worst Western He Starred In

No movie star ever had a better sense of what their audiences wanted, and how to deliver it, than John Wayne. From his breakout performance in John Ford's 1939 masterpiece "Stagecoach" onward, Wayne was considered one of Hollywood's surest box office bets due to his knack for making, generally, Westerns or war pictures that had a little more oomph in the scripting and directing departments. Obviously, it helped that two of his era's greatest filmmakers, John Ford and Howard Hawks, were frequent collaborators, but Wayne identified other directors and writers who could work efficiently and proficiently on programmers that riffed on themes near and dear to the Duke's heart (e.g. family, patriotism, and rugged individualism).

Were the critics always impressed with Wayne's output? Absolutely not. Fortunately, the feeling was mutual. As Wayne once said of critics, "When people say a John Wayne picture got bad reviews, I always wonder if they know it's a redundant sentence, but hell, I don't care. People like my pictures and that's all that counts."

Wayne's bond with the moviegoing public seemed unshakable until the 1960s, when Baby Boomers began to reject his old-fashioned jingoism and retrograde views of other cultures. Though most of his films still managed to turn a profit, younger audiences were far more excited about the explosion of convention-bending Spaghetti Westerns. Finally, as the 1970s set in, Wayne was no longer a dependable draw, and, perhaps most stingingly to the Duke, the movies were starting to feel like retreads of retreads. It ultimately got to the point where he could no longer deny the dip in quality, and, being the outspoken sort, had to say something about it.

Directed by his frequent collaborator Andrew V. McLaglen, "Cahill U.S. Marshal" cast the then 66-year-old Wayne as a long-in-the-tooth lawman whose very young sons (they're 17 and 12) help enable a bank robbery by temporarily freeing a gang of outlaws from their papa's jail while he's out of town on business. You might expect that there'll be hell to pay, but these kids are so young that the Duke opts to take a softer approach and reconcile with his sons (who feel ignored after the death of their mother).

Despite this slight tweak to the formula, "Cahill U.S. Marshal" is still a standard-issue John Wayne Western. But given his age and his appearance (due to his health struggles, Wayne looked a good 10 years older than he was), it all feels dated and sluggish.

And Wayne knew it. In a 1975 interview, two years after the film's release, the Duke told Film Heritage's Tony Macklin, "It just wasn't a well-done picture. It needed better writing. It needed a little better care in making." He's not wrong, but is it the worst Western he ever starred in? That distinction might go to "Rooster Cogburn," the aimless 1975 sequel to "True Grit." At least Wayne ended his career with a fine, melancholy Western in "The Shootist." All told, if he only made a few truly subpar oaters, that's still an astonishingly great track record.