Can you really only have "one" favorite of all his movies ? I have been watching Cahill: United States Marshall, previous to that on another channel The Sons Of Katie Elder was on, watched that one too, enjoy them both, I enjoy them all, not a one more than the other. He was amazing, and some of his costars were excellent actors and actresses.

Do you have an absolute favorite of his movies ?

The one that comes to mind is Rio Bravo (in which Dean Martin played an alcoholic -- quite well, I have to say!.



However, I make no claim my liking this movie being an objective choice -- I have fond memories of watching this movie with my father when I was a youngster.

John

The Searchers.

Like the music more than anything else. Well ol Mose too!

The Shootist, Man who shot Liberty Valance. Anyone remember "Island in the sky"? Not a western, but, pretty good. I can't choose just one. Miss Lynn, have you ever watched "Donovan's Reef"? Awesome and funny.

I really enjoyed The Shootist, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and True Grit. I haven't seen one I did not like, yet.

This one ?



No, I have never seen it, but I plan to look for it now that you have brought it to my attention. Thank you very much

I don't have one favourite but a couple of my favourites are Rio Bravo and Hatari.
Truth in fact I can't think of one I don't enjoy watching. Some of his earlier stuff was pretty "basic" but they weren't represented as big production stuff.

jpb,
I remember one time when I was watching Rio Bravo, my daughter who was young then & didn't usually watch westerns to much at the time walked thru the room when Dean Martin & Ricky Nelson were singing a duet in the jailhouse ; she stopped and stood there until they had finished the song then looked at me and said "man Dad, those guys can really sing".
She had no idea at the time who they were ; still makes me chuckle...

He was never better than in The Searchers.

Although the Shootist is a much more polished, human, acting job.

But Ill take The Searchers, and the two Johns, Wayne and Ford.

Ha,..just watched War Wagon that was on before Cahill U.S. Marshall this morn..


I have 2 favorites, 1 Western, 1 Not so much Western.

Big Jake...



and

Quiet Man...



(IMO, there's not a finer example of the Female species than Maureen O'Hara in The Quiet Man...)

Didn't care much for the movie, but IMO, Robert Mitchum plays a much more convincing drunk in El Dorado..

You can just see the stink on Mitchum..

The Quiet Man. Somehow forgot that one. Lot of characters in that movie!

I like all of his westerns, especially the later ones, but my all time favorite is Big Jake. I watch that one a couple of times a year, at least. The repeating line of "Mr. McCandles, I thought you was dead", and his ensuing reaction, always cracks me up. Cahill would probably be my 2nd choice.

Mitchum was an actor's actor.

John Wayne favorite list are the Shootist, The Cowboys, Big Jake.

Ms. Lynn
There are some great stories about wayne and his coactor's/friends.
I have a client that as a little girl use to bounce on wayne's knee when he was envolved with some feedlots around maricopa. There are a couple places around phx and maricopa filled with stuff from when he was around here.
I have always said john wayne never acted, he just emoted.

for what it's worth, down by duesqne(spelling) which is south and west of nogales is the old green ranch where wayne filmed by way of reference the film where he would get drunk and throw his hat up on the weathervane. The house is still there, all of it as i understand it now owned by the U.S. Government. He used to drive cattle across from mexico at palominas. I don't know if it's quite accurate to say it, but wayne did have a connection to ranching and cattle, and it all wasn't playacting.

Horse Soldiers,Undefeated,Hatari,The Alamo,The Sands Of Iwo Jima,They Were Expendable.

The Quiet Man and Rio Lobo are other favourites of ours and I agree with you on Maureen O'Hara, she was a knockout for a long time and always came across as a lady!
Mitchum was a great actor, somewhat underappreciated, and was great in Rio Lobo.

Flying Tigers,The Train Robbers,The Cowboys,Rio Lobo,Chisum,The Green Berets,Hellfighters,Hondo,She Wore A Yellow Ribbon.

Besides all those mentioned, "Reap the Wild Wind" was a good movie.

MM

The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Quiet Man, Red River and the John Ford Cavalry Trilogy shot in Monument Valley are favorites. The Searchers and the Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and Red River in the top because of John Wayne playing out of his normal character in them.

A couple more of my favorites are The Shepard of The Hills, and The Three Godfathers both early day movies of his.

There are very few John Wayne movies that I do not enjoy.

drover

I loved all of them. Not real sure about him as Ghengis Khan though!

I'm a big fan, I like almost all of his stuff. Favorites are Stagecoach, Red River, and The Searchers. When I was 12(1954)my father and I were in small restaurant for lunch in the Owens Valley, which was in those days where many western movies were made, and in walks John Wayne! I blurted out, "Dad that's John Wayne." He heard me and came to our to table and greeted us. I completely lost me ability to talk. All I could do was say, "Is it really you?"

This is gold.

Like most, but these two tie for tops:

I'd have to go with the Shootist as my favorite... but it could be because I have that one on DVD and it gets watched quit a bit and never grow tired of it...

Yes, I do. Stagecoach is my all time favorite.

I liked all his movies but Stagecoach has held up over time.

The Cowboys, McClintock, Rooster Cogburn, Rio Bravo, The Sons of Katy Elder.

Can't get through The Cowboys without allergy problems most times.

Without a doubt, "Red River" was Wayne's best movie and his acting performance. He should have won Best Actor for his performance as Tom Dunson. I'd go with "The Quiet Man" as his second best. Then maybe "Rio Bravo" although Dean Martin was the better actor.

Most of Wayne's movies were not that good. He rescued most of the bad ones by being John Wayne and not necessarily with his acting skills.

Elvis made some 33 films. Every single one made money. As far as I know, he remains the only actor who has never lost money on a film. Elvis was a much better actor than he was credited. His best acting performance was "King Creole". Producers knew that they could throw together junk, have Elvis star in it, and it'd make money.

Elvis knew he was typecast in stupid movies that required no acting skills, which was his primary motivation for giving up his acting career. During a concert, he once told the audience that they had no clue of his songs, that all he had to do was sing and move his hips and they audience went ecstatic. Elvis became prisoner of his fame. He was immensely gifted and even more so a performer, but Colonel Parker was more concerned with making money than perfecting Elvis's talent; hence, he churned out many records that were beneath his ability. While he did sing gospel because he was devoutly religious, he was, at his essence, rock & roll & R&B. When Elvis did rock, there was no one better.

John Wayne suffered the same fate. Most of his films had no substance and required superficial acting skills. However, Elvis was a far better rock singer than Wayne was an actor.

It terms of acting skills, Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood were better than John Wayne. But John Wayne was John Wayne, and people paid to see John Wayne.

The Aloha from Hawai'i concert, as far as I know, is still the most popular concert of all time. One in four people on Earth saw it Live via satellite. Compare that with modern technology and still no other performer could come close to getting 25% of the world's population as audience.

Watch Elvis live when he was rock & roll:

"Hondo" was also a good Wayne film.

Yep. Crap, I must be gettin' old. I can't remember "Hondo"!?
Best go have a beer and put some Duke flicks on.

The Searchers, The Shootist and True Grit I really enjoy but I have a large collection of his movies and can just pop anyone in the player and watch it. Never can go wrong with a John Wayne movie.

I like this one




And this one quite a bit too.

I have Donovan's Reef and I think Island in the Sky too.

"Island in the sky" is one JW movie you just don't see or hear much about. But, it is a good one.

They are building a new museum in the town he was born in. It's under construction now but this is what it will look like when it's done. kwg

http://johnwaynebirthplace.museum/museum.html

I like his westerns...but The Fighting Seabees was watched as required training when I was with NMCB133 a long time ago.

I still enjoy watching The Shootist, The Cowboys, and True Grit.

Most of his movies are worth watching.

"They Were Expendable" was one of those flicks that gives you that lost feeling. I know it was suppose to and it was done quite well. That movie packed in a lot of my old favorite character actors from the beginnings of the John Ford Stock company.

One thing about all of Ford's movies. The character actors IMHO, were first rate!!!!! Never see the likes of folks like them again.

When he worked with john Ford

Yeah. He owned a ranch in NW CO near Slater and into Wyo some. Some folk on the Little Snake knew him well, and I helped a friend pour concrete on the place. He wasn't there when we done the job, so I never got to meet him.

I can't think of a John Wayne movie I didn't enjoy.
In some, the acting was not first rate - but all were enjoyable (kind of a steak vs. hamburger thing)

Mark

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

The Cowboys,Big Jake,She Wore A Yellow Ribbon And The Shootist.

Anyone remember McQ?

Yeah,seen it,was not very good.

All of the Duke's movies were pretty good. I'm surprised that no one mentioned Chisum, with another good cowboy Ben Johnson.

I've got all of the John Wayne movies on dvd and we watch them over and over. In fact, the REAL True Grit with John Wayne is playing right now.

The Shootist is probably my favorite but I like em all.
I actually think his early black and white movies were some of his best.
You can't tell by watching his later movie's like True Grit where he wouldn't let go of that saddle horn for love nor money but he was a heck of a horseman in his youth.

For me, The Shootist, The Searchers, and the Fighting Seabees are my favorites, but I will watch any one of them that comes on.

I do prefer the Coen Brothers take on True Grit, however. Much better movie, and much truer to the novel.

Mitchum was 10X the actor Wayne was.

Not to rob a thread, but, ever see Mitchum in "Heaven knows Mr. Allison"? Ohhh boy!

McClintock hands down. Watch it several times a year and never seem to tire of it.

The Searchers and thenThe Shootist

I have it on DVD. It is a great film.

The Duke made so many good to outstanding movies its hard to choose just one. I made mention of some of my favorites before. I have to say that his last one was one of his very very best and that is saying a lot . I got to see The Shootist in a movie theater that was more of like the old movie palaces of the 1930's it really was, in the old Fort Worth, Texas, while I was in Flight School. Its a fitting movie about the end of the Western and well the End of John Wayne too. Westerns would never be the same, they were our heroic myths on film. Its got to frost some circles that he is still as popular as he is some 35 years after his passing. The only other actor I think will do as well will be Clint Eastwood but he is still with us and still making some of the best in American Film..

All of them.

I like a lot of 'em, but if pressed to pick a favorite, I'd say "Rio Lobo".

gmsemel,

Wayne's acting performance in "The Shootist" was excellent. The film had a more complex theme, not merely shooting bad guys. I agree: it was one of his better films.

Another "Amen" from the back pew.

Wazz a'matter with you guys? Didn't you like "Singin' Sandy?"

L.W.

I like all the movies he made with John Ford, especially The Searchers and The Quiet Man. and DW444, i agree 100% with you about Maureen O'Hara.

The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and The Shepard of the Hills are favorites. Just can't pass them up if I run across them at a time when I am looking for a movie.

Red River is a pretty good too.

Rio Bravo and Rio Lobo a good pair

McClintock

The High and the Mighty

Big Jake is hard to beat

The Searchers - one of the best movies ever.

True Grit and the others were enjoyable because of John Wayne.

These are my favorites:
The Searchers
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
The Quiet Man
They Were Expendable
The Shootist
The Sands of Iwo Jima

Never saw a JW movie that I didn't like. Liked True Grit better than most.

Hellfighters was filmed outside of Casper WY on my Great grandfathers ranch at Red Butte. My good friend worked on a ranch right by there and rode his horse over one day to watch and John Wayne invited him to play chess. He plaid a game with him. The movie was about Red Adair fighting oil well fires.

The Director of the John Wayne Birthplace museum is Brian Downes. Brian was a writer for the Chicago Tribune when I did The Oregon Trail in 1993 he came and rode my mule up the Sweetwater River, with the wagon Train. He wrote a few articles about us for the tribune. He loves the Old West and rides and drives horses.

My favorites
Stagecoach
the star packer
calvery trilogy (rio grande, she wore a yellow ribbon, fort apache)
El dorado
big jake

Used to watch em all with my grand father. My favorite those is stagecoach.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was the greatest Western of all time. Had many great actors in it. all were outstanding. the story was over the top. It was the "typical" but better than typical western.

Big Jake, McClintock, and The Searchers are also over the top.

Didn't see where Hondo was mentioned. surprised. excellent movie.

edit to add...... I hate his early hokey singing cowboy movies. of course, they're typical of the era. I hate all those singing cowboy movies. Westerns were terrible and unwatchable for me until they quit with the singing cowboy stuff.

The Searchers and The Shootist. Have them both on DVD.

Quiet Man...