Top billing
How did John Wayne go from bit parts with no credit the lead roll in this picture?
shareDon't know if this is true---but I once heard that Wayne and cowboy actor Bob Steel were college buddies--and that Steel's father, Raymond Bradbury, had something to do with recommending Wayne to Raul Walsh. Why Bradbury didn't recommend his own son....I don't know.
Pierce
If I had to guess, it was probably the fact that Bob Steele was extremely short, I believe in the 5'5" range. Compared that to the Duke's 6'4" height. Only a guess mind you.
shareConsidering that the leading lady, Marguerite Churchill, was 5'6", I'd say that is a very good guess. In any event, it was the big break that started the legend. It was meant to be. Long live the Duke!
shareEven though John Wayne is the undeniable star of this film, I'm surprised that he received top billing. His only credited role up until this point was a supporting role in the 1929 musical Words and Music and that was done under the name of Duke Morrison. Director Raoul Walsh himself was the man who came up with the name John Wayne. That is perhaps the film's greatest contribution to John Wayne's career. The film itself would prove unsuccessful in the box office and it would be another nine years before John Wayne would be in a major motion picture again.
In those days actors were under studio contract and the studios would guide, direct, and dictate their careers. This was a relatively minor picture with him as star to test the waters.
shareThis was actually an epic at the time. Wayne was suggested by John Ford.
Wayne was usually blamed for the failure of the film but he was just the scapegoat. The film was shot in 70mm and very few theaters were cabable of showing it in 70mm. The also referred to his wooden acting which was garbage. If you compare his acting to that of most of the overblown, formally silent screen actors you can see he was probably the most natural of them all. As a result of this he was relegated to B westerns for years until Ford chose him for Stagecoach.
If you can't beat them, join them, then kill them in their sleep.
As you say, most actors of 1930 were "overblown" because they had to exaggerate their gestures during the silent era to communicate action and emotion. Many also had theatre experience long before modern acoustics and sound systems, and spoke loudly and overdramatically with exaggerated gestures so the audience in the back could see and hear them. Not coming from that background, Wayne had no use or need for such theatrics. Besides, movie sound was in its infancy in 1930, and often not very good, especially in outdoor scenes. In film or TV, you don't have to suspend disbelief like you do in the theatre, and you shouldn't have to. Thank you for a well-reasoned posting and an argument based on facts. For all its self-righteousness and moralism, "CYA" is as prevalent in show business as any other business or industry. I concede that for a time, it was an epic, considering the budget and technological restrictions of the day. However, it was a "star vehicle" for him produced by the studio. It was common then. Wayne bounced back from the flop. Many if not most actors and actresses didn't. Their names have been lost in film history, and their films rarely if ever shown.
shareI'd love to know what kind of sound recording equipment was used on this film. So many other films from this time are stodgy and stagebound. Virtually every scene here is an exterior!
"We're fighting for this woman's honor, which is more than she ever did."
The sound was William Fox's Movietone system, which unlike Warners Bros. Vitaphone (sound on records) was a sound on film system. At the time the Vitaphone system had better fidelity but the sound on film system was soon the standard. Look at the early sound films from Fox such as the Janet Gaynor musical SUNNY SIDE UP, the Warner Baxter Western IN OLD ARIZONA as well as THE BIG TRAIL and you see amazing camera work being done with the use of sound. Look at Warner Bros Vitaphone sound films and you find a limited use of camera movement as their cameras were put inside sound proof boxes. The Fox Movietone system had been developed for using it with Fox Newsreels. Fox wanted the further develop their system before using it with feature movies, but THE JAZZ SINGER ushered sync sound in and Fox quickly moved into it with their Movietone system.
shareBob Steele was a long-time actor in Hollywood, but he was too short to be a cowboy hero, though he did star in a series of "B" westerns in the 40s.
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