Regardless about how one feels about his arch-conservative politics, there really isn't any secret as to why John Wayne personified what it meant to be a star in Hollywood for decades on end. And even though he seemed to settle into a routine of making films under his Batjac production banner in the last decade and a half of his life without the strong guiding hand of a John Ford, a Howard Hawks, or a Henry Hathaway, he still put out what everyone had come to expect of the man. Case in point, BIG JAKE.
Written by the same writers who gave Eastwood DIRTY HARRY, BIG JAKE stars Wayne as Jake McCandles, a Texas rancher whom everyone thought was dead because no one had seen him in eighteen years (as always, rumors of his death were greatly exaggerated). But he is called back into action by his estranged wife (Maureen O'Hara) after a gang of ruthless outlaws, led by Richard Boone, shoot up his ranch, kill much of the hired help, and kidnap his grandson (Ethan Wayne). Wayne, not surprisingly, takes up the challenge. But he also has to keep his sons (Glenn Corbett; Chris Mitchum) in line when they call him Daddy (obviously, this gets a burr up the Duke's backside). They all must venture across the Rio Grande to Boone's hideout on the Mexican side, helped out by Wayne's trusty Indian aide (Bruce Cabot). And it all comes down to an eminently satisfying and traditional showdown between Wayne and Boone.
BIG JAKE is very much in the style of Wayne's other Batjac westerns (CHISUM; THE UNDEFEATED; THE WAR WAGON; CAHILL, U.S. MARSHAL) in its being somewhat predictable, but that predictability is precisely what makes it a success; people want Wayne to win, and who can blame them? Fortunately, he gets a vicious enough antagonist in Boone, who had had a minor role in the Duke's own 1960 directorial opus THE ALAMO and who does sagebrush villainy as well as anyone else. George Sherman, who had directed Wayne in several B-westerns prior to the Duke's ascension to stardom via Ford's STAGECOACH, shows he still has the directorial goods here despite the poor health he suffered during its making (Wayne reportedly directed significant sequences, but refused to take credit or have Sherman taken off). BIG JAKE also has superlative cinematography by William Clothier, no stranger to Westerns he, all of which was done on location in what had become the Duke's favorite Western locale--the landscape around Durango, Mexico. The only really serious disappointment with BIG JAKE is that Wayne and O'Hara barely have any screen time together, given how well they worked under Ford, particularly on 1952's THE QUIET MAN, and seeing as how this was their last joint appearance on screen (Wayne died in 1979, and O'Hara wouldn't make another feature film until ONLY THE LONELY in 1991).
Still, just about everything else one expects from the Duke on screen happens here in BIG JAKE, including those little bits of humor revolving around being called "Daddy" and being thought dead. It's just a lesson to you: You don't mess with the Duke.
And you definitely don't call him Daddy either!
Written by the same writers who gave Eastwood DIRTY HARRY, BIG JAKE stars Wayne as Jake McCandles, a Texas rancher whom everyone thought was dead because no one had seen him in eighteen years (as always, rumors of his death were greatly exaggerated). But he is called back into action by his estranged wife (Maureen O'Hara) after a gang of ruthless outlaws, led by Richard Boone, shoot up his ranch, kill much of the hired help, and kidnap his grandson (Ethan Wayne). Wayne, not surprisingly, takes up the challenge. But he also has to keep his sons (Glenn Corbett; Chris Mitchum) in line when they call him Daddy (obviously, this gets a burr up the Duke's backside). They all must venture across the Rio Grande to Boone's hideout on the Mexican side, helped out by Wayne's trusty Indian aide (Bruce Cabot). And it all comes down to an eminently satisfying and traditional showdown between Wayne and Boone.
BIG JAKE is very much in the style of Wayne's other Batjac westerns (CHISUM; THE UNDEFEATED; THE WAR WAGON; CAHILL, U.S. MARSHAL) in its being somewhat predictable, but that predictability is precisely what makes it a success; people want Wayne to win, and who can blame them? Fortunately, he gets a vicious enough antagonist in Boone, who had had a minor role in the Duke's own 1960 directorial opus THE ALAMO and who does sagebrush villainy as well as anyone else. George Sherman, who had directed Wayne in several B-westerns prior to the Duke's ascension to stardom via Ford's STAGECOACH, shows he still has the directorial goods here despite the poor health he suffered during its making (Wayne reportedly directed significant sequences, but refused to take credit or have Sherman taken off). BIG JAKE also has superlative cinematography by William Clothier, no stranger to Westerns he, all of which was done on location in what had become the Duke's favorite Western locale--the landscape around Durango, Mexico. The only really serious disappointment with BIG JAKE is that Wayne and O'Hara barely have any screen time together, given how well they worked under Ford, particularly on 1952's THE QUIET MAN, and seeing as how this was their last joint appearance on screen (Wayne died in 1979, and O'Hara wouldn't make another feature film until ONLY THE LONELY in 1991).
Still, just about everything else one expects from the Duke on screen happens here in BIG JAKE, including those little bits of humor revolving around being called "Daddy" and being thought dead. It's just a lesson to you: You don't mess with the Duke.
And you definitely don't call him Daddy either!