John Wayne and John Ford’s careers in the cinema industry were intertwined from the moment that Ford got Wayne his first role in 1926 until their 1963 collaborationDonovan’s Reef. This final outing for Wayne on one ofJohn Ford’s moviesets was a strange way to end their four-decade partnership, considering that they’d worked together on some of the greatest Westerns and war movies of the mid-20th century. A year after Ford directed the Duke in his gunslinging classicThe Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, however, the pair worked together one last time on this low-key comedy.
Although John Wayne’s droll sense of comic timing has always been an underrated feature of his acting, it’s far from the most prominent aspect of his onscreen work. Likewise,John Ford is celebrated for painting panoramic pictures of American landscapeson the silver screen, as well as his command of sprawling epic narratives with ensemble casts. He’s certainly not renowned for slapstick comedy and exotic Pacific adventures. Yet these are the elements that defineDonovan’s Reef, a movie that couldn’t be further fromWayne and Ford’s previous collaborations.
The Last John Wayne Movie Directed By John Ford Was Donovan’s Reef
It Came 24 Years After Their First Western Together, Stagecoach
John Wayne’s first John Ford movie in a starring role wasStagecoach, Ford’s seminal 1939 Western. Yet his last,Donovan’s Reef, is a complete change of style and pace fromStagecoach, as well as from the pair’s 12 other collaborations in between the two films.
1939
1940
1945
1948
1949
1950
1952
1956
1957
1959
1961
1962
1963
Donovan’s Reef
Donovan’s Reefsees Wayne play the eponymous Michael Patrick “Guns” Donovan, a sailor and World War 2 veteran who takes to living on a tropical island in the decades after the war is over. The movie is a curious family-themed comedy of misunderstandings, starring Lee Marvin, the actor who played the titularvillain inThe Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, as Wayne’s wartime navy comrade, “Boats” Gilhooley, and sitcom actor Elizabeth Allen as the Duke’s love interest, Amelia Dedham.
Donovan’s Reef Is A Contemporary Comedy Adventure Set In French Polynesia
It’s A Rare Ford-Directed John Wayne Movie Not Set In A Historical Period
The movie that results from this combination of outlandish premise and incoherent casting is a decidedly mixed bag, asDonovan’s Reeffails to play to Wayne’s strengths. Even its bar fight doesn’t really convince, overegging the slapstick humor when we’re used to seeing the Duke shooting from the hip.
The 63-Year-Old John Ford & John Wayne Western Movie That Inspired Kevin Costner Is Exactly What Horizon Is Trying To Be
Kevin Costner’s ongoing movie series Horizon: An American Saga might be ambitious, but so was this 1962 John Wayne classic co-directed by John Ford.
The French Polynesian island backdrop feels like a gimmick, and Wayne seems out of place in a contemporary 1960s setting that doesn’t carry any historical weight with it. If we compare the movie toJohn Wayne’s best Maureen O’Hara collaborationThe Quiet Man, this earlier film does far better in taking a straightforward and unassuming approach to its quaint plot setup.
The only other John Ford movies with John Wayne in a starring role that weren’t set in a different historical period were the war filmsThe Long Voyage HomeandThey Were Expendable, which were both made about and during World War 2.
Unfortunately,Donovan’s Reefoverreaches in terms of its ambitions for the story Ford wants to tell but does little to earn our attention in the telling itself. The humor and romance don’t quite land, and it’s a disappointing way for one of the all-time great actor-director collaborations in cinema history to end. While John Wayne would go on making captivating Westerns until his death in 1979,Donovan’s Reefwas John Ford’s third-last movie as director and his final film with Wayne. Still, it’s best to remember those that came before it.
