John Wayne Mini Film Festival

For some unknown reason, I've been in the mood for watching John Wayne movies.

Last night, I went to El Paso Barbecue for dinner. A few doors away is the CD Trader, where new and used CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays and LPs can be bought. Before going to dinner, I decided to go over to CD Trader after dinner to see if I can get two specific John Wayne movies: Donovan's Reef (1963) and McLintock! (1963). I have both on VHS, but I need to re-connect my VCR and stuff in order to use it.

So, after dinner, I headed over to CD Trader and I was in luck. They had both movies. They were used DVDs and Donovan's Reef was priced at $3.99 and McLintock! was priced at $5.99. I bought both and headed home for a "mini-John Wayne film festival".

Donovan's Reef was set in the South Pacific and it had a number of stars whose heydays were back in the 1940s such as Dorothy Lamour and Dick Foran. It was the last movie John Ford directed John Wayne in. It also co-starred Lee Marvin, Jack Warden, Cesar Romero and Elizabeth Allen. It was filmed on location in Hawaii.

McLintock! is a version of The Taming of the Shrew in a western setting with Wayne and Maureen O'Hara. McLintock! was a big box office hit when it was released. It co-starred Chill Wills, Patrick Wayne, Yvonne DeCarlo and Robert Lowery (who once played Batman in a movie serial). A new actress, Stefanie Powers, played Wayne's daughter.

Both Donovan's Reef and McLintock! were light comedies, I first saw Donovan's Reef at the Balboa Theater in Los Angeles. The second feature of the double-bill was King Kong vs. Godzilla.