Actor John Wayne starred in Western and war movies that filled his filmography. However, he didn’t initially get his start in front of the camera. First, Wayne worked at Fox in the props department on several films before getting his first leading role in Raoul Walsh’s 1930 Western adventure called The Big Trail. Here are the eight movies Wayne worked on in the props department before he was famous.
John Wayne | ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images ‘The Great K & A Train Robbery’ (1926) L-r: Dorothy Dwan as Madge Cullen and Tom Mix as Tom Gordon | Fox
A detective poses as a bandit in an undercover mission to stop a streak of train robberies from continuing. Meanwhile, he falls in love with the railroad president’s daughter.
The Great K & A Train Robbery is a silent film directed by Lewis Seiler and written by John Stone from Paul Leicester Ford’s novel.
John Wayne | ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images ‘The Great K & A Train Robbery’ (1926) L-r: Dorothy Dwan as Madge Cullen and Tom Mix as Tom Gordon | Fox
A detective poses as a bandit in an undercover mission to stop a streak of train robberies from continuing. Meanwhile, he falls in love with the railroad president’s daughter.
The Great K & A Train Robbery is a silent film directed by Lewis Seiler and written by John Stone from Paul Leicester Ford’s novel.
- 3/1/2023
- by Jeff Nelson
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
The Marxist historian reclaimed and popularised the value of popular culture – something so integral to our lives today it seems bizarre it was ever denigrated
The historian Eric Hobsbawm, who has died aged 95, is rightly being mourned as a great intellectual of modern times. Yet Hobsbawm was more than a powerful historian and political thinker; nor should he be remembered in solitary splendour. He was part of a group of British Marxist scholars who profoundly influenced our understanding of what culture is.
More than 50 years ago, a bunch of dissident Oxbridge-educated academic historians changed the way the British saw culture. They understood, long before anyone else, that culture is what shapes the world. They also saw that culture is totally democratic and comes from the people. While the official guardians of the arts, such as Kenneth Clark, were praising the "civilisation" of the elite on television and in print, Hobsbawm...
The historian Eric Hobsbawm, who has died aged 95, is rightly being mourned as a great intellectual of modern times. Yet Hobsbawm was more than a powerful historian and political thinker; nor should he be remembered in solitary splendour. He was part of a group of British Marxist scholars who profoundly influenced our understanding of what culture is.
More than 50 years ago, a bunch of dissident Oxbridge-educated academic historians changed the way the British saw culture. They understood, long before anyone else, that culture is what shapes the world. They also saw that culture is totally democratic and comes from the people. While the official guardians of the arts, such as Kenneth Clark, were praising the "civilisation" of the elite on television and in print, Hobsbawm...
- 10/2/2012
- by Jonathan Jones
- The Guardian - Film News
My Week with Marilyn envelops the star in a chaste aura. This desire to desexualise goes back to Arthur Miller
It is not entirely the fault of the recent movie My Week with Marilyn – about Monroe's disastrous attempt to make The Prince and the Showgirl with Laurence Olivier – that it is devoid of sex, which is something like depicting the life of Napoleon without mentioning that he was French. Monroe might have been one of the most sexual beings who ever lived, but the portrayals of her, even by disillusioned observers, sooner or later descend into a sanitised ideal.
The sex is overtaken by sentimental treacle, or heroic fantasy, or defensive over-analysis. In his book on Monroe, Norman Mailer, for all his worldly candour, concluded that "she was our angel, the sweet angel of sex, and the sugar of sex came up from her like a resonance of sound in...
It is not entirely the fault of the recent movie My Week with Marilyn – about Monroe's disastrous attempt to make The Prince and the Showgirl with Laurence Olivier – that it is devoid of sex, which is something like depicting the life of Napoleon without mentioning that he was French. Monroe might have been one of the most sexual beings who ever lived, but the portrayals of her, even by disillusioned observers, sooner or later descend into a sanitised ideal.
The sex is overtaken by sentimental treacle, or heroic fantasy, or defensive over-analysis. In his book on Monroe, Norman Mailer, for all his worldly candour, concluded that "she was our angel, the sweet angel of sex, and the sugar of sex came up from her like a resonance of sound in...
- 1/7/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
The “me” in the “my” in “My Week with Marilyn” is Colin Clark (played by Eddie Redmayne), who turns his back on his upper-crust background — his father is legendary historian Kenneth Clark — to take a grunt job with Laurence Olivier’s production company. Unfortunately, young Clark winds up being the least-interesting facet of the movie, leaving the audience to forlornly watch more potentially fascinating plot elements drift away in favor of observing a young man swoon over an untenable object of desire. That the object of desire is Marilyn Monroe (Michelle...
- 11/23/2011
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
This film has a different flavor from the usual biopic—and it’s delicious, at least for any diehard movie buff. Imagine stepping into a time machine, traveling back to 1956, and getting to eavesdrop on Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier during the famously troubled production of 'The Prince and the Showgirl'. That’s precisely what we do in this enticing film, based on the published diary of Colin Clark (son of the eminent art historian Kenneth Clark), who worked as an assistant to Olivier on that picture. For the conceit to work, we first have to buy into the idea of Michelle Williams as Marilyn. She and the filmmakers pull this off by opening their movie...
[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]...
[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]...
- 11/22/2011
- Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy
Thanks to Monica for the Playlist photo of Michelle Williams dolled up as Monroe. Filming begins today in London on My Week With Marilyn, adapting the diaries of Colin Clark...
- 10/8/2010
- by Ryan Adams
- AwardsDaily.com
Michelle Williams may also feature in film depicting squabbles between the two greats during the making of a 1957 movie
Kenneth Branagh famously found himself touted as the natural heir to Sir Laurence Olivier after reprising the actor's classic role for his 1989 version of Shakespeare's Henry V. So it's perhaps fitting that Branagh is in talks to portray Olivier in a film that will detail the latter's squabbles with Marilyn Monroe during the 1957 production of The Prince and the Showgirl.
Production Weekly reports that Michelle Williams, who starred in Brokeback Mountain and Shutter Island, looks likely to play Norma Jean. The film, My Week With Marilyn, is based on the diaries of Colin Clark, who worked for Olivier during the period and was Monroe's chaperone in London.
Clark, son of the art historian Kenneth Clark and brother of the Conservative politician Alan Clark, originally published his memoirs in 1958 but left out...
Kenneth Branagh famously found himself touted as the natural heir to Sir Laurence Olivier after reprising the actor's classic role for his 1989 version of Shakespeare's Henry V. So it's perhaps fitting that Branagh is in talks to portray Olivier in a film that will detail the latter's squabbles with Marilyn Monroe during the 1957 production of The Prince and the Showgirl.
Production Weekly reports that Michelle Williams, who starred in Brokeback Mountain and Shutter Island, looks likely to play Norma Jean. The film, My Week With Marilyn, is based on the diaries of Colin Clark, who worked for Olivier during the period and was Monroe's chaperone in London.
Clark, son of the art historian Kenneth Clark and brother of the Conservative politician Alan Clark, originally published his memoirs in 1958 but left out...
- 7/21/2010
- by Ben Child
- The Guardian - Film News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.